Sometimes when I do research for this column, I just have to laugh. Researchers and green businesses are finding unusual ways to turn unwanted materials into usable items or renewable energy.

Case in point: a team of researchers at Virginia Tech has invented a process to convert the keratin in feathers into a durable, biodegradable, lightweight plastic. An estimated two billion pounds of dry chicken feathers are annually converted into animal feed or dumped into landfills. Keratin plastic uses existing petroleum-based plastic manufacturing equipment, and it is processed at a lower temperature which saves energy. Their first product will be a biodegradable keratin flower pot.

Sweetwater Nursery is making a biodegradable plant pots by combining rice hulls with starch-based, water-soluble binders. Ecoforms pots (www.ecoforms.com) last about five years and are available at selected Whole Foods markets.

Harkening back to the days of the pioneers on the high plains of Kansas when dried buffalo patties were used for cooking fuel, Vermont has tapped a new energy source. Two dairies are processing their abundant manure into methane, generating electricity for more than 3,700 customers. I knew my walking would pay off for something other than good health. Engineers are developing ways to capture walking energy.

Claire Price, leader of the Pacesetters Project notes, that when we walk, eight watts of energy are wasted (absorbed by the ground) with each step. One solution involves a matrix of pressure pads under sidewalks and floors that could possibly harvest up to 30 percent of that energy. They plan to install the world's first human-energy-harvesting staircase in the United Kingdom next year to power lighting, LED displays, and audio systems in public spaces. Price is also working with a manufacturer of gym equipment to develop a way to harvest energy from treadmills. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is testing a shoe device that would capture walking energy and use it to power portable electronic devices.

Technology is available to harvest power from your home gym. Ed Begley (www.livingwithed.net) generates power with his stationary bike. It is plugged into his battery bank for his solar system. Reducing one’s hours at work is a creative alternative to purchasing carbon credits that offset our personal impact on the planet. A study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (www.cepr.net) concluded that if the rest of the world worked as many hours as Americans currently do, it would consume 30 percent more energy by 2050. They reported that overwork leads to over consumption, pollution, and a less fulfilling life experience.

Americans work more hours than anyone else in the industrialized world, a full 500 hours more per year than Germans. Not coincidentally, the U.S. is also the world's largest polluter and produces half the world's solid waste. Europeans currently consume about half as much energy per person as does the United States and if all countries followed this European model of working less and conserving more, then carbon emissions would substantially decrease which in turn would slow the pace of global warming. This writer officially grants you tomorrow off.

ReArt SCRAP (Scroungers Center for Reusable Art Parts, www.scrap-sf.org) is cosponsoring a ReArt exhibit at the Market Street Gallery (1554 Market St, San Francisco, 415 290-1441, www.marketstreetgallery.com). The exhibit runs through June 29 and features 28 artists who work with found and discarded materials.