Finally, the time has come. The days are getting longer, the sunbeams warmer. Spring has arrived and the garden season begins. However, only a few plants are sown directly into the open field.
Leather is a material with excellent properties. Nevertheless, the purchase of leather goods is controversial, because leather from conventional animal breeding is not only CO2-intensive, but also needs large amounts of chemicals for tanning.
Barbecue fans love firing up the grill on balmy summer evenings. However, the cookout comes at the expense of nature: The charcoal used contributes to the massive destruction of forests.
Love cheeseburgers, but do not want to harm the environment? Now, you can satisfy your craving without eating meat. Plant-based burgers from the USA and Great Britain match the consistency and taste of their animal-based counterparts.
Coffee is the favorite drink in Germany. According to the German Coffee Association, 86% of all adults in Germany drink it every day or at least several times a week.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the "first automatic detergent" went on sale. It promised clean laundry after only 30 minutes at 95°C. Before that, the laundry had to be soaked, laboriously kneaded, rubbed, rinsed and wrung.
Decorating finger and toe nails is not a recent trend. The oldest proof for decorated nails is about 5000 years old and comes from China.
Along with nitrogen, phosphorus is one of the most important components in fertilizers. As the world's population grows, so does the demand for food and therefore for phosphorus. However, the resources are finite.
Sitting in a bar, drinking a cocktail and chewing on the plastic straw, which is then disposed of as a matter of course - there's hardly anything less sustainable. A German start-up now wants to change this and produces the straws from fruit residue.
Objects made of ferrous metals will develop rust over time, especially if they are not in constant use. Once rust has formed, there is no protection against further decomposition.
Wood has many different properties. There are obviously no limits to new ideas for products and areas of application. This is demonstrated by a young company from Wuppertal.
Plastic is produced from meadow grass in a resource-conserving manner using a recirculation process. Sustainable and environmentally friendly.
The demands on modern running shoes are high. They should be light and stable, tear-resistant and stretchy, even when wet.
A baby or toddler "produces" up to ten full diapers a day. Not only parents can imagine the huge mountains of rubbish.
It is well known that insects are rich in protein and vitamins. Compared to conventional livestock farming, rearing insects is much more environmentally friendly and they also have a lot to offer in terms of taste.
In October 1997 Mercedes Benz introduced the A-Class to the market. With this first generation of the A-Class, Mercedes pioneered minivans. Further generations and adaptations followed, since 2013, biobased plastics have also been used.
Straw, in former times hats were made out of it as well as baskets or drinking-straws. It is still used for insulation in house building. Recently it has also been used for cleaning agents.
Waste that accumulates during food production is usually thrown away. This is also true for rice husks. German sportswear manufacturer Puma uses this waste material for their eco-friendly trainers `Re-Suede´.
Coffee grounds are not noxious, but they do produce a lot of waste. The founder of the Berlin start-up company Kafform combined this so-called waste with biopolymers and formed a cup from it.
The first plastic dowel revolutionized the possibilities of wall mounting in 1958. About 50 years after its invention, there is another innovation: the dowel turns green", and will now be made of a plastic, that consists of more than 50% of castor oil.