It’s estimated that of the 50-million batteries used every year in South Africa, 95% is the non-rechargeable throw-away kind. That make up 2500 tonnes ending up in our landfills, corroding and exposing harmful chemicals into the environment. So it’s always refreshing to find electronic gadgets are designed with green in mind, even if the idea is more symbolic that anything else.

Designed by Francesco Castiglione and Tommaso Ceschi, Timeless Garden is a combination of a house plant and a clock. You plant your favourite herb or grass in the device, and the chemical reaction between the mud used for the plantation and the metal in the device creates enough electricity to sustain the clock. The body of the clock is made from recycled plastic. Too small to be significant, the grass will also extract a tiny amount of carbon from the air and release an equally small amount of oxygen.

- via Yanko Design.