Go Green With Vax ev-A Cardboard Vacuum Cleaner

With the growing importance of biodegradable consumer products and utilities, scientists all around the globe are trying to replace the plastic goods with other eco friendly alternatives. It’s a well known fact that most of the plastics that we use are non biodegradable. Heaps of such plastic articles are getting accumulated in dump yards and trash cans. Some of these plastics can’t even be recycled. Amidst this scenario, a student has come up with a whacky but unique idea of a cardboard vacuum cleaner. An industrial design engineer at Loughborough University, Jake Tyler has come up with this awesome new ecological vacuum cleaner made completely from environment-safe cardboard. The corrugated cardboard cleaner was a part of Tyler’s final year project. He worked on this degree project along with a team of design engineers from Vax, UK’s leading brand in floor care. The firm has now hired this guy after seeing his first design get so much popularity and success.

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Jake Tyler with his ecofriendly Vax ev

The vacuum cleaner has been christened as ‘Vax ev’ has a cardboard housing and the interior parts like the motors and accessories are made up of recyclable pure nylon plastic. The Vax ev has to designed by the customer using the manual and the cardboard sheets that come with the package. The sheets are pretreated with fire retardant, and because these are corrugated sheets, it is assumed it will be able to withstand the rigors of home vacuuming. There are still some questions regarding the durability and average life of such cleaners. However, even if your cleaner gets wet or damaged by some physical stress, it’s easy and cheap to replace the corrugated cardboard. Vax recently announced that this vacuum cleaner will be initially launched as a limited edition model. However, if the response is good, it may go into mass production.

The housings for the conventional vacuum cleaners and other such home appliances are made from injection molded plastics. These plastics are costly, take awfully long time for decaying, and require large specialized plants for manufacturing. Centralized manufacturing plants mean that more transportation is needed which automatically increases the air pollution as well. Also, the fact that they can’t be recycled easily makes them all the less eco-friendly. Opposite to this, the nylon plastic used to make the internal parts and components of the Vax ev is made from low budget rapid process manufacturing which is recyclable and less damaging to the environment.

An added advantage of the Vax ev is that it can be customized. Yes, the smooth exteriors of the cardboard sheets can be used for doing some felt pen graffiti or sketching or even coloring. That will make your vacuum cleaner a little more than a paper box with wheels. People with a creative mind may actually get it just for the sake of that. And you will also get a sense of satisfaction that you have in some way helped mother Earth.

Via: #-Link-Snipped-# Image: Thinking inside the box: Young inventor creates world first CARDBOARD vacuum cleaner using recycled packaging | Daily Mail Online