Electronic Waste and Recycling

When we went to Oskar Winski and were educated on their fairly new Electronic Waste and Recycling program I was intrigued. Electronics are made from hazardous wastes and materials that never go away, on the bright side though electronics are not going away. This being said, electronic recycling is a big business opportunity and environmental initiative. My thought is why not just reuse materials from old electronics to make new electronics.

"This is money."

Attached below are a few companies and initiatives in other states and around the country that focus on Electronic waste and recycling.


http://recyclingnewyork.com/


http://www.marvell.com/environment/recycling.jsp


http://aspenpitkin.com/Living-in-the-Valley/Green-Initiatives/Recycling/

Must See Documentary: TRASHED

Trashed an environmental documentary produced by Jeremy Irons portrays the everlasting problem of global waste. Executive producer and actor Jeremy Irons digs deep into the societies and populations most affected by the issue. He comes to find out and simply portray the lives of third world country citizens and the lives of beautiful animals. The people affected by global waste first hand are those in third world countries. They are mostly poor and native to the lands where countries such as the United States dumps their every day trash. What people do not understand is that not only does it affect them but us as well. And not only us but every living organism in the world. When we bury plastics and materials that are not compostable then we harm the environment. This documentary explores all of these different ideas. Scholars and well known people around the world on the subject of global waste comment on the idea.

Above is the trailer. Enjoy.

The Most Eco-Friendly Home in America

I've always been interested in how to save money and help the environment through changes in your home.  We spend alot of money on energy and other things to keep our home going, and this creates alot of waste and negative environmental impact.  I think there is a large amount of potential for Americans to save money and reduce their environmental impact if they make minor changes to their home.  This video shows a family that built an extremely efficient home that is sustainable.  I'm skeptical that the innovations didn't affect the price, but either way, the home is very cool and shows how we can improve the sustainability of our homes.

Climate Change?

Expanding Waste Management

After visiting Covanta this past week, I became interested in their progression in the field of waste management. I was very impressed with their facilities structure and order throughout each area and was curious as to if they were looking to expand--and if so where.

I found an article that details their reasoning behind the new partnership in which they have created with the corporation Clean Energy Fuels. These two companies are looking towards the opening of yet another facility like Covanta, to "compliment" the original. This new building will be built with minimal impacts on the surrounding environment. But their mission doesn't stop there, both companies are still searching for additional locations, throughout the United States to continue on in their quest for nationwide waste management.

I believe that the addition of another "Covanta like" facility would be greatly beneficial to any community. I hope to look into this expansion in the near future to see some form of progression because I now see the benefits that a company like Covanta can provide. 

http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=78934

Recycling: Not just paper, bottles and cans

The article I read was about the importance of water recycling.  You may have heard about the need to conserve water and be careful with how we're using it, but recycling it is probably a new idea. Most people think recycling is simply for different types of metals, glass, plastic, and paper, however water is now being added to that list.  One way water is being recycled is through "gray water." Gray water is reusable wastewater from residential, commercial and industrial bathroom sinks, bath tub shower drains, and clothes washing equipment drains.  Gray water is reused onsite, typically for landscape irrigation. Also, water recycling refers to the technological ways of speeding up nature's natural recycling process.  So what are the benefits of recycling water? Well, there are many.  First, it is extremely useful for irrigation, in places like golf courses, public parks, and other landscapes.  It can also cool water for power plants and oil refineries.  Recycling water also has many environmental benefits, such as decreasing pollution and increasing demand for an additional source of water, which would help diverge demand from precious and sensitive ecosystems.  As you can see, water recycling is becoming an influential part of our transition into a healthier world, and has many benefits.

http://www.epa.gov/region9/water/recycling/

Biofuels: The Future of Waste Management

A new method of waste management is on the horizon and its name is biofuel. The has been a recent breakthrough in biofuel technology that allows agricultural waste to be converted in to alternative fuels. Over the past few years biofuel production has been limited to only a handful of small pilot production plants. However recently two companies have come together to create the first large scale biofuel production plant on the planet. The process will consist of collecting wood garbage from farms and paper waste from papers as well as residential households. The fuels created will create only a mere one-sixth of the carbon dioxide to an equivalent amount of petroleum.

Biofuels are created by taking biomass such as algae, plants, wood, or agricultural waste and stripping all of the available oxygen from it. The remaining element are hydrogen and carbon and together they create compounds called hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons contain stored chemical energy from photochemical reactions during photosynthesis while the biomass was alive. The biofuel that is created from this process is called Celluosic ethanol. This process created renewable energy while not diverting food away from animals and humans


For more information on biofuels visit
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/biofuel-profile/

We Can Use Plastic As A Raw Material

          After doing a little research of my own, I stumbled upon a video from TEDTalks of an idea given by Mike Biddle. In the video he give states that less that 10% of plastic trash is recycled in comparison to the 90% of metals. The reason behind this is because the two different raw materials have different and complicated ways of sorting the material. Metals are little bit easier because of the variation in density and magnitude, though plastics when all said and done, come from oil and the similar materials.

          I am interested in the topic of recycling plastics because they do not go away like we think they might. Most plastics end up in landfills or polluting the atmosphere because of the toxic gases released while burning them. It is also known that plastics end up in third world country landfills. Mike Biddle addresses this issue as its own. In my opinion no first world country such as the United States should be damaging a third world country such as parts of Mexico and central America. Though I do not have pictures, I witnessed this issue first hand in Tijuana, Mexico on a mission trip. We found my 5yr old brother at the time playing with the other kids on the side of a mountain. Which come to find out was mound of trash built up over the years.

          In the video, Mike Biddle shows his audience how he himself along with other acquaintances have developed a cheap and incredibly efficient plant that cam recycle any kind of plastic. His plant is named MBA Polymers, at least according to google. In 1992 Mike Biddle known as a plastic engineer, set up a lab in his garage in Pittsburg, California. From here he began experimenting with complex-plastics recycling, borrowing ideas from such industries as mining and grain processing. Biddle has developed a patented 30-step plastics recycling system that includes magnetically extracting metals, shredding the plastics, sorting them by polymer type and producing graded pellets to be reused in industry. This process that takes less than a tenth of the energy required to dispose of plastics and waste, makes virgin plastic that is put back into our toys, electronics and every day appliances.



He says: "I consider myself an environmentalist. I hate to see plastics wasted. I hate to see any natural resource – even human time – wasted.”

Listed below are websites about Mike Biddle, his company and his talk.

http://www.mbapolymers.com/home/our-company

http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_biddle.html

Listed below is an idea where we take plastic and convert it into building blocks.

http://inhabitat.com/plastic-concrete-repurposes-landfill-waste-into-building-bricks/