Slate has a humorous and fascinating slide show of vacant banks that have been reborn as other businesses (and other buildings turned into banks). It’s interesting to see these grand structures – monuments to money, transformed into things like discount stores.
Slate: Banks Reborn
[via The Morning News]

Swedish outdoor clothing and equipment company Klättermusen is embarking on a new eco-initiative for 2009 and beyond called rECOver that will keep their old products useful into the future. New Klättermusen products will have a small deposit labels (like a returnable soda can) in denominations of 1, 5, 10 or 20 euros. Customers who return their used gear will get a refund depending on the condition. Old bags and clothing will either be repaired and donated to charity, or broken down and recycled into new products. The company has also won awards for their 100% recycled nylon pack, and donate [...]

MO:BEN by Alex Cheong is a sleek food container that has a built-in heating element to warm your food. The compact reusable container was inspired by the functionality and simplicity of Japanese bento boxes. The MO:BEN also contains two utensils, and comes apart for easy cleaning. A very nice design that eliminates disposable packaging waste, and could be a great help when there are no nearby options to heat up food.
[via Tuvie]

Scrap Lab, a part of the architecture department at Kasetsart University in Thailand, is looking to utilize leftover materials from industrial processes to create new products. From plastics, to wood, metal and fabrics, Scrap Lab plans on creating a system that will efficiently catalog and find uses for as many left overs as possible. (Image above is their chair made of scrap denim.)
They explain:
[why] Scrap Lab aims to be at the forefront as an ecological combatant, particularly with current concerns for the global environmental pollution and the rising interest regarding global corporate social responsibilities (CSR). Through the recirculation of wasted [...]

Rob Walker, author behind “Buying In” and the popular “Consumed” column for the NY Times Magazine, is best known for his work that examines the fluid relationships we have with the objects in our lives – much of it dealing with the ways our purchasing habits affect us emotionally and psychologically.  And though we may have all experienced the rush of buying a pair of designer shoes, what happens when they’ve lost their luster and the “thrill” is finally gone?
Whether because they no longer work or simply because we no longer want them anymore, we are constantly faced with the [...]