Samsung has announced that its TV boxes can be converted into small tables, magazine racks, and -- yes-- homes for cats!

Samsung’s new ‘eco-packaging’ made from eco-friendly corrugated cardboard will be applied to The Serif, The Frame and The Sero, allowing customers easier recycling as well as upcycling of the cardboard boxes for creative reuse.

Samsung has applied a dot matrix design on each side of its eco-friendly corrugated cardboard boxes, allowing customers to cut the boxes more easily and assemble them into various other uses, such as small end tables or houses for pets.

Included within the packaging is a manual to guide customers on how to make household items out of the cardboard boxes, which can be accessed by scanning the QR code on the box.

And now, with Dezeen, they're holding a contest to find innovative designs for the home using ordinary cardboard packaging. The "Samsung Out of the Box Competition" is open until May 29, 2020.

(Gizmodo) images via Samsung Read the rest

Indian design studio Sylvn Studio creates cardboard lamps that are as economical and eco-friendly as they are beautiful. Read the rest

In an effort to make plastic drinking straws extinct, Chelsea Briganti and Leigh Ann Tucker of Loliware have invented the "world’s first edible, hypercompostable, marinedegradable straw." They hope their eco-friendly Lolistraw will replace the "500M plastic straws" that they say are currently being used in the United States every day.

Fast Company reports:

“From our perspective, the way to get our community involved, and the way to get the world excited about this new innovation is to embrace the fun,” says Chelsea Briganti, one of the cofounders of Loliware, a company that began making edible cups, with a fruit leather-like texture, in 2015. The straws are made from a new seaweed-based material that’s more like plastic, but like the cups, can be made with a flavor or with added nutrients; they’re meant to add a little to the experience of having a cocktail or another drink.

“You can imagine drinking your cold-brewed coffee with a vanilla straw or a caramel straw,” Briganti says. “We think that will really increase this movement around plastic-free, because we’re not telling the consumer, hey, you can’t have your straw. We’re providing them a solution to the plastic straw crisis while also giving them a fun experience on top of that. It’s not about the consumer sacrificing anymore, it’s about the consumer having fun and being sustainable at the same time.”

The company plans to target venues where plastic straws are currently used at highest volumes, such as stadiums, fast-casual restaurants, coffee shops, or juice bars.