Photo via Gizmag

Bike-powered washing machines aren't a new idea; however, at least one big appliance company is backing up the idea. Haier, an large electronics company out of China, showed off a human-powered washing machine concept at IFA 2010.

Cameron Sinclair of Architecture For Humanity always says that the last thing people need after a disaster is another architect's idea for instant housing, but that hasn't stopped TreeHugger Best of Green Young Architect Andrew Maynard from lookin

MIT's Test Cell Patrick Gillooly, MIT

Solar cells are intended to mimic the photosynthesis of plants -- converting light into energy in the most efficient manner possible. But what other characteristics of plants could be handy for the renewable energy sector to mimic? How about the self-assembly of chloroplast, the component of plants that do all the vital photosynthesis.

At TreeHugger we like cork, that warm material that can be harvested without chopping down trees, is fully renewable and biodegradable and can be shaped into many funky objects apart from stoppers to keep the wine in the bottles. The designers at studio Marina68 in Barcelona have worked with this local material and created a series of furniture, that embrace craftsmanship and eco-friendly materials.

Image via Stanford University

Fresh, clean, drinkable water is an increasingly rare thing on this planet, especially in places that are suffering through catastrophes like floods or must deal with high levels of pollution without the resources to set up water treatment facilities.

Photo via Designboom

Japanese artist Akira Nakayasu's specialty is robotic plants. He creates things like sunflowers that react to human movement, making the flower seem to communicate with the people around it. His latest work is called "Plant," an interactive piece that was inspired by grass blowing in the wind.

Image via engadget

One of the major sticking points for making plastics from plants such as corn is that it takes a lot of fossil fuel and resources to grow a crop, just to turn it into plastic that is still difficult to recycle. The pros of plant-based plastics don't really out-weigh the cons.

Images via SENSEableCity

MIT's Sensable City Lab directo Carlo Ratti and associate director Assaf Biderman have come up with the SeaSwarm, a robot that uses nanofibers to absorb 20 times its weight in oil, and their hope is that it can be developed into a viable solution for cleaning up the Gulf oil disaster.

Image of toothbrush via ingridtaylor; image of solar powered brush via Canada.com

It's one thing to have an electric toothbrush that charges with solar power.

Images via Yanko Design

We're not so sure this concept will make it to any final rounds for the X Prize Foundation's contest for best oil spill clean up ideas, but itisn't the worst idea. Designer Min A Namgung reasons that we should fight oil with oil -- specifically, linking up recycled PET plastic bottles to contain oil from the Gulf disaster.