Collection corner

Garbage to glam

Recycling is not all fun and games—unless recyclables are used in a craft project. Garbage to Glam Upcycling™ by Fashion Angels is a finalist for a 2016 Toy of the Year (TOTY) Award, an annual award from the New York City-based Toy Industry Association.

Garbage to Glam Upcycling is a line of activity kits designed to help tweens turn everyday household waste and recyclables, such as plastic bags and bottles, discarded T-shirts and old games and toys, into new crafts. Each of the four kits focuses on repurposing a different household waste or recyclable item into something new, such as turning old plastic bottles into jewelry pieces and plastic trash bags into a purse.

“The tweens we spoke with during the development of our Upcycling kits told us they are concerned with the health of the environment and that being green and recycling are very important to them,” says Goldi Miller, founder and president of Fashion Angels Enterprises, Milwaukee.

Award winners will be announced during a ceremony in New York City Feb. 12, 2016.

Closed-loop cleaning

It takes more than 20 gallons of water to remove 1 tablespoon of dirt during a typical washing machine cycle, according to AquaFresco creators Sasha Huang, Alina Rwei and Chris Lai. The trio of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) doctoral candidates was one of three winners during the inaugural 2015 MIT Water Innovation Prize, which invited people worldwide to pitch a water conservation device or business to a panel of judges.

The team created a filter known as AquaFresco that allows a washer to reuse 95 percent of the water from each load. The system filters out the waste from each wash and recycles the clean water and detergent for future cleaning cycles.

“Laundry is about to be reinvented,” Lai states on AquaFresco’s website, http://aquafresco.co.

Sustainable smartphone

The iPhone is built to fail, according to the founder of a potential competitor to the dominant Apple Inc. product. Alejandro Santacreu is the CEO of the PuzzlePhone, a modular mobile device comprising three replaceable and customizable parts: “The Brain,” or the main electronics; “The Heart,” i.e., the battery; and “The Spine,” the screen.

The PuzzlePhone is the first modular smartphone focused on sustainability, says Finland-based Circular Devices, the company that launched the phone. Circular Devices says the phone’s modular design minimizes waste.