Don’t you hate it when you’ve got a huge pile of aluminum shavings lying around after a big project and think, “What a waste! I should really do something with this glistening pile of metal!” Well, the folks at Renewed Materials had the same brilliant thought, and created a solid surfacing material called Alkemi. By binding aluminum scrap with resin, they have produced a striking alternative to the typical surfacing products on the market. Best of all, its exotic look doesn’t come at an exotic price; it’s comparable to the lower-priced levels of Corian and granite.

Like most solid surfacing materials, it can be custom shaped, sanded, buffed, and joined to fit a variety of applications. What gives Alkemi its particular appeal is what’s inside: a minimum of 60% post-industrial scrap aluminum. Once bonded with polymeric eco-friendly resins, the aluminum scraps create a hard, strong surface, suitable for countertops, tables, sinks, or tiles.

The reflective property of the suspended aluminum creates two visually compelling patterns. The first is where the scrap is completely incased in the colored resin. The second is where the material has been honed or cut and another thin layer of resin poured over the top. A variety of colors are available, attributable to integrally colored resins and/or colored aluminum scraps.

They also have some interesting, but less visually stimulating opaque versions in black and white. But we’re willing to look past that, because these come in quite possibly the coolest…..samplebox….ever! There’s no official indication that the box is made from recycled content - but it definnitely looks like it. The icing on this earthy cake is the dramatic effect of the name branded into the container.

Recycling paper is often just about creating more (you guessed it) paper, but a Minnesotan company by the name of All Paper Recycling has been taking recycled paper and converting it into a lovely and versatile new building material called ShetkaSTONE. Completely made from all types of recycled paper (including waxed paper, glossy paper, and magazines), plants, and cloth fibers ShetkaSTONE can be used to create anything from doors, counter tops, benches, molding, soap dishes, and more.

Created by Stanly J. Shetka, president of All Paper Recycling, Inc., the patented process involved in creating ShetkaSTONE, creates a slurry made of the pre and post consumer waste which is then formed into the hardened product. Due to its recycled content, ShetkaSTONE has a 100% sustainable life cycle. Both the waste created in the manufacturing process as well as products that have become damaged or reached the end of the cycle can go back into the manufacturing process at ShetkaSTONE.

The strength and thickness of Shetkastone can be controlled during the creation process. The end product can go through any variety of construction methods including being sawed, sanded, glued, nailed and screwed together, as well as finished by sealants currently used on wood and stone.

Paper products account for 40% of the solid waste in the US, and only a small portion, (white and newspaper) are actually being recycled. The mission of All Paper Recycling, Inc. is “to reduce pre-consumer and post consumer waste through the creation of environmentally responsible products and building materials made from wastepaper, cloth or plant fiber.”

TRANSLUCENT CONCRETE

Across the country, cities constantly struggle with public safety and ongoing financial burdens caused by tree roots lifting cracked concrete sidewalks. Rubbersidewalks offer a convenient solution to this problem. The modular sidewalk system allows air and water to reach the soil below, and can be pulled apart for easy tree and root maintenance, decreasing the need for urban tree removal.

Rubbersidewalks are made of 100% recycled tire rubber. The waste rubber from one passenger tire creates one-square-foot of Rubbersidewalk, helping to recycle the more than 34 million passenger tires disposed in California alone. At the end of their lifecycle (at least 14 years), Rubbersidewalk pavers can be recollected and recycled back into the manufacturing process.

Rubbersidewalks were invented by Richard Valeriano, public works inspector for the City of Santa Monica, where some of the first installations were tested for more than three years before opening up the product to other municipalities. Founded in 2001 and Headquarted in Gardena, California, Rubersidewalks, Inc., keeps track of all of their installation sites for maintenance review, relieving the city of the burden. Rubbersidewalks modular paving is now installed in more than 20 states throughout the United States.

+ www.rubbersidewalks.com