An innovative company is giving functional materials such as used fire hoses
and decommissioned British Army parachute silk a fashion makeover. They
transform the hoses into handbags and the silk into linings that bear the
artists' illustrations and prints.

A better way to reduce waste created by plastic bags and other packaging than by skipping the stuff altogether, which is precisely what a London grocery shop does. While some packaging is recycled, most ends up in landfill sites and some packaging is just difficult and often impossible to recycle.

Cool name and cool products. reMade USA is a design company that upcycles used materials to make one-of-a-kind products. Their first line is a range of bags made from used leather clothing and scrap. these unique bags are produced in limited quantities with only 10-14 bags available at any one time. Each bag is a limited edition of one and bears its own serial number that reflects its uniqueness.

Once of the 3 R's, Reuse is to use an item more than once. This includes conventional reuse where the item is used again for the same function, and new-life reuse where it is used for a new function. By taking useful products and exchanging them, without reprocessing, reuse help us save time, money, energy and resources. In broader economic terms, reuse offers quality products to people and organizations with limited means, while generating jobs and business activity that contribute to the economy. It can also turn unwanted items into great, useful and beautiful alternatives.

Every year, around 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. That's a lot of bags. So many that over one million bags are being used every minute and they're damaging our environment. They are difficult and costly to recycle and most end up on landfill sites where they take around 300 years to photo degrade. They break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate the soil and waterways and enter the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them.

Product designer Ryan Frank is a perfect example of creating furniture from junk. Working out of his studio in east London, he salvages wasted surfaces such as old wood, industrial hooks, burlap bags and even tagged surfaces and morphs them into stunning home products and furniture.

Plastic bags cost more than 1.6 billion barrels of oil per year and leave the environment to foot the bill. Each year the world produces 500 billion bags, and Earth Resource Foundation states that “all the plastic that has been made is still around in smaller and smaller pieces.” Meanwhile the UN Environment Program estimates that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter in every square mile of ocean, and a swirling vortex of trash twice the size of Texas has spawned in the North Pacific.

73 billion Styrofoam cups/plates and 190 billion plastic containers and bottles are thrown away every year. Medical evidence suggests that chemicals, as benzene & styrene in EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam are carcinogenic and may leach into food and drink. EPS cups, containers and plastic bags, are a major source of pollution on our beaches - especially after a rainstorm. EPS breaks down into small pieces, often mistaken for food by marine animals, birds and fish.

Children birthday parties can be extremely wasteful affairs, leaving in their wake piles of disposable dishes and cutlery, bags of plastic packaging and torn wrapping paper, and a bunch of mediocre and useless gifts the child could probably do without. Is there a way to turn your child's next birthday gathering into a celebration of the planet?

Whether it's printer cartridges, beverage containers, cell phones, eyeglasses, plastic bags or clothing, recycling products benefits not just the environment but also pretty much everyone involved. Thanks to increased consumerism, discarded clothing for instance, finds its way into landfills at an alarming rate, including one million tons of the stuff each year in the UK alone.