Tuesday, 13 April 2010  posted by justin

Enter the Instructables Coffee Cup Challenge to win a Voltaic Systems solar backpack!

Repurposing and re-use are important components of waste reduction. Most recycling requires a great deal of energy or resources; melting down glass or aluminum or hydropulping paper are expensive and wasteful in their own ways. Re-use uses the waste product essentially as-is, requiring far less energy and reprocessing to create something useful out of a product that would ordinarily end up in the landfill: turning innertubes into wallets or drink pouches into backpacks just takes a little time and ingenuity.

The Instructables community is full of smart people who are great at transforming waste products into clever inventions, so we’re teaming up with them to bring you the Coffee Cup Challenge. Right now, we’re working with you to generate ideas to reduce paper coffee cup waste, but there are still a lot of paper cups being thrown away. The Coffee Cup Challenge is all about repurposing those paper cups into something new; they could be made into laptop speakers, umbrellas, or giant robots – we need your creativity. Great ideas will earn themselves a solar backpack from Voltaic Systems or $25 to use at Starbucks.

And a little re-use bonus for all you true DIYers who make their own coffee at home: 10 uses for coffee grounds instead of dumping them in the trash.

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