Well: To be more specific, this Tumblr is saying goodbye, for now.
I dreamed up the word “unconsumption” back in 2007, for a New York Times Magazine column, and later pursued and refined the idea in various ways, most notably in this group Tumblr – which grew way beyond what I imagined was possible. It’s been an amazing run, and an honor to work with a series of fantastic and inspiring collaborators along the way.
But I’m not going to turn this post into a long walk down memory lane, or a victory lap. I will just say briefly that it’s been wildly gratifying to see this Tumblr grow from nothing to more than 82,000 followers. My sincere thanks to you all!
As 2015 winds down, however, other commitments, etc., have made it clear that the Tumblr has to go on hiatus.
So: I hope you will check out the work of Molly Block, Deirdre Nelson, Shanna Trenholm, Brian W. Jones — all instrumental to this Tumblr and its history, and each doing fantastic things of their own. My public thanks and endless gratitude to them, and to everyone who has contributed to this Tumblr directly and indirectly over the years— too numerous to mention here.
Finally: None of this means that Unconsumption is “over” as an idea, of course. In fact, quite the contrary: Long live Unconsumption!
Thanks again!
Rob Walker
Guatemala epicycles bicycles into pedal machines. via bbc.com:
What’s the point of a bicycle that doesn’t go anywhere? In one part of Guatemala, old bikes are being recycled into nifty pedal-powered machines.
For almost 20 years, the charity Maya Pedal has been converting bicycle parts donated from abroad into so-called “bicimaquinas”, or bicycle machines….
At first, the pedal technology was aimed at helping to make small-scale agriculture sustainable.
Now, at low cost, individuals are using it to create their own businesses without electricity and to reduce the physical effort of daily chores in the home.
swissmiss sez:
I was just in the market for a new trash bin but for some reason I missed the Totem Intelligent Waste System. Total bummer. I would have gone for this one. It looks good and comes with compartments for recycling, food waste, general trash, and storage for household items (like extra liners or cleaning products). Smart!
Your urine may be of more use kept about your person. At least, that’s what a team of researchers from the University of the West of England think, because they’ve made a pair of socks that use the liquid to generate electricity.
The new sock contains a network of integrated tubes that can hold up to 648 milliliters of urine. The act of walking forces the liquid through microbial fuel cells, which contain bacteria that take delight in consuming the nutrients held in your pee, creating electricity in the process.
In a series of experiments, published in Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, the team shows that the socks are capable of powering a wireless transmitter which could broadcast a message every two minutes.
(via Researchers Have Made Socks That Use Urine to Create Electricity)
Autonomous robots to be used in keeping dust off solar panels in Israel’s biggest solar field, reports timesofisrael:
Most solar energy farms are located in deserts, where there is plenty of sunlight — which solar panels, of course, need a lot of. But the desert also has a lot of dust, which clogs up the photovoltaic components of the panels, making them less effective in collecting sunlight for conversion into energy.
Panels have to be cleaned on a regular basis, but water in the desert tends to be expensive, if available at all — and the use of water to clean the panels raises the costs of production, making solar power too expensive to be considered anything more than a novelty….
Instead of using water to clean panels, Ecoppia’s robot cleaners are equipped with microfibers, with each robot assigned to a row of PV panels. Using controlled air flow, the robots push the accumulated dirt off panels, as they glide along the surface of panels on their polyurethane-coated aluminum frame using wheels. Each robot can cover about 100 square feet of panel each minute, saving not only water, but time.
Read more. Via Solar Panel Cleaning Robots To Keep Panels Clean In Dessert #SolarPower « Adafruit Industries.
“Meet the Earthship” is a short film about an off-grid community living in houses made of rubbish outside of Taos, New Mexico. …
To solve the puzzle, Reynolds developed Earthships, a form of “biotecture” that uses natural and recycled materials to minimise their impact on the environment. Earthships are built with three principles in mind: They use natural and recycled materials, they supply their own power and water, and they can be built by anyone.
(via Meet the people living in off-grid homes made of rubbish | Design Indaba)
Scots fashion designers will transform piles of second-hand clothes into catwalk collections as part of a campaign against waste.
After fending off tough competition, designer Aimee Kent and Black Cherry Studios were picked for the challenge by Zero Waste Scotland and the Salvation Army Trading Company.
The initiative, part of the Love Your Clothes campaign, will see designers embark on a 12-week project to create two new couture collections from 150 kilos of unwanted garments they have been handed into charity shops or dropped off in donation bins.