1. Small and sustainable: ‘Tiny houses’ could be solution to world’s housing problems
They’re small, self-sustaining – and they could revolutionize the way we think about housing around the world, as building materials become scarcer.
Measuring just about 22-square-meters, or some 200-square-feet, a “tiny house” comprised of one room with a loft or pull-out bed, hidden storage, a kitchen and a bathroom, was presented last September to get people thinking about decent, affordable housing that limits the overuse of natural resources and helps the battle against destructive climate change.
The design was created by the UN environment agency and the Center for Ecosystems in Architecture at Yale University in the United States, in collaboration with UN-Habitat.
>> Find out more about these potential solutions to the world’s housing problems.
2. Boat made of recycled plastic and flip-flops inspires fight for cleaner seas along African coast
After completing a historic 500 km journey from the Kenyan island of Lamu to the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, the world’s first ever traditional “dhow” sailing boat made entirely from recycled plastic, known as the Flipflopi, was created to raise awareness of the need to overcome one of the world’s biggest environmental challenges: plastic pollution.
The Flipflopi Project was co-founded by Kenyan tour operator Ben Morison in 2016, and the ground-breaking dhow was built by master craftsman Ali Skanda, and a team of volunteers, using 10 tonnes of recycled plastic.
The boat gets its name from the 30,000 recycled flip-flops used to decorate its multi-coloured hull.
>> Read more about the boat’s inspiring journey.
3. Polyester made from recycled bottles, wardrobe recycling…: solutions to make the fashion industry more sustainable
It takes around 7,500 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans, equivalent to the amount of water the average person drinks over a period of seven years. That’s just one of the many startling facts to emerge from recent environmental research, which show that the cost of staying fashionable is a lot more than just the price tag.
Despite the grim statistics, producers and consumers of fashion are increasingly waking up to the idea that…Continue Reading…
Article source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/04/1036991
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