Awesome Recycling

Great Big Story introduces us to artist Kolja Kugler, who built himself an animatronic band from scrap metal. The robotic musicians play the bass, drums, and flute, and seem to enjoy a bit of the old punk rock. Enjoy one of their performances here.

Uncrate Supply is selling these unassuming tote bags that are actually made from repurposed NASA parachutes. The material is incredibly strong yet light. The bags are large enough to carry laptops or groceries. Available in green or white.

Offcut makes caps out of discarded and unused fabric scraps from clothing factories. They’re based in New Zealand, and now they want to branch out and have a factory in Vietnam where more scraps are produced. They’re also venturing into recycled leather goods.

Great Big Story shares the work of Conceptos Plásticos. It’s a Colombian company that takes discarded plastics and turns them into foundations for houses and temporary shelters. To date, they have recycled 500 tons of plastic and built over 30 homes.

Everlane’s eco-conscious collection features a fleece sweater, a fleece zipped jacket and a lightweight hooded puffer jacket. All of these are made with thread made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. The company recycled 3 million plastic bottles in the process.

Jackman Works shows us how he transforms old cargo pallets into sweet drink coasters by sanding, stacking, cutting, and laminating strips of their varied wooden slats into grid patterns. Show your appreciation for his craftsmanship, and buy a set of the coasters here.

Ripping apart old batteries can be dangerous, but that didn’t stop shurap from tearing into a bunch of them in search of usable metal. He then fused the bits together with some steel blades, and crafted a sweet damascus knife with a handle made from a MagLite.

The Awake Watch is made from recycled stainless steel and has an optional fabric strap that’s made from recycled plastic bottles. Its dial’s design is inspired by sea beds and the mountains. It’s solar powered and water resistant up to 300ft.

CJ Sneakers has a great tip for his fellow sneakerheads who have way too many shoeboxes clogging up their closets. You can turn them into framed art easily with just a few simple tools and even simpler steps. Be sure to have paperweights at the ready.

The North Face’s Bottle Source clothing is partially made of Repreve polyester, which is made from recycled plastic bottles. The bottles used came from the waste collected in Yosemite, the Great Smoky Mountains, and Grand Teton National Parks.

Metalsmith Dmitry Shevchenko (aka “Shurap“) continues to crank out knives using unconventional materials. After showing us how to make damascus steel from screws, washers, and cable, he’s back to craft the patterned metal from a car’s timing chain.

Bureo makes skateboards with decks that are made from waste fishing nets that are retrieved and processed with the help of locals in fishing communities in Chile. The decks have a fishtail and grippy scale patterns that are both thematic and functional. Available in two sizes.

Taiwan’s Miniwiz has devised a portable, solar-powered recycling plant which transforms plastic and fabric waste into architectural tiles. Junk is washed, shredded, melted, and molded on the spot. They plan on bringing Trashpresso to tourist areas where trash is left behind.

WayOutWest Blowinblog decided that an off-the-shelf bandsaw was too expensive for cutting logs lying around his property, and instead ripped apart a car and welded together his own power tool from scratch. Watch it slice through a massive spruce log here.

A look inside Brooklyn, New York’s Sims Materials Recovery Facility, a high-tech recycling operation which uses automation to separate a wide variety of metal, glass, and plastic materials based on their weight, size, shape, and even molecular composition.

Think that old washing machine in the alley is junk? Just give it to Jeremy Fielding, and he’ll tear it down and reuse its components to upgrade power tools, build clock mechanisms, or even make desk toys. He also builds stuff from vacuums and microwave ovens.

John Heisz previously showed us how to take an old saw blade and turn it into a folding knife. Now he applies his craftsmanship to transforming a rusty circular saw blade into an elegant, traditional woodworking tool.

Made by Destruction shows how the copper wiring in old copy machines can be reclaimed to produce shiny new products like brass musical instruments. Along the way, we get to see these defunct office machines satisfyingly ripped to pieces by an industrial shredder.

Mosevic creates its sunglass frames using resin-coated layers of denim, gathered from discarded and damaged jeans. The end result is not only a stunning design, but a great statement on sustainability. Each comes with quality Zeiss polarized lenses.

An all-in-one paper recycling machine. Instead of sending used paper to remote facilities and then buying recycled paper, PaperLab will let businesses recycle A3 or A4 sheets on their own. It makes up to 14 sheets of paper per minute. It will debut in Japan in 2016.

When you think of recycling, the materials that come to mind are paper, plastic and metals. But thanks to Phoenix Fibers and Bonded Logic, denim jeans and cotton clothing can now be transformed into insulation and acoustic panels for homes and buildings.

This past Earth Day, artist Mac Premo teamed up with skateboard makers Sanford Shapes to create a series of decks using old plastic paint buckets as their medium. They made forty boards, and gave them away to kids in NYC and LA.

eBay seller andyshinkage turns discarded skateboard decks into eye-catching wall lamps. He makes light bulb mounts that thread through where the trucks used to be and places a 12W LED bulb in place of the wheels.