Human inventions with a slightly different use
Today I felt I had to write a positive post. I have written a collection of sad and worrying posts on this website. They are all showing that there are a lot of worrying things happening in our world. But today I decided to present you with something different and nice. New uses for human inventions. I think these are great ideas, and while investigating, I have come across some amazing things.
Collection of bras on a fence image StockSnap
How to help an injured turtle with a bra clasp
This might make you smile, but it is serious and nice at the same time. Do not throw your old bras away as they can have positive and alternative uses. Who would have thought that? Those little hooks on the back can save a life. Now, how nice is that? Here comes the story.
Jennifer Gordon is the director of a North Carolina animal rescue. She reports that at Carolina Waterfowl Rescue, an unusual method is used to repair the cracked shells of turtles. Yes, those small iron clasps are used to hold the crack together, waiting for the shell to heal. First of all, the crack is glued, then a wire is used to complete the repair job with some bra clasps.
Do not miss this very short but powerful video.
Between 3 to 40 turtles might be treated each week depending on the season. They bring many injured turtles in during springtime. The turtles leave their regular homes, like ponds and lakes, as they come out to lay their eggs on land.
I have seen this myself as I have turtles in a big fishpond. Some years ago, while cleaning the area, I discovered a nest with 6 tiny turtles, probably just out of the egg. They were no bigger than a Euro 50 cent coin. After checking that they were all OK, I carefully introduced them to the pond where their parents and brothers, and sisters live. The big ones are huge, bigger than 2 hands held together.
When the turtles leave their natural habitat, there are many dangers lurking out there. When crossing the road, they might be run over by a car. A dog might get curious and give it a bite, or a lawnmower might injure the poor animal.
Tortoise crossing the road image Anton Abramov
All kinds of different turtles might be brought into the center. Little ones, no bigger than a silver dollar-sized eastern box turtle have been treated. It has also happened that a huge, 14-inch snapping turtle was taken in for treatment.
These animals might stay from 3 to 8 weeks until their shells have completely healed. Then the big day comes and they take the bra clasps off and they release the turtle back to its home. I think this is a lovely story.
A not so good human invention, plastic bottles
Plastic bottles are bad for your health and pollute the environment. Actually, even if convenient, this invention is not a good one. Luckily there is a great way, instead of throwing those bottles out, to use them as a building material.
Plastic Bottles image Maurice Angres
How to build a home with plastic bottles
Countries like India, South America, and certain parts of Africa have built houses with plastic bottles. The concept is easy enough. They fill the empty bottle with sand or with waste that cannot be recycled and there you have your building brick
The fill material just has to be small enough to fit through the opening. Once filled, they lay them in a row with cement or clay to fill the gaps.
We can build a lot of structures this way. Houses, greenhouses, and even water tanks can be built using this technique. Whatever you can imagine. On top of the fact that this is a great way to use a waste product, these “bricks” insulate very well in a tropical climate and as a total, the investment is extremely low. It might take some time to get enough bottles together, but it is worth the effort.
In Honduras, they constructed a house with 8000 PET bottles and it has a green roof with sod and turf. This is a super-insulated house with very low heating and cooling costs. Having used 8000 bottles, it liberated the local landfill of approx. 12 cubic meters (m3). When this roof gets wet, it can come to weigh up to 30 metric tons (Mt, tonelada) but the plastic bottle brick can easily support this weight.
A house build like that can last a good 300 years longer than many modern buildings. Plus the fact that it reuses plastic bottles makes this a brilliant solution.
More excellent uses for a plastic bottle
There are places in our world where people do not have electricity and a water bottle could help with this problem. Have you heard of a Solar Bottle Bulb? Have a look at the following YouTube video which shows how to make such a light.
This video shows you how easy it is to make this solar light.
Such an ingenious invention from a Brazilian engineer. This special system uses a 1.5-liter soda bottle and produces 50W just like a normal light bulb. How cool is that?
How a condom prevents mothers from bleeding to death
It is the year 2000 when Dr. Sayeba Akhter, chair of Dhaka Medical College Hospitals (DMCH) Gynecology and Obstetrics Department, noticed many women after childbirth would bleed to death. In Bangladesh, 30 to 40 years ago, this was the primary cause of the high maternal mortality rate.
This condition is called postpartum hemorrhage and doctors would proceed to take out the uterus to prevent this bleeding, but that made it impossible for the women to have more children.
Dr. Sayeba discovered a very simple and cheap procedure to stop this bleeding. This is now known worldwide as condom catheter tamponade or just simply the Sayebas method.
It happened that one day 2 woman literally died in front of her eyes after giving birth. She said, “I suddenly visualized the children in the village playing with balloons and wondered if filling a balloon with water and inserting it in the uterus that the pressure created would stop the bleeding”.
Condoms image Bruno/Germany
She went to the hospital the next day and stopped the doctors operating to take out a woman’s uterus and applied her method for the first time. By using this pioneering method of a catheter, a condom, some string, and a saline set, and a saline solution, the innovative idea functioned, and the bleeding stopped within 10 minutes.
Using this procedure devised by Dr. Sayeba has saved the lives of millions of women worldwide. It is extremely cheap, as it only costs about 99 cents. This method is being used in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Canada.
Mother with baby image Wilhan Jose Gomes
An Afterthought
These were just a few examples of reusing known inventions. Quite amazing, don’t you think? It made me happy to discover these stories, and that is why I wanted to share them with you.
I have made a special page for you. It holds a collection of things you might find interesting. Please visit Recommendations.
Source: CNN, story June 29, 2019, on bra clasps and written by Scottle Andrew and Nadeem Muaddl
Photo Source: Pixabay
There are some wonderful inventions in our world that might somehow rectify and minimize the mistakes that were made. You might like to read the following post.
Comments
gr8megawinner
I would like to commend your effort in giving means and ways how we could save the world we live in. Those practical remedies to treat cracks on turtles shell and the drive to clean up the environment with plastic rubbish were just awesome. This garbage could be reused in many ways. We could use them as material for building a house. They could be grounded like gravel and mix them in making a block of cement for the house. Others are recycling them to be used for decorative purposes. One novel idea was a man, who has made a floating boat entirely made of empty plastic bottles and constructed a rather beautiful house with the use of empty plastic bottles too. In addition, there was research on a form of bacteria that could eat the plastic garbage overtime that or stopping the use of plastic as much as possible could mean a huge difference in our environment. Your article is one of the ways to educate people like me not only to be aware but to take action as well.
Taetske
Good Morning,
Thank you for visiting my website and leaving a comment. I hope you downloaded your free PDF? Tulip widget.
Yes, I know, many things can be made out of plastic bottles. I saw that photo of a man who had made a boat out of bottles. On my website, I have an article which talks about this. Unique and interesting new systems for bio-degradation of plastic.
Solutions are needed and instead of destroying our environment we should protect it. I have come across bUnited recently. You might find it interesting to read their website. The concept is very innovative, save the planet and help people. Please click the widget below my photo. On that website top right you have many languages.
Regards, Taetske
Nuttanee
Thank you for sharing these amazing stories. It is great that the lady can help out the poor turtle with the bras claps, genius. It is great to hear that we finally come up with a new way of getting rid of the plastic bottles by using it in the building. This is the first time I heard of it, I really think that we should do it in the States. I see a lot of plastic bottles everywhere when I work and that is sad. I always bring my water from home in my thermo. If I need a refill, I try to find the fountain but if I cannot I make sure to recycle that properly. The story about the condom that can stop the bleeding is something. Thank you for sharing these stories. 😊
Taetske
Good Morning Nuttanee,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. Nice to see you again.
I was happy to come across these stories as they are so positive. Too many worrying things happening in our world about which I write so for me it was nice to write this positive post. That is really good you bring your own water from home, that is one less bottle.
I want to tell you I have a new widget in the sidebar. Save the Planet, it is under my photo. I heard about bUnited from Linda this month. Please have a look as it might resonate with you. When you click on it you will see the website of bUnited and on the top right you have many languages.
Regards, Taetske
Linda Frankson
Hi there, Taetske, Though your video about the light I also was shown how to make a solar light out of a mason jar. it is extremely useful these inventions. Being self-reliant is something that interests me very much and is become more and more necessary.
Making homes out of plastic bottles can help third world countries to move out of poverty. I saw a video with an engineer that taught people in Dominical to construct these houses from start to finish.
I was amazed at the finished product. How these communities came together to help build their own homes for each other.
How they took plastic waste from the dumpsters and cut them up to fill the bottles and used clay dirt that had no value for farming by wetting the clay down and mixing the plastic into the clay and filling the bottles then setting them in the sun to dry. This made them very durable.
This was very interesting to watch and very heartwarming to watch this engineer working together with the people.
Thanks for this post it was very enlightening
Taetske
Good afternoon Linda, that you for a new visit to my website. Nice to see you again.
I also find it quite amazing to see the things which can be made out of waste. There actually would be hardly any waste left if this concept would be implemented on a bigger scale. There you see, a bad invention can become a good invention after all.
Regards, Taetske
Michelle
Great article, Taetske. Great useful and life-saving info. It is nice to know that even though some of the items man has created might fall into disrepute after a while, it is good to know that they can be repurposed and save a live – animal or human – from time to time.
I enjoyed reading it.
Michelle
Taetske
Good Morning Michelle,
Thank you for your visit and comment. Nice to see you again.
I was also happy to find these interesting and unusual stories which inspired me to write my post.
Too much negative stuff going on in our world, good to be able to counterbalance with something positive.
Regards, Taetske
Russ Green
There are some brilliant ideas here, helping turtles with a bra clasp is something many people wouldn’t have thought about. I remember when all bottles were made from glass and when they were empty we would take the empty bottle back to the retailers and collect a small deposit, in fact, that used to be my pocket money.
Yet here we are today being sold plastic bottles which we have no control over because the manufacturer has decided it’s cheaper for them. It makes more profit and unbelievably they then blame us for the pollution caused by the plastic bottles, it’s crazy.
Anyway, rant over, I love these ideas that you’re sharing here. I hope your website gets shared out to lots of people so as to get the word out and make other people wake up and think, so keep up the good work and thank you for sharing.
Taetske
Good afternoon Russ,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. Nice to see you again.
You are right, these plastic bottles are bad for our health and harm the environment. Remember bUnited? That is the worldwide movement which can bring a change in this and more harmful situations. United we can do it.
Nice to hear you liked my article.
Regards, Taetske
mattias
Finally !!! It is relieving to see that plastic can be put to good use other than the initial pollution it causes to our world. A very harmful manmade product which has led to the loss of wildlife.
However, I like the fact that it can be used to build a house. It is undestroyable hence, it would be used in creating a house that would last for longer. Great one. The use of the bra seems funny though but worthy too as it can be used to preserve a life.
This is nice to know. Thanks
Taetske
Good afternoon Mattias,
Plastic is a curse in all its forms. The pollution of the environment is horrible and to find a second use for all these plastic bottles is a blessing. You are right, plastic has killed so many animals and it is our fault.
Thank you for visiting my website and leaving a comment. I hope you downloaded your free PDF? Tulip widget.
Regards, Taetske
Dane
These are some amazing things you have stated here. With the rate at which the world is growing, it will get to a point where nothing will be useless anymore.
I’m really surprised at seeing the bra at first but going through and seeing how a condom can save bleeding woman makes it all so amazing. Personally I’ll love to try out building a house with plastic cans. It will make sense of trying it with my daughter as she loves trying new things. Nice being here.
Taetske
Good afternoon Dane,
After writing about serious things, things that are negative for us and the world as a whole I was happy to come across these positive stories.
Thank you for your comment. I hope you downloaded your free PDF? Tulip widget.
Regards, Taetske
Henderson
This is probably one of the best posts that I have ever read online on how one can reuse human inventions. Although there are many studies that state that human inventions have been detrimental to us, there are ways to use them again and I am happy you have shared this tip. I think it is important that I share this with people. Nice one!
Taetske
Good afternoon Henderson,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. Nice to see you again.
Great to see you liked my post. I was happy to be able to write about this reuse of human inventions.
Regards, Taetske
Chris
Love reading positive and new ideas like this – always a great way to start the Sunday morning off with!
For me, the recycling of Bras is a wonderful story, it’s so nice to read that something so simple can make such a difference to another animal on our planet. I wonder how Jennifer Gordon first came across this idea?
I was also amazed to hear that they treat up to 40 turtles a week!
Taetske
Good afternoon Chris,
Yes, I too love to read about something positive, it does not happen too often.
Jennifer Gordon was at her creative best that day she understood those little bra hooks could come handy. Having turtles myself in the big pond this story resonated with me. I do hope the use of all these plastic bottles will become more known and I have discussed here at home if we should try it out.
Thank you for your comment. Nice to see you again.
Regards, Taetske
John
Wow, I am so mesmerized by this. I didn’t know that there are so many ways that one can use to reuse and at the same time make use of it very well. I wouldn’t have expected that bras could save turtles or that one could use plastic bottles that I really hate a lot to make houses. It’s really fascinating.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I will be sure to share this with people and do abide by helping the environment. Nice post!
Taetske
Good evening John,
Great to hear you liked my different stories. I was sure that the bra story of how to save turtles would be a hit with the guys. As I have turtles in the big pond I will keep some old bras myself as one never knows when they might come in handy.
Anyhow, nice to see you again and thank you for your comment.
Regards, Taetske
Rodarrick
Very great to know of that a bra can save a tortoise life and as funny as that is, it does make total sense knowing that carefully reusing what is available can help to maintain the means of prolonging the use of a particular product. This is nice to know of.
Also, the use of plastic is a joy to me. I do like how the use of plastic can help to build a house rather than just lying around for eternity without having any benefits adding up. Thanks so much for this article and for sharing.
Taetske
Good evening Rodger,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. Nice to see you again.
Our modern life is full of plastic and it poses a grave and worrying menage for the environment worldwide.
Here at home, we have discussed if we could make a trial project and build something small and see how it goes. As I still would love to build one more house in my life it would be good to gather some experience
Regards, Taetske.
Chloe
Wow, at first when I saw the start of this post I was laughing but now I see so many reasons why it should be taken seriously. We all may at one point or the other see these lifesavers as disgusting or not worth it but now from this post, we all should have a reason to regard these things
I am particularly interested in using a condom to save a bleeding woman. The lives of women should be taken seriously as we are the vulnerable ones. I’ll love to share this post so more people can learn from it.
Taetske
Good Morning Chloe,
Nice to see you again. Thank you for your comment.
Just imagine that this invention which costs less than 1$ can save a woman from bleeding to death. I was also very happy when I read about this.
Regards, Taetske
Paul
Hi Taetske,
Amazed to know that the small iron clasps are saving turtles lives. The video you embedded is really touching and moving. Wow, I am not aware plastic bottles are used in building construction great idea. Every single time I read an article of yours I learn so much new stuff!
The video about Solar Bottle Bulb is an eye-opener and I am planning to give it a try. Hats off to Dr. Sayeba for saving millions of lives!
Thanks a lot for sharing this insightful article!
Taetske
Good Morning Paul,
Thank you for visiting my website again. Your kind words are appreciated.
That is the nice thing about having websites. You can write about the things you like and are interested in. Investigating I come across unusual things which show that people can be amazing.
Regards, Taetske
Shan
These are some wonderful ideas! I am always on the look out for ways to reduce and reuse; I hadn’t seen these ones yet 🙂
I have heard of plastic bottles being made into bricks for home construction, but they are not filled as you suggested in this post. They are melted down and reformed in the shape of a brick somehow. Your idea looks more economical and easier for the normal person to take on.
I love your site. I am always looking for ways I can do my part to help the environment. I have your site bookmarked now so I can catch all your newest posts. Thanks so much for creating such a fantastic resource!
Taetske
Good Morning Shan,
Thank you for your comment on my website. I hope you downloaded your free PDF? Tulip widget.
I also think that by just filling an empty bottle the building process is easier and cheaper as the building materials only have to be collected. I find it great that these awful plastic bottles can be reused instead of being thrown out into the environment where more than often they land in the ocean and form a peril for marine life and birds.
This past Friday, 27th of September, I participated in the Global Climate Strike in Malaga, Spain. I had a board with bUnited and 5G Space Appeal and talked to so many people that I had no voice left after 1 hour.
Under my photo, you see Save the Planet, have a look as it might resonate with you.
Regards, Taetske
Charles
Thank you for Sharing this amazing piece of information, this is one of the most awesome story I have read on internet for the past few days, I commend that lady for bringing something for saving those turtle life with used bra clips and clasp, I do think we should talk more about recycling and cleaning up the environment and make the world a better place.
Taetske
Good Morning Charles,
I fully agree with you that we all need to do something to keep our planet clean. Perhaps you like to look at bUnited, under my photo. This is a worldwide movement which will hopefully make a positive change.
Thank you for visiting my website and leaving a comment. I hope you downloaded your free PDF? Tulip widget
Regards, Taetske
shirian
Hello Taetske- What you are constantly doing is admirable and inspiring. Your concern and attention to the environment is quite tangible and understandable. I really enjoy reading your post. Although these innovations are not enough yet to protect the environment against the devastation caused by us as humans
However, these seemingly simple innovations are proof that we are able to solve our environment’s problems if we work together and being united. I liked more the idea showing that people build out a home with plastic bottles and also liked how a condom prevents mothers from bleeding to death.
Thanks for bringing these to our attention-Best wishes
Taetske
Good Morning Shirian,
Thank you for your comment. I hope you downloaded your free PDF? Tulip widget
Every person can do things to help the environment. I talked to a woman the other day. She told me that children as young as 3 years are taught how to recycle at school. I think that is a brilliant idea. Here at home I recycle and try to reduce the plastic as much as possible.
I live on a green farm which is a paradise for birds, small mammals, and insects. Did you see bUnited under my photo? Have a look as it might resonate with you.
Regards, Taetske
LineCowley
I absolutely love this post and the way in which waste can be used in innovative ways and also to save lives. I have come across some very innovative uses for plastic bottles, including filling them with sand and then building houses with them. But using old bra clasps to save turtles, is ingenious and a brilliant way to repurpose your old bra. Not to mention the fantastic way of saving a mother’s live by using a condom.
We need more innovative ways to use our inventions and to repurpose waste.
Taetske
Good Morning Line,
Thank you for your visit and for your comment. Nice to see you again.
Who would have thought a condom could be used in more than one way?. This brilliant invention saved millions of women worldwide. Just because a doctor had a vision. Besides making houses or a light bulb from plastic bottles, I have even seen a photo of a small boat. A great way to clean up our planet from this plastic plague.
Regards, Taetske
Lily
What a lovely article Taetske and definitely a positive post. I particularly enjoyed the story about recycling empty bottles and making bricks out of them to build houses. Also, what an amazing doctor to think of using condoms as a balloon to stop women bleeding to death in poor countries. Truly inspiring.
Taetske
Good Morning Lily,
Nice to see you again and thank you for your comment.
Good to hear you enjoyed my article. When I discovered these things, it was somehow so hope giving news. The use of human inventions in a positive way made me happy. Especially the reuse of plastic bottles which are such an enormous problem for our environment is definitely a splendid idea.
Regards, Taetske