Reusable toilet wipes 厕纸也能再利用？

The Problem: America has a ravenous¹ appetite for comfy toilet paper. The softer, the better. But what's good for the tush isn't good for the environment — soft toilet paper doesn't contain any recycled material and is often made from old-growth forests.

The Solution: Europeans use toilet paper with a greater proportion of recycled fiber³. But for the true eco-warrior, there's an even more environmentally friendly solution — reusable toilet wipes. Made of cloth, reusable wipes offer all the comfort of the triple-ply, ultra-quilted toilet paper roll with none of the nasty tree-killing consequences. Instead, there's only the little matter of storing and washing dozens of waste-covered pieces of cloth. Every week. It's a tough sell, but one manufacturer promises they don't stink⁴ and sells wet bags to contain the dirty wipes.

Eco Craziness: 5/5. The cloth wipes are even sold in "funky⁵ and fun" combinations. We're willing to bet they're funky, especially after a week in the wet bag. Fun? Not so much.

Pig urine plates

The Problem: Many disposable plates and utensils⁶ are plastic, which is produced with fossil fuels and does not decompose⁸ easily.

The Solution: Produce them from pig urine, of course. A Denmark company called Agroplast can take urea compounds — a key component⁹ of urine — and use it to produce bioplastics that can be made into biodegradable plates and utensils. Other companies use less cringe-inducing starters like vegetable oil, but the Dutch company says pig urine, fraught¹⁰ with health hazards and high disposal costs unless processed, is a better environmental solution.

Eco Craziness: 5/5. There's no surer way to make your next dinner party your last.

Urine batteries

The Problems: Batteries are difficult to dispose of and contain harmful heavy-metal compounds that may leach¹¹ into the soil.

The Solution: Again with the urine. This time, at least it's your own. Scientists in Singapore have figured out a way to harness human urine to create a chemical reaction that powers a rudimentary battery. Add a drop of pee to an assembly of copper¹² chloride, magnesium¹³ and copper, and voila — it produces as much power as a AA battery.

Eco Craziness：2/5. Human urine is certainly not in short supply, and this could eventually lead to cheap, ultra-portable medical tests ready at a moment's notice — as long as you're properly hydrated.

The Greenest Convention Ever

The Problem: Political conventions are a spectacle, and spectacles don't exactly lend themselves to environmental consciousness.

The Solution: Democrats¹⁴ promised their 2008 convention in Denver would be the "greenest convention in history." Sponsors encouraged attendees to offset¹⁵ their convention travel with carbon credits, while meals were made of locally-grown ingredients, reducing the environmental impact. Denver's Pepsi Center also staffed the convention floor with nearly 950 volunteers to make sure attendees tossed their trash and recyclables responsibly. Less effective, however were the wooden keycards, that replaced the standard hotel-issue plastic cards, and which reportedly splintered easily; or the billboard¹⁶ near Denver that reportedly asked the public to save water by wearing their underwear for four days in a row: forwards one day, backwards¹⁷ the next, then inside out for two more.

Eco Craziness: 4/5. When it comes to underwear, change is something we ALL can believe in.

Doing the electric slide 蹦迪也环保？

The Problem: All the flashing strobes and pounding speakers at your favorite dance club are massive consumers of electrical power.

The Solution: Harness the energy on the dance floor. Bar Surya in London re-outfitted its floor with springs that, when compressed by dancers, produce electrical current that is stored in batteries and used to offset some of the club's electrical burden. The club's owner, Andrew Charalambous, said the dance floor can power 60 percent of the club's energy needs.

Eco Craziness: 1/5. Innovation and creativity earn this dance club a different kind of rave².

Resomation

The Problem: So much for dust to dust — the modern American way of death isn't very environmentally friendly. A casket and embalming¹⁸ is clearly out — the body, stuffed full of chemicals, will linger for years. You may as well forget ashes to ashes, too: cremation¹⁹ creates a mournfully large carbon footprint. What's a felled eco-warrior to do?

The Solution: Submerge the body in alkali and water. Add pressure and heat. Let simmer until liquefaction. The process, called resomation, reduces the body to a fluid of biological compounds and remnant calcium²¹ from the bones. The fluid can be used as a fertilizer and the calcium discarded without environmental harm, or even put in an urn²⁰ like ashes. Practitioners²² say the process is energy efficient, with limited carbon emissions²³ and no harmful mercury use like burial or cremation. Heaven for the eco-conscious.

Eco Craziness: 2/5. It may never catch on with the general public, but there's no more better way for an environmentalist to go out than in an eco-conscious ooze²⁴ of glory.

Bra power 文胸的环保功用？

The Problem: Apparently²⁵, the world has overlooked the bra as an environmental savior.

The Solution: Designers have come up with two separate proposals to harness the power of the common brassiere. The first, a Japanese proposal, is designed to cut down on the amount of chopstick waste in a country partial to the utensil⁷. Triumph Japan has produced a bra built with a chopstick pocket. An added perk²⁶: the company says the chopsticks will help support the breasts and will "accentuate²⁷ cleavage."

The second proposal, dreamed up by San Francisco writer Adrienne So, would use the breasts themselves as a power source. The idea is apparently feasible: a bra made of fabric²⁸ interwoven with tiny wires can produce electricity from the bosom's natural bouncing motion throughout the day, enough to power a cell phone or an iPod. The larger the cup size, the more energy produced.

Eco Craziness: 3/5. While the concepts are doable, neither bra will be for sale anytime soon. The eco-friendly bra will remain a figment of lonely engineers' imaginations for a while yet.