Image by foto4lizzie / Creative Commons

New inventions come to light every single day. Many shoot into the spotlight as the latest and greatest thing to hit a particular market, while others only get so far as a design or prototype before they are shot down. It is almost impossible to try and keep up with the newest inventions. Sometimes the only way you can find out about a particular invention is by doing a Google search and seeing what comes up. Well, here are some eco-friendly inventions I came across recently, which you may not know exist.

The first is the iPhone 4 bicycle charger kit. There is a lot of talk, and efforts are being taken, in favor of more eco-friendly transportation options, to lower harmful emissions. Besides walking, riding a bicycle is one of the best ways to get where you need to go, get exercise while you are doing it, and have relatively no emissions along the way.

Image from EnviroGadget.com

For those of you who are getting back into bicycling, are bicyclists at heart, or who might want to give bicycling a try, there is a pretty smart invention you may want to check out. The bicycle charger kit allows you to ride your bike and charge your phone at the same time. Never again will you be left with no charge on your phone. Simply start riding and your phone charges right up.

The next eco-friendly invention is that of compostable car parts. As it is, around 10 million cars are recycled every year in the United States. In fact, the number one recycled product in the U.S. is the car. By adding in mushroom-based compostable car parts, car production climbs the next rung on the sustainable ladder. This particular material is a more natural option which can be used to replace bumpers, dashboards, side doors and other components without compromising safety features. Once buried, the product decomposes within about one month.

Take a look at some of the other actions Ford has been taking to make more eco-friendly materials for their vehicles:

This next one is one of my favorites because it is extremely simple and it uses/reuses materials that would otherwise have to be recycled or would end up in a landfill. This invention isn’t your typical invention, it’s more like a bright idea. A very bright idea in fact. This one is called “A Liter of Light” and is part of a program in the Philippines to bring light into the homes of people who either don’t have electricity, cannot afford to pay high electric bills or those who want to tap into the power of the sun. Solar panels are great, but the cost can be a major deterrent. This invention works right away and the cost is almost nothing.

This last one is a smog-eating roofing tile. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s a tile designed to help reduce harmful emissions and essentially digest smog. According to the company that makes the tiles, within one year, 2000 square feet of this particular tile can destroy the amount of NOx produced by driving a vehicle for 10,400 miles. In essence, your roof tiles could cancel out the pollutants produced by your vehicle. That, along with using Biofriendly Corporation’s Green Plus® liquid catalyst in your vehicle, and you could end up getting rid of more pollutants than your vehicle generates.

It is interesting to see the different ideas people have and the eco-friendly inventions which result from those ideas. Sometimes instead of thinking bigger is better, it helps to think smaller and simpler. Either way, eco-friendly inventions are out there and I’m sure we will see many more in the next decade. Do you have a favorite eco-invention? Do you have an idea for an eco-invention? We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.