The future? Almost certainly.

A branch of Sainsburys in Gloucester Quays has gone greener than the Hulk with the help of pioneering car park technology that will help to power the store itself.

Electricity used to run the store’s checkouts will be powered by energy generated from customer’s vehicles driving over ‘kinetic energy plates’ in the car park to power its checkouts. Like, from the future or something. Or a London nightclub.

Alison Austin, Sainsbury’s environment manager said: “First the checkouts, then the refrigerated section, then EARTH will belong to me you fools!” Of course she didn’t. What she really said was: “Using amazing technology like this helps us reduce our use of carbon and makes Sainsbury’s a leading energy-efficient business.” See, the first quote was more exciting wasn’t it?

We’ve had a think and have come up a handful of other ways that supermarkets can conserve their energy output. Feel free to add your own…

• Switch the freezers off for 10 minutes once an hour. The food should probably be fine.
• Put convicted shoplifters on a giant hamster wheel round the back of the store.
• Make customers move the checkout conveyor belt along themselves using a crank handle.
• Instead of binning short-dated food for freegans to nick, burn it in furnaces along with packaging and create the first ever steam-powered supermarket. Or something.

[Which?]

Thank baby jesus this is only a design, and not a product I may be cajoled into purchasing by tree-hugging hippies.

If the world crumbles to the point that I need to consider drinking my own piss – purified or not – I’d rather see the bombs start dropping to be honest. Yes it’s a very clever concept but no, it’s not for me:

[Yanko Design] via [Slippery Brick]

The vending machine. Nana’s chicken dinner and Flight Control aside, has man ever created anything as perfectly marvellous as a machine that gives us chocolate and crisps? Of course not.

But what fresh hell is this? It looks like a vending machine, but it’s not – it’s a reverse vending machine:

The bizarro vending machine lets you stuff it full of recyclable products – plastic, glass and aluminum cans – in return for shopping vouchers. Made by Australian firm Envirobank, these branded contraptions are already been trialled in Oz.

[RedFerret]

And now, this report from Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth:

“Good news everyone! I’ve invented the pizza box of the future! Not that the demonstration video makes a lick of sense – if you’re eating a pizza at home you’ll have the use of plates, and last time I checked they were recyclable.”

Besides, there’s no need to bother with origami-based environmentally-friendly nonsense, not when Pizza Express are offering 2-for-1 on their new menu range. (deal posted by joshm at hotukdeals.com)

[Boing Boing]