These days every small thing I can do to eliminate waste is of interest to me. One of the few things that really get on my nerves are batteries. Rechargeable are great, but they are still toxic. And E-waste is getting to be a bigger and bigger problem. So when I saw Adele Peters’ Corky mouse I got pretty excited.

It’s one of 18 finalists in this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition. The mouse uses kinetic energy to power it and is also made from 100% recycled plastic components and recycled and biodegradable cork. The Corky mouse uses piezoelectricity to generate energy every time you click, use the scroll wheel, or even move it around.

Plans for the mouse include regional sourcing and assembly, product take-back and recycling, and disassembly data will be easily accessible for recycling centers. So this mouse seems all around to be a more sustainable option. And cork feels nice, doesn’t it? Much nicer than plastic any day.

Go vote for it at Greener Gadgets Design Competition!

Via Inhabitat.com

Captured at 1/1 11:11

Happy New Year to everyone from the folks at GadgetMETER. GadgetMETER is now officially 1 year old and I am proud of what we’ve accomplished in that time.

One of my New Years resolution consists of simplifying my online and offline lifestyle.

• Get rid of junk in my house I haven’t used in years
• Eat less or no meat.
• Reduced the number of RSS subscriptions.
• Deactivated my Facebook account. (I’ll talk more about this later).
• Discovered http://mnmlist.com and http://minimalmac.com. These are two great websites if you feel you are too distracted with todays bombardment of information.
• Run a 10k
• Enrolled at UPenn for Graduate School.
• De clutter my MacBook desktop and menu bar

Now, if you are wondering how this screenshot is appropriate for this post. Well, I just happen to look at my iPhone at exactly 1/1 11:11pm so I quickly captured it. The background is a picture of Monica Belluci on my jail broken iPhone. Pretty cool huh? It must be a sign because I see it as a way to reset our tech lifestyle and look back at what’s really important: family, friend (true friends, not the persons you don’t know on your Facebook), health, and the environment. Today, we have way too many distractions in our life that really clouds our judgetment on what’s really important. Let’s take time to get rid of online and offline baggage and welcome the New Year!

So I propose this New Years Challenge for you.

• Go take a walk.
• Meet with a friend for coffee.
• Enough with Twitter already. It’s really just for celebrities!
• Delete contacts on Facebook you don’t ever engage with. Heck, deactivate your Facebook account like I did!
• Delete LinkedIn. Who really uses this anyway?
• Stop texting while having lunch or dinner with someone. Enjoy the moment.
• Volunteer at a community center or shelter.
• Donate to a charity: time, money, clothes, food. It can be anything.
• Read a long form book.
• Go camping or hiking.
• Call up a friend. No texting!

OK, my final post about Xmas gifts. These last two both have to do with time, and would be excellent gifts for anyone, regardless of weather they are into “being green”, like me, or not.

First, the Citizen “Eco-Drive” Solar Powered Watch.

This super stylish watch has a solar panel background that keeps the watch running for months at a time. It’s $131 with a quality name to back it up. I know they say this is a man’s watch, but it could be unisex, easy.

Via Inhabitat’s Green Gift Guide

Finally the Water Powered Clock by Green Stamp.

About $16 these clocks run off water, not batteries. So instead of tossing and buying batteries every year, just fill up the can.
I like the green one, btw.

Via Coolest Gadgets

This is post of unreasonable things that I know I will never get but just want to fantasize about having…

First, the Brammo Enertia Electric Motorcycle

So first things first, it’s 100% electric. All its components can be recycled, including the batteries. It has a range of about 42 miles and can reach up to 65mph. And the batteries can be charged in about 4 hours, with 2,000 recharges possible.
For more on the specifications, check the Brammo website.

An interesting point on this bike is that the production requires less than 10% of the material resources needed for an average car, and it is manufactured in the US so the transportation costs in getting it delivered are minimal.

Also, they just dropped the price from $11,995 to $7,995. And since it is 100% electric you can also qualify for a government rebate so the final cost will be $7,195.
I love it. It looks great and is perfect for my needs. Of the three items in this post, this is the most accessible.
Check out your local Best Buy to test drive one (weird, I know, but whatevs).

Via Inhabitat Green Holiday Gift Guide

Going a little deeper into fantasy land we have the BMW Vision, a diesel plug-in hybrid that gets 63 mpg.

It can go up to 31 miles on electric only, perfect for commuters, and has a total range of 431 miles on 6.6 gallons of diesel.
Unfortunately this is a concept car and only prototypes have been produced. But this is a beautiful car. I mean, it’s gorgeous, actually. I love it. And I bet it’s a dream to drive. Too bad I’ll never get to. Sigh!

Via dvice.com

And finally, the show stopper. A car so beautiful and so futuristic looking as to inspire me to think of it as a hovercraft with wheels, the e-Wolf e2 all electric car.

Inspired most notably by Lamborghini and Ferrari, this all electric sports car should be going into production in 2011. Yes, that’s right. They are actually making this one!
So, specs?
0-60mph in under 4 seconds.
Top speed of 155 mph.
Possible range of 187 miles per charge (getting very near the Tesla range of 200 miles).

Maybe someday I’ll be able to race this thing along the pyrenees mountains and pretend that I’m a Bond girl, being chased by supervillians that want to destroy the world for their own financial gains and my mission is to stop them by using super gadgets, kung fu, and killer sports cars.
Ok, probably not, but a girl can dream, can’t she?

via Boing Boing gadgets

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I am a bit of a type A personality. I like things to be organized. But sometimes I get lazy about it so whenever I find something that aids in my quest to have an organized life I get super excited.
One of the things I don’t have very organized currently is my recycling station. It currently consists of one bin and one empty plastic kitty litter box (which itself is getting recycled).
I’d much rather have this:

The Mode Premium All-in-one Home Recycling center with mechanical compactor.
I believe there is a model without the can crusher. I almost never have aluminum cans to crush so I don’t need that. But the sleek design and separate compartments for different recyclables would be a smart addition to my apartment, and would look much much better than the makeshift bins I’m currently using (and take up less space).
And I like that you can get recyclable bin liners for it as well (for an extra $6.49).
The only question is if it is really worh the $250 price tag from Amazon.com.
It seems kinda pricey for the capacity to be honest. If it was $100 less I probably wouldn’t hesitate.

via Inhabitat Green Gift Guide

Part 2 of my “12 Things That Would Be Really Cool To Have For Christmas” list relates to items found on the Inhabitat Green Gift Buyers guide.

First, the Macally ECOFAN Bamboo Laptop Stand with Fan from Amazon.com ($36.69).

I’m on my laptop a good portion of every day and yes, it does get hot, even with the Lap Desk I currently use. Not only is the bamboo laptop stand stylish, but it has a built in fan to keep my laptop cool.
Strangely the Pro version, which features three height adjustable levels, is actually cheaper. But I still haven’t found one I can comfortably put on my lap (my preferred modus operandi).

Keeping in the sustainable and stylish spirit of bamboo, next is the VerseAudio iPhone Bamboo Hard Case.

$39.99 from Vers Audio. It’s beautiful, practical, sustainable, and not too expensive. Except that I’d also have to get an iPhone for x-mas (hint hint). Excellent dual gift, imo.

Finally, if I do get said iPhone for x-mas, well then it would only make sense to get the first Apple-licensed iPhone solar charger to go along with it.

The Surge for iPhone, $70 from SolarArcadia. Two hours of direct solar exposure provides 30 minutes of talk time on a 3G network, or 60 minutes of talk time on a 2G network.
It also includes a USB port so you can charge or sync with your computer without taking it out of the case.
My preferred color is green, btw.

I’ve heard that the air inside our homes can be up to 5 to 10 times more noxious than the air on your average street corner. This would be due to the plethora of chemicals used in common household items (from your carpet to your cleaning products). I’ve not done any real research on this myself but what I do know is that when I have a few healthy house plants around my apartment just feels nicer and I seem to get more work done (more oxygen to the brain maybe??? Dunno).

Well some smart guys at le olde Harvard University named Mathieu Lehanneur and David Edwards have designed a new air purifier that harnesses the natural processes of plants to make your air more, well, pure.

It’s called the ANDREA. It houses an actual plant of your choosing and uses the plants natural processes to clean the surrounding air. Air comes through the vents in the top and is funneled through the leaves and roots of the plant. Particles are absorbed and converted and the clean oxygen is fanned out the vent in the back. Simple, yes?
Also, it looks cool. Like something that belongs on a space station.

What I’m not so clear on is how exactly this is better than just having some house plants. Especially at the $200 price tag. I mean, I got my house plants for free from a neighbor that was moving out and didn’t want to take his ficus along.
Also, it seems like it would attract a lot of dust. So just another thing in the house that needs to be cleaned regularly.
So yes, this is pretty cool, but I probably won’t be investing in one.

Via Popular Science Gadgets