A GREEN Invention: Think Am. Inventor show

Have you seen that show called American Inventor? If you haven't seen it, I suggest that you do because it's a lot fun to watch! But in any case, for some reason, I woke up this morning with drinking straws on my brain. And why is that you ask? It's because I could not locate my drinking straw this morning to sip my orange juice out of. Lol, well... I suppose you are now asking, "You mean, you only have ONE drinking straw??" Well.... yes. And here's why.

You see, I used up my box of straws ages ago where I only had one straw left and amazingly enough, I've been using that same straw now for several weeks for all of my cold beverages! When I'm done using it, all I do is rinse it off with cold water and place it on a paper towel by the sink to use again for my next glass of pop or iced tea. And believe it or not, this straw is as good as new even though I've been using this same straw a few times a day, for several weeks now!

Well anyway, as I was saying before, I woke up with drinking straws on my brain this morning because last night I couldn't find it to sip my ice tea out of. My teeth are very 'cold sensitive' and for this reason, I prefer to drink out of a straw for any iced beverages. So this morning, when I woke up, I thought to myself, "Darn, if only I had a container of some sort with that straw in it attached to my key chain just to prevent misplacing this thing again". And right after I had that thought, BAM, it hit me like a thunderbolt! A brilliant idea came to my mind and since then (going on 3 hours now), I haven't looked back because this idea that I came up with having to do with drinking straws may also be just one small way, albeit a teeny-tiny one, to HELP SAVE THE PLANET!!

So here's my idea. What if there was something on the market that serves not only as a key chain, but also as telescope drinking straw holder where that holder would also to have the message 'Save The Planet' printed on it in bold letters!

You see it's like this... and sorry for my skipping around on this but just now brainstorming on this idea, the fact is, millions, if not billions of drinking straws are disposed of all over the world ON A DAILY BASIS at fast food places like McDonald's for example. I mean, just think of all that waste and how these plastic straws are doing their own number on filling up landfills and hence consequently harming our precious environment! But just for a moment, I'm now asking you to think of what it would be like if everybody instead carried around their own drinking straw encased in a small container of some sort that also could serve as a key chain to zip out when at a fast food place! Where instead of making your own contribution to world pollution, you would instead be making a small but worthy contribution to painlessly save our environment!

So let us now return back to that part where I mentioned that TV show called American Inventor. Supposing that we members here at ATS brainstorm on developing a prototype for a retractable re-usable drinking straw and some kind of a container for it with a cutting edge design that would also serve as a key chain and, in it's own small way, promote environmental awareness via the Save the Planet message that's printed on it.

The object of this invention would be three-fold:
1) The usage of re-usable straws to help save the environment
2) To serve not only as a container for the reusable drinking straw but also as a key chain.
2) The message on the container/key-chain that this straw is enclosed in would also serve as part of a SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT awareness campaign.

So here's my idea, why don't we ATS members brainstorm and come up with a prototype for this 'invention' and then appoint someone here to show it on the American Inventor show!

If you've watched that show before, you will see that the judges are very receptive toward GREEN inventions. The top winners receive $50,000 to take their inventions to the next level which is mass production and in my humble opinion, I think an interesting looking SAVE THE WORLD thingy that can be used as a key chain that ALSO holds a re-usable telescope drinking straw would be a real hit with the GREEN crowd -- don't you?

It could be sold at novelty gift shops, drug stores, grocery stores, in online Gear Stores or whatever... for any number of internet orgs and so on.... because that org. or company logos could also be printed somewhere on that straw container along with the SAVE THE PLANET message.

Ok.... so here's my idea and I would LOVE it if some of you here join me in developing a prototype for this truly worthwhile 'invention'! Let's all have fun and see what we can come up with to take this project to the next step! American Invention?? Hey, why not??


[edit on 30-6-2007 by Palasheea]

Just throwing out idea's here. Supposing we members at ATS were to come up with a feasible prototype for a reusable drinking straw in a key chain object where a manufacturing company would be interested in setting up an arrangement with ATS (the inventors) to develop, manufacture and market this product in return for royalties which would be paid to the administrators of ATS to help sustain this forum?

And by having someone here appear on American Inventor to show this product, even if this 'invention' were not to win, at least it would allow it public exposure where a manufacturer might come forward to license this product and so on....

Here's some information on how inventor royalties are set up:

Some inventors start new companies to develop and market their patented inventions. This is not typical, however, because the majority of inventors would rather invent than run a business. More often, an inventor patents the invention but makes arrangements with an existing company to develop and market the invention. This arrangement usually takes the form of a "license," a contract under which the developer is authorized to commercially exploit the invention (for a period of time) in exchange for paying the patent owner royalties. The royalties may be a percentage of the net revenues or may be a payment for each invention sold. Alternatively, the inventor may sell all of the rights to the invention for a lump sum or royalties (known as an assignment).

Inventors' license and royalties



[edit on 30-6-2007 by Palasheea]

Here'e and even better invention:

A disposable cup for commerical/fast-food usage that is built INTO each cup.

It is located at the side of each cup, is actually part of the form of each laminated cup and is shaped similarly to one of those straws you use for an ICEE at the very bottom to avoid blockage.

The "straw-cup" is then paired with a lid that conforms to the new drinking system that costs only a fraction of a penny more to produce and saves the environment to boot.

Great idea krowbarr!
I do agree with you that a straw and a CUP would even be better and this could also be included in a GREEN product line which would include a number of Green friendly products including my drinking straw in a key chain idea!

Actually there are a number of very interesting products that could be added to this product-line for people to use when going to fast food places. It would be like developing a whole new concept for environmentally friendly Fast Food Eating-Ware. The customer who has purchased these products would order at McDonald's, for example and have the counter people load their Big Mac and fries onto their own (the customers) reusable Eating-Ware instead of using McDonald's plastic and paper containers, cups and other disposable eating utensils like plastic spoons and forks and so on...


Here's an interesting excerpt Time Mag:

The plastic bags you bring home from the supermarket probably end up in a landfill. Every year, more than 500 billion plastic bags are distributed, and less than 3% of those bags are recycled. They are typically made of polyethylene and can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills that emit harmful greenhouse gases. Reducing your contribution to plastic-bag pollution is as simple as using a cloth bag (or one made of biodegradable plant-based materials) instead of wasting plastic ones. For your next trip to the grocery store, BYOB.

Time mag. article



[edit on 30-6-2007 by Palasheea]

Up the ante even more...

Make meals purchased with licensed, brand specific table ware and serving dishes available at a discount.

If I use my McDonald's eat-ware (although I don't eat at McDonald's pesonally) while purchasing a big mac, fries and a Coke, then they will give me a 40% discount.

The only problem I see with this is sanitary issues and health laws currently on the books. The laws that protect consumers from getting sick due to bacteria and other not-so-nice to eat things is in effect when fast-food places use disposables.

I think asking the big chain restaurants to become even more Green and environmentally friendly needs to be paired with other incentives not only to consumers, but to the giant corporations themselves.

It would be something similar to the clean-air credits issued to coal conversion plants and restaurants like McDonalds and Burger King and Starbucks and countless others could spend these credits against their supposed tax burdens...although, frankly I believe this monster corporations already have accountants to help them evade paying much taxes to begin with.