This giant cloud was created in New York City from 53 thousand plastic bottles,  the number of bottles thrown away in NYC in an hour.  What about sending them all for recycling?

The cloud was the winner of this year's "City of Dreams” design competition. The idea was to recreate a space where dreamers could dream.  Putting your head (and body) inside of a huge cloud felt right. 

Omer Haciomeroglu, a student at Sweden’s Umeå Institute of Design has designed Ero – a robot that recycles concrete in an energy-efficient manner and separates it from rebar and other debris on the spot.

The project won the 2013 International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) in the Student Designs category.

Otis has just installed the world's very first solar-powered lift in Vila Nova de Santo André.

The Gen2 Switch lift is equipped with photovoltaic panels and operates with a single-phase 220V current. It is fitted with a regenerative ReGen drive that converts the lift's own movement into electricity.

The Recycler is a robot designed by the Finnish company ZenRobotics. It can sort packaging by material and place it in the right separation boxes.

The Recycler uses calibrated sensors, visible spectrum cameras, infrared spectrometers and tactile sensors to identify and separate waste before sending it for recycling.

Is this the future?

Sputnik Engineering has built a new factory completely powered by renewable energy.

The company, which makes solar inverters, has turned to solar power for its new building. It has chosen a solar roof of \"considerable size\" to produce environmentally friendly energy.

Rui Pereira and Ryosuke Fukusada, a Portuguese and a Japanese designer, have created the Bug Collection, which is a collection of bathroom accessories made from Portuguese cork, with that minimalist Japanese touch.

The collection consists of towel rails, soap dishes, sponges, etc and is on display at Milan Design Week.