This article discusses two of the several examples from Nature that serves as an inspiration for scientists and engineers—lotus leaf and gecko’s foot. Lotus leaf is superhydrophobic and exhibits self-cleaning properties. On the other hand, gecko’s foot can attach to any surface and move around quickly with-out leaving a mark. Both these phenomena are attributed to nanostructured hierarchical organization, which modulates or tunes the surface area. Applications of superhydrophobicity of the lotus leaf and adhesion of gecko’s foot are also mentioned.

In this article we discuss a technology developed in our laboratory to recycle and reuse polystyrene waste (e.g. thermocol) into a fabric that can be used for many industrial applications such as cleaning of oil spills and flexible insulation for green buildings. Another novelty of this process is that it also helps in managing citrus fruit peels which are an agrowaste. Apart from recycling polystyrene, these citrus fruit peels can also be used in many other innovative ways such as print transfer medium, making tattoos or as solvent for biopolymers. This work is a demonstration of environmental sustainability using a green and novel approach.