Tylene Levesque posted a picture of this great gum bin on another cool site about design (and in this case, ecologically friendly design products and ideas), Inhabitat.
The Bubble Gum Bin is designed by Anna Bullus, who used Gumnetic to make it, which is a new biodegradable material she developed from sterilized used chewing gum and bio-resin (there’s the best kind of irony in here somewhere).
Here’s a wonderful story from the Thanh Nien Daily in Vietnam about young children who hope to sell gum (as you can see above) or roses to those who visit a popular square at night in Ho Chi Minh City in order to help raise money for books, school uniforms or even breakfast.
2007-04-04 Chewing-gum wall, originally uploaded by [ henning ].
Well, I suppose you could (and as it turns out, you can), but if your mom is like mine, she’ll tell you it will stay in your digestive system for seven years.
However, there’s a great site called Snopes that helps debunk all sorts of urban myths (i.e. if you forward this e-mail to 20 of your friends, Bill Gates will send you a gazillion dollars), and on that site, Barbara “The Gumshoe Report” Mikkelson (see, I told you there will be puns in the world of gum) tells the whole story about the risks of swallowing gum (as well as telling the story of loggers, the state of Maine and the Alamo and their relationship to the history of gum!).
gum man!!!, originally uploaded by el pinguino malo.
I found a great blog (well, feed aggregator, to be specific) about design —product design, graphics and innovations and more — called Design Corner » Yanko Design…you’ll want to explore.
On page 25 of their collection of really great design stuff, it includes this design by Jung-taek Choi that suggests origami as a beautiful way to dispose of your gum (which reminds, me of course, that gum belongs in two places after it’s opened: in your mouth and in the garbage.)
Gum Mastic from Chios, Greece can be used for all sorts of things including, well, chewing gum. Here’s a great site, with pictures, that shows how it’s collected every year, and why Law 4381 makes 15 October a critical date in each year’s harvest.
Chris Brown’s top ten song, “Forever,” turns out to actually also be a jingle commissioned by Wrigley gum to promote Doublemint gum (actually one of the three songs commissioned by Wrigley to help update the images of three of their brands, Doublemint, Juicy Fruit and Big Red). Read all about it (gum headline pun alert) in this piece from the Wall Street Journal:
