Urban Echo

Now that mobile phones are ubiquitous, public phone booths are fast becoming obsolete. In a bid to find a viable new use for its 13,500 phone booths around the country, Telekom Austria has begun converting them into battery recharging stations for electric cars, scooters and motorbikes.

Unveiling its first phone booth-turned-recharging station in front of the company's Vienna headquarters in May, Telekom Austria announced plans to convert an additional 29 phone booths by the end of this year. During the initial trial period, recharging is free. The company eventually plans to charge a single-digit euro sum for the recharging service, with payments to be made via mobile phone.

Telekom Austria’s forward-thinking scheme comes at a time when, of the total 4.36 million cars on Austrian roads, there are only 223 electric cars and 3,559 hybrid cars registered. Yet the Austrian motor vehicle association, VOeC, predicts that the number of electric vehicles in Austria will rise to 405,000 by 2020. Telecommunications companies around the globe: a leap into the widely forecast EV-prevalent future worth following?

via SW

Exacerbated by the increasing prevalence of indoor smoking bans, cigarette butt litter is on the rise, with an estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts becoming litter every year worldwide. Aiming to counter the impact littered cigarettes have on the environment, Greenbutts have developed an all-natural, biodegradable cigarette filter that, when placed under a thin layer of soil, will sprout a plant. Using patent-pending technology, Greenbutts are made from natural de-gummed hemp and organic cotton, bound with wheat flour and water. The filters can be combined with a variety of seeds, transforming them into plantable cigarette butts that will sprout grasses, flowers, fruits, herbs or trees.

Traditional cigarette filters made from cellulose acetate can take up to 15 years to break down, according to Greenbutts. The San Diego-based firm hopes to put an end to this and is currently seeking investors and partners to do so on a global scale. One to partner with to provide an eco-friendlier choice for the one billion tobacco smokers worldwide? It won't make them healthier, but at least the rest of us will benefit.