Most of us probably feel quite pleased about ourselves when we properly dispose our plastic bottles into the PET collection container. The Swiss designer, Tinu Ryter, however, came up with the brilliant idea of reusing the bottles... to create impressing works of design. He actually got the idea from his daughter as she was trying to create a candleholder out of two cut PET bottles. From that, he came up with a line of household objects for daily use. Besides this unique newspaper rack made of halved bottles screwed in a row to an alu beam, he has created a flower vase, a table napkin holder and of course candleholders, among other things - all from the same PET material.
More info at www.ryterdesign.ch/recycline
According to the Swiss Agency for Energy Efficieny (SAFE), a coffee machine left on stand-by consumes around 200 kWh electricity every year. In a rating of energy-saving coffee machines, Martello from Coop (Switzerland) ranked first place. Through its new automatic switch-off technology, the machine is turned off 15 minutes after the last cup of coffee has been prepared, thus avoiding the stand-by phase. This fix programmed function allows you to save on energy costs. Martello anyhow offers consumers an unbeatable value for their money: a coffee capsule is available for a mere 32 cents (Swiss Francs).
The more electrical devices you take along on a trip, the more dependent you are on the electric socket. This dependence is essentially reduced with Sakku - the first swiss messenger bag with integrated solar cells. The trendy Swiss-made bag has flexibel solar panels on its surface and a cable inside to which every gadget chargable through the USB can be connected: mobile phone, photo camera, GPS-tools, MP3-players, e-book-readers or mobile game consoles. Laptops can unfortunately not be charged.