Green Options

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Photo Credits: deborah sherman photography

The Cafe Racer Truck Runs on 100% Recycled Coffee Grounds

A commenter on Ben’s wood-powered truck post pointed us to a similar car hack. The truck above is also powered by a wood gas generator, except this one runs on coffee grounds. The Cafe Racer is a 1975 GMC pickup that essentially burns up used coffee to create a combustible gas. The gas is filtered on its way to the engine and, Viola, a caffeine-powered truck.

I’ve heard of making fuel from wood before, but rarely does using wood as fuel come up. However, just today I was pointed to this site, hosted by a local radio station, with a real-life example of someone burning wood as a fuel in his truck.

I can’t say for sure how the system works, whether it’s dual fuel or the wood-burning supplies all the fuel the engine needs, but it doesn’t appear to be a hoax and is certainly interesting. Evidently, during WWII, there was some experimenting with alternative fuels (due to shortages caused by the war), and one of the results was the wood burning automobile.

Oakland, California-based architect Michelle Kaufmann has made a career of promoting green homes and green communities through her company, Michelle Kaufmann Designs. But if you’re not in the market for a new house, she still has some pretty cool tips for greening your home on the cheap.

On her blog, Kaufmann features do-it-yourself videos for a neat variety of eco-projects that let you reduce energy costs, recycle objects into useful items and add elements of clean, green living to your home.

You’ve now cut your old jeans to make a sexy upcycled mini skirt,  craft supply organizer or I-pod case- what do you do with all those…well, leg scraps laying around? In a few simple & experimental steps you can have a super eco craft  that has double the earth loving power-  an upcycled denim BYOB (bring your own bag) tote! Not only is it eco savvy to reuse your old jeans but this crafty shopper will help stop the plastic bag litter that is poisoning ground water & soil.  This sassy project deserves 2 green stars!

You Will Need:

• legs left over from your last denim craft project
• scissors
• sewing machine or turn of the century hand sewing skills
• thread of a fun contrasting color

 STEP #1: Choosing - I chose legs from two different stone washed jeans to make subtle contrasting stripes, but you can use any number scrap colors. You can also go for the mono color look, and let the thread be your main contrast.

STEP #2: Cutting - Now is the time to lay out those jean legs and cut them open. You will want to save the thick seams for the straps of the bag, so cut directly up the seams on both sides and remove them. Then cut 9 rectangles at 13inch X 5 inch  ( you can make them larger or smaller if you’d like to change the size of the bag, as long as every rectangle is the same exact size.)

Homemade ethanol guru Floyd S. Butterfield and Silicon Valley entrepreneur and innovator Thomas J. Quinn want to see you making ethanol in your backyard. Their creation, called the E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler, is a stacked washer-dryer sized reactor that can convert sugar into ethanol for (they claim) $1.00 per gallon.

Before you get too excited, please note that the unit is probably too expensive for your next block party, unless you’ve got an extra $9,995 lying around somewhere. Fortunately, state and Federal tax credits can halve this, but that still keeps it out of the price range of the average American.

For those of you on the West coast, this weekend is an amazing 2 day event packed full to the brim with DIY goodness. Put on by Make Magazine and Craft Magazine, Maker Faire celebrates things people create themselves—from electronic gizmos, to “slow made” foods and homemade clothes. The event is a non-stop “wow-fest” where surprises and inspiration are as ubiquitous as the festival air.

The 2008 Bay Area Maker Faire will put a special emphasis on “Green” living. There will be a huge exhibit featuring Farm Aid’s Homegrown Village, a local farmer’s market, Swap-O-Rama-Rama’s giant used clothing swap, DIY workshops and fashion show, Bazaar Bizarre’s crafts fair, a live Prius plug-in car conversion from Bay Area’s Calcars.org, and much, much more.

The Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a huge clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops. Bring a bag of your unwanted clothes to swap with other participants and then learn to make modifications or totally transform your new finds. Recycling reused clothing has never been more fun.

We all have a favorite pair of jeans. The ones that look great and fit just right.

Unfortunately, well-loved jeans don’t age gracefully. The culprit: holes in the knees, pockets, or back. If your favorite jeans start to look “holier than thou,” don’t despair.

With a needle, some thread, and a little love, you can turn dying jeans into designer jeans. (DIY difficulty level: Easy)

Reducing the amount of water you use is good for the environment, and good for your wallet. Better yet, you don’t have to sacrifice water pressure to do it. Check out the best water faucet aerators of 2008.

Source: MetaEfficient.com

Video Courtesy of Google Videos

The media has a new indie jewelry favorite - Ashley Hilton. Featured in press outlets around the world in just the past 6 months, Ashley’s creations embody a seamless mix of eco-appreciation and modern style.

“I try to reflect both the human and natural environment in my work by using symbols and materials that have meaning to me and represent where I come from. From street signs to native trees, my jewelery has always been a pretty literal representation of my surroundings,” he says.

Along with the natural theme of his creations, Ashley uses small scale mined metals from his home base in New Zealand. “I found that most of the gold from my suppliers in New Zealand is mined or recycled here and in Australia. Both these countries have a relatively good track record with regards to mining practices but the idea of using a local resource and streamlining the path of the metal from the ground to the customer really appealed to me,” he says.

It was my pleasure to chat with Ashley recently about his education of the art of make jewelry, sustainable metal mining, creative inspirations and more. Read on for our full conversation and all its “hand made” details.

What first got you interested in making jewelry? When did you decide to turn it into a career?

I was at a loose end really. I’d spent a few years traveling and working overseas as a chef and knew that that lifestyle wasn’t for me anymore. I did a weekend jewelery course and loved it, It just made perfect sense to me so I bought some tools and started experimenting. Originally I never thought it would be a career. It was never really a conscious decision, it just grew and grew until in about 3 years It was all I did.

Have you even gotten flack for being a straight guy in the jewelry biz?

Wrist cuffs are fun accessories that lend an air of rock and roll to any outfit. Thrifting vinyl records is a great way to add rock and roll to your music collection. Put the two together and what do you get? Wrist cuffs made from thrifted vinyl records!

Etsy has lots of vinyl cuffs for sale, but the gold cuff pictured above by Tresijas really caught my eye. The color is amazing and the shape is wonderfully curved just so. Colored vinyl is often hard to come by, making this find even that much more special.

To make your own vinyl wrist cuff you only need a record, an oven and an xacto knife. Simply follow these instructions from the DIY Network to make your own rockin’ wrist cuff:

Electric-car company ZAP announced it will offer $24,000 plug-in conversions for the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrids, making them plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs).

It’s sort of like doubling your fuel efficiency for the cost of a new car…

Source: Gas 2.0