Here at EcoJoes, we’ve looked at styrofoam and paper disposable cups, and came to the not-so-stunning conclusion that it’s best to use reusable cups. Not only are reusable cups good for the environment, they can save you money at coffee shops! Hot diggity.

But for most people, every once in a while they forget their reusable mug, so they buy coffee in a disposable cup. Hopefully, it’s a compostable, paper, insulated cup from Repurpose.

I got to test out one of these bad boys today, and it worked great. The paper wall is sort of puffy, so it stays insulated without needing extra layers of paper or a paper sleeve, meaning it uses less paper than most other disposable cups. How about that.

I’ve had about 3 cups o’ coffee today in my cup, and it did great keeping the coffee warm (at least 15 minutes staying the perfect temperature). The cup’s still holding together fine, too. Your hands won’t get burnt either, even if the drink is piping hot.

The neatest part to me is that Repurpose claims these cups (and the lids) are compostable within 90 days. That doesn’t mean I can watch it compost in my home composter, though.

As the Repurpose Compostables C.M.O. points out,

Our cups compost in an industrial composter, not your home composter. So you won’t be able to watch them compost at home. The product needs the heat and humidity that only an industrial composter provides and then it turns on the break down like switch and it takes 45-90 days to finally compost. They are ASTM 6400 and BPI certified to do so.

Researchers are still working on viable home composting possibilities for single use products. The problem is that in order to withstand the heat and moisture of your cup of coffee, the cup has to have an integrity that makes the home composter not an option if that makes sense. If it composted at home in any conditions it wouldn’t be a very sturdy product.

Welp, after 4 weeks and a day, my review of the EverBlade came to a sudden, disappointing end. But before we get to that, how’s about a brief background?

What is EverBlade?

EverBlade is a razor stand that’s supposed to keep your razor rust-free and sharp for up to six months. It’s made of plastic and a copper plate with ridges on the bottom. Here’s a lil’ video hyping it up:

Anyhoo, I was sent one, and decided to “put it to the test”, as “they” say.

The EverBlade Experiment

I used two cheap disposable razors for my experiment. One of them was put on the EverBlade stand; the other was just put on the counter. I used the EverBlade razor on the right side o’ my face, and the normal razor on my left. I used the Immortal Razor Technique on both razors.

The Results

Cleaning my razors out involved banging them on my tub. Tragically, as I was doing this, the razor blade snapped off my non-EverBlade razor, ending the grand experiment after 29 days.

Up to that point, both blades were going strong, and I hadn’t noticed a difference, so my official results were:

INCONCLUSIVE

I’ll continue to use the EverBlade with the lone remaining razor, and shall post an update if it lasts remarkably long.

Picture from Gordon Murray Design

Professor Gordon Murray, who is a famous Formula 1 race car designer, is spearheading a project to produce some dinky cars that weigh only about 1,250 pounds, seat three, and have a top speed of close to 100 miles per hour — all for $9,000 per car.

Now I don’t think the T25 is as small as THIS atom-sized automobile (P-50), but it’s pretty dang close.

Not only is the car itself tiny, but it’s built in a very small factory, from recycled plastic bottles, glass fiber, and steel tubes — using only 20% the material needed for a “normal” car. As for its miles per gallon, let’s just say that it bucks this sad MPG-improvement trend and clocks in at a whopping 74 miles per gallon. Say whaaaaattt??!!!

All in all, it looks like a great, efficient car. Of course, it’s a bit “greener” to ride a bike instead, but if you’ve got to drive a car, then the T25 may just be for you.

Bonus T25 Benefit

Question: How could you be mad if you were pulled over by a cop car that looked like this? READ MORE »

Normal wind turbines are okay, I guess, but what about a horizontally spinning one that generates a lot more power, up to twice as much power as some other wind turbines?

Check out this 885-foot wide wind turbine named the Aerogenerator X Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. It’s being built ahora, and will be finished by 2014. Once it’s done, it’ll generate over 10 megawatts per hour, beating out the current wind turbine record of a little over seven megawatts.

If you want more information about these crazy horizontal wind turbines of the future (and hey, who wouldn’t?), click on THIS HERE LINK.

Have you ever wanted to charge your cell phone, but didn’t want to waste precious electricity that you had to pay for? Well now you can get some exercise AND charge your phone for free, because good ol’ Nokia just came out with a bike phone charger!

How do I Charge my Phone with a Bike?

The Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit is attached to your bicycle. As you pedal your bike, it powers a small generator that transfers electricity to a charger on your handlebar. Voíla, just that easy.

How Much Pedaling To Charge Cell Phone?

I’ll let Nokia answer this question; Nokia, the floor is yours:

“To begin charging, a cyclist needs to travel around six kilometers per hour (four miles per hour), and while charging times will vary depending on battery model, a 10-minute journey at 10 kilometers per hour (six miles per hour) produces around 28 minutes of talk time or 37 hours of standby time. The faster you ride, the more battery life you generate.”

That sounds pretty good to me. Plus, it only costs around $20. So if you’re down for biking and charging your cell phone at the same time, this might just be the ticket for you.

Dang!! Back in college, me and some of my friends talked a lot about creating perpetual motion machines, and came up with all kinds of different designs. Eventually we decided it was impossible, and abandoned the idea.

But apparently some people did not give up, and recently the famous Alex Chiu announced that he had built a working perpetual motion machine. The only caveat is that it will not work on Earth — it needs the zero-gravity of outer space.

Still, this should revolutionize everything. Not since his immortality device has such an invention been unveiled to the world. Free, limitless energy should dramatically lower pollution and energy costs, and get rid of the need for gasoline and coal.

Sources:
Alex Chiu, Boy Genius
Rare Interview with Mr. Chiu

Dang, here I was thinking that the Smart car was tiny — the P50 is much smaller! So small, in fact, that the Guiness Book of World Records recognizes it as the smallest car ever produced.

how many miles to the gallon do you get? This bad boy got 100 miles per gallon!

The P50 has a single-cylinder 49cc engine and only three wheels… technically, it’s not even a car (they classified it as a motorcycle). Only about 100 were made, so if you get a chance to see one, you go and you take that chance.

To learn more about this awesome automotive oddity, please place your mouse cursor over THIS and mash the button.