Daan Roosegaarde – Dutch artist and founder of Studio Roosegaarde, which develops projects that merge technology and art in urban environments, has launched a long term campaign to reduce air pollution and hopefully provide an experience of a clean future.

Roosegaarde and his team of experts have created the world’s first smog vacuum cleaner. The 7-meter tall aluminium SMOG FREE TOWER uses patented environment-friendly technology to produce smog free air in public spaces, allowing people to breathe and experience clean air for free. It cleans 30,000 m3 per hour and uses a small amount of green electricity

The function of the SMOG FREE TOWER has been validated by the results compiled by the Eindhoven University of Technology and has been successfully implemented in South Korea, China, the Netherlands and Poland.

As a tangible souvenir, Roosegaarde designed the SMOG FREE RING which consists of compressed smog particles collected from the SMOG FREE TOWER. He also recently presented a new addition to the campaign: the SMOG FREE BICYCLE. The innovative bicycle – also consisting of aluminium, inhales polluted air, cleans it, and then releases clean air around the cyclist.

Daan Roosegaarde: “True beauty is not a Louis Vuitton bag or a Ferrari, but clean air and clean energy.”

These aluminium based innovations continue to provide multiple opportunities for us to contribute towards a sustainable future.

Introducing event recycling and waste management company, Trash Pirate. Passionate about preserving our natural environment, Trash Pirate assists large scale events in reducing their contribution to local landfills.

Based in Cape Town, Trash Pirate has nine years worth of experience in making some of South Africa’s biggest events environmentally sustainable and earth conscious.

In 2018, we partnered with Steyn Entertainment’s internationally recognised festival Rocking The Daisies, where we first launched our industry-defining CAN CUP as an alternative to single-use plastic.

Trash Pirate joined Rocking The Daisies as our waste management and recycling solution in 2019. Lee Luddy6itt, Founder & owner of Trash Pirate says, “Being environmentalists at heart, for us the service of reducing waste to landfill makes a huge difference to the way we live our daily lives.”

Big shout out to Ludditt & her team for ‘putting waste in the right place.’

If you are an environmental junkie that appreciates a good face beat, today is your lucky day. Daily Peach has created reusable facial pads that are packaged in small recyclable aluminium containers and serve as an alternative to single use cotton rounds.

Daily Peach is an all-women team based in Hout Bay. What started as a passion project has developed into a community that believes in building a circular economy. Its focus is on reducing waste in the cosmetics sector and teaching creative skills to those seeking employment.

Their reusable pads are made from ready-dyed yarn from a Wine-lands-based manufacturer and their choice of packaging is an aluminium container, which can be continuously recycled and reused.

According to Founder Courtney Patrick, Daily Peach actively tries to be as zero waste as possible. Their shipping tape is paper and their shipping boxes are donations which they trailer to fit orders.

Patrick says, “Little things excite us, especially those that make a big difference to our environment.” Big up to Daily Peach for their sustainable approach to skin care & beauty.

To order Daily Peach face pads visit the website here

 

American artists DJ Neff and Paul Ramirez have teamed up under the collaborative alias – CANLOVE, to collect discarded spray paint cans and process them into works of fine art in an attempt to reduce the devastating impact that hazardous waste has on the environment.

CANLOVE is an effort, to use spray paint down to the last marble. Taking an otherwise discarded object and repurposing it to make sure it doesn’t end up in another landfill.  Street art as a culture is already full of mindful artists, that have also up cycled their cans like CANLOVE has, and it’s a beautiful thing.

In a world that continues to generate more and more trash, spray paint is among the lot. And since it is a hazardous material, it has become problematic with conventional recycling.  Many times spray paint ends up being burned or ends up in landfills, because they are pressurised cans filled with paint.

Much like our own, CANLOVE’s mission is to leave no can behind. For the past 10 years Neff & Ramirez have worked with artists and businesses to take their cans and make them into something more.

To give love to something otherwise useless, is to give it new life. To date, CANLOVE has had various art exhibitions in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and London.

News just in: Aluminium in KING! According to a study published on Detritus in October 2020 that was conducted by professors Alice Brock & Ian D Williams (University of Southampton in the UK), recycled aluminium cans were the least environmentally damaging single-use container available. Brock & Williams compared five different types of pressurised drink containers and ranked them from least to most sustainable, according to their impact on the environment. They found that aluminium can be constantly recycled with no change in properties while saving 95% of the energy used to make a new can and no new material needs to be mined or transported. Professor Alice Brock, continued by saying, “aluminium cans contribute less to global warming than glass and plastic because making them consumes less energy and resources.” It’s safe to say that aluminium cans take the sustainability cup once again.

Imagined Earth, a trailblazing company based in South Africa, has introduced reverse vending machines (RVM). Hosted on their app, this innovative system takes recycling to the next level by rewarding customers tangibly.

The Imagined Earth system works off product bar codes. the vending machine is able to process plastic, glass, steel and aluminium, and incentivises users for recycling with money and other rewards into a mobile wallet

“We are living in an era of convenience and circular thinking. Imagined Earth, in partnership with business, provides a highly effective recovery tool that empowers people to live sustainably in these modern times,” says Justin Needham of Imagined Earth.

According to goodthingsguy.com, the world generates at least 3.5 million tons of plastic and other solid waste a day, 10 times the amount a century ago. Luckily, there are a growing number of people and businesses who are moving to a zero-waste movement, and this new App is not only helping South Africa get there, but it’s paying us too!

Imagined earth has provided every-day South Africans with a recycling solution that pays you to play your part in saving the planet. We love innovation and this is the type of initiative that is bold enough to make a big difference.

Download the App on Google Play or on the Apple App Store

Last month music mogul and billionaire Diddy’s REVOLT channel made a move to join Adidas Originals’ commitment to ending plastic waste with the launch of a brand new series, Sneakin’ In with Druski.

Dedicated to educating viewers about how to make simple yet effective sustainable changes, the web series features comedian Druski, who sneaks into the homes of celebrities to inspire them to maintain more sustainable lifestyles. Teyana Taylor, Lil Yachty, Snoop Dogg & Yung Miami, among others have all made appearances on the show.

Adidas Originals recently launched the new “Stan Smith, Forever” collection as their latest development on the brand’s sustainability initiatives. According to The Brand With 3 Stripes, the Stan Smith, which is showcased throughout REVOLT’s programming as part of this larger initiative line, is made up of high-performance recycled materials.

“REVOLT has always strived to ignite positive changes within the Hip Hop community and the world around us, and we are thrilled to partner with a likeminded company like adidas Originals to pledge our efforts in encouraging sustainability,” said Andre Woolery, SVP of Branded Content for REVOLT.

Check out episodes of Sneakin’ In with Druski on YouTube.

Daily Paper’s inaugural shop in the US, has opened in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, New York.

The two-storey store spans 1,140 square feet (106 square metres) and has had its facade entirely decorated with over 13,000 recycled white, green and black flattened aluminium cans supplied by ‘Arizona Iced Tea’.

Co-founder, Jefferson Osei explained in an Instagram post that “In order to create this effect, we estimate a total of between 13,500 and 14,000 recycled cans were used – all manually cut, compressed, glued and screwed on panels,”

According to Deezen.com the cans were arranged in an intricate lattice pattern that’s meant to recall traditional East and South African beadwork. All three founders are of African descent, with Hussein Suleiman’s family hailing from Somalia, Abderrahmane Trabsini’s from Morocco and Jefferson Osei’s from Ghana.

Daily Paper have taken it to the next level with this creative innovation. If you ever find yourself in the Big Apple, be sure to stop by for a visit.

Episode 3 gave us something new and exciting. ShooterKhumz and Zoocci Coke Dope combined to create something special. Shooter gave us some insight into the creative process and what he thought about the experience.

“Initially, I had chosen to recycle ‘Oath’ because it’s a fun and energetic song. I felt like Zoocci was saying some real stuff in there and I wanted to find a way to bring more attention to the lyrics.”

“I first recycled the song into a Boom Bap type beat but luckily I had a second option prepared. As I played the second beat he started reciting parts of one of his other songs titled ‘Falling In My Sleep’, he then looked at me and said “Ayt .. I got it, we are going to combine them!”. He completely caught me off guard with that one but I mean, it’s Zoocci, he’s always trying to push the boundaries and I respect him a lot for that!”

“Zoocci definitely met my expectations. He finessed everything we discussed in the studio and you can see it in the performance as well. If there was one thing I would take away from this experience it would be to always look for ways to break through whatever ceiling is above you.”

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL LIVE PERFORMANCE.

Travis Scott has partnered with Anheuser-Busch to produce his first ever signature drink called ‘CACTI’.

In true Travis Scott style, the brand is already off to a great start sales-wise, with Forbes.com reporting the online inventory of ‘CACTI’ selling out within the first twelve hours of release.

‘CACTI’ is available in three flavours: lime, pineapple, and strawberry (and hopefully in SA soon?). Considering that cans are the most recycled beverage packaging in the world, we’d say Travis Scott is on the right path.

We salute La Flame for his choice of beverage packaging!