What’s that? It looks a bit like a dishwasher. But have a closer look and you’ll see it’s not a dishwasher. It’s the Sovereign “Green Machine”, more formally known as the EcoBin Waste Manager, and the latest must-have household gadget for those who are serious about waste reduction.

It’s an all-in-one, three-way waste management system that disposes of food waste and separately compacts cans and plastic bottles, effectively reducing the overall volume of household waste that has to be collected by the local council.

Here’s how it works:

The EcoBin system has three individual pull-out drawers – for food waste, cans and plastic bottles or yoghurt pots.

Food Waste:

Food waste is ground up and drops into a waste bin lined with a biodegradable bag that can hold up to 7 litres before it needs emptying. This much reduced waste, in its bag, can then be put into the compost bin or your normal waste bin. There is a built-in automatic sanitation system that cleans and flushes out the bin area into the waste outlet, preventing the build up of any deposits or odours.

Cans:

Aluminium cans from drinks and packing material from food items are crushed and compacted in a separate compartment, reducing their overall size so that 22 litres can be stored before the need to empty the container. The compacted waste can then be easily disposed of where local authorities provide special recycling bins or a separate collection service.

Plastic:

The third compartment of the EcoBin compacts containers such as plastic bottles and yoghurt pots. Up to 16 litres can be stored before the need to empty the container.

The 60-cm wide, stainless steel Sovereign EcoBin Waste Manager is available as a freestanding or built-in model with a drop-down door that reveals the three waste compartments. Old supermarket-type plastic carrier bags can be re-used to line the two bins that compact the cans and plastic bottles.

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Guest post by Liza Hanks of Winchcombe Reclamation, specialists in promoting and facilitating the use of reclaimed building materials and working with all types of demolition and construction projects to divert materials from landfill.

Why use reclaimed building products? Lots of people can answer this very simply… because they have to, planning constraints, listed buildings and areas of outstanding natural beauty and conservation area all add up to a definitive legal requirement for many people to match any new building work to an existing one.

But this I feel misses the point, and here’s why.

1. Hold a handmade clay tile in one hand and a machine made one in the other. One hand is scratched by the precise rough edges and the other almost feels the warmth of the craftsman who held the tile 200 years ago as he pressed his thumb into a piece of clay on the back to form the nib. Preserving our building heritage and it component parts allows us to touch our social history and keep it alive. Many geographical areas will have their own particular methods of construction. For example in the Cotswolds where we have our honey on toast coloured stone. Its availability has sculpted the landscape, and its structural strengths and weaknesses defined its use. Experienced local builders will only pick up and hold a stone once before its position is decided, an experienced bricklayer trained in producing a similar end result, a sturdy wall, will fight to find the right place for the same stone. In reusing the material we are also reusing the skills and keeping them alive.

2. But its not just in old buildings where there is a need for reclaimed materials, we keep seeing examples of reclaimed materials being used in modern exciting buildings. Where these are used, the material, be it bricks, beams, floorboards or fireplaces really sing out. Their warmth, texture and familiarity adds depth and personality to a room. The very nature of reclaiming building materials is at it core, recycling, reducing the amount ending up in landfill.

3. Using reclaimed materials lowers a building’s carbon footprint. Traditional methods of construction used materials locally available. They would have been mainly hand produced using physical labour instead of mechanical energy sources. Reclaiming materials is a labour intensive process and chemicals are not readily used to clean or restore. New building materials are less likely to be produced in the west but are readily produced in developing countries by companies who may not enquire about working wages or conditions. They also need to be transported, which further increases their carbon footprint.

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Harness your creativity to make something useful and keep something else out of landfill. I like the idea of making unique pieces of furniture for my home, and I like not having to pay (or paying very little) for materials to make something that’s worth more than the sum of its parts. Something out of nothing, or something out of rubbish. I’ve collected some ideas from all over the web to bring you some inspiration. Let’s make a chair.

The Octopus

This is the project that inspired me to write this blog post. This chair is made of four pairs of charity shop jeans and polystyrene balls. It doesn’t look like a very difficult project, and you could probably replace the polystyrene balls with a more eco-friendly material. The seats of the jeans are sewn together to form the seat of the chair, and the legs become the octopus tentacles that are the backrest. Have a look at the octopus chair from other angles to get the idea of what needs sewing to what.

The Trolley

Once you’ve watched the video above you’ll have all the know-how needed to undertake the project of turning a shopping trolley into a very trendy chair. I do feel though that I have a moral obligation to remind DIY enthusiasts that stealing trolleys is wrong and not what I’m encouraging you to do here.

The Tractor Seat

If you have an old tractor seat or lawn-mower seat lying around (or you could put a wanted ad on Freecycle, I’ve acquired an old tractor tyre in this way to make a sandpit for my young daughter) and a broken office chair, you can make this really cool tractor seat swivel chair. Full instructions here. I once bought one of these (with a flimsy plastic seat) from Ikea for my son and was charged a whopping great £19.99. You can make this project for nothing. But even if you resort to buying a tractor seat at a car boot sale or similar, it’ll still be a whole lot cheaper, and more unique, than shelling out for the plastic manufactured alternative (and of course there’s always the karma that comes from keeping stuff out of landfill - priceless).

The Cardboard Stool

You’ll need three large bits of corrugated cardboard to make this stool, so would be a great way to populate your new home with furniture once you’ve unpacked the boxes. It reminds me of a Djembe drum, so great for that entho-bongo look, and you could decorate the stool by painting it or gluing embellishments onto it. The full instructions at dangerouslyfun warn not to tilt or lean the stool while you’re sitting on it, or you will seriously shorten its useful life.

Grow your own lawn chair

While not strictly recycling, this chair is so amazing that I just had to include it here. You could argue that you’re reusing soil and turning a lawn into something useful. And there’s no need to buy the rather expensive cardboard frame and grass seed kit, just study the image shown to create your own frame from old cardboard boxes, then purchase some grass seed down at your local garden centre and decide where you want to “plant” your chair. Assemble your cardboard frame and place it where you want your chair, then fill it with soil and sprinkle with grass seed. Water every few days. For best results, wait until spring before starting this project.

This is the first of what I hope will be a regular Eco-DIY feature here at EcoStreet to include recycling ideas, home DIY projects and eco-friendly crafts Please stay tuned.

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