waste
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US creates the most e-waste, cellphones top the heap
We've known for years about the growing volume of electronic waste, but a new UN study suggests that the situation is only getting worse -- and that the US is largely to blame. The organization says that Americans created the most e-waste in 2012, at 9.4 million metric tons. The country produced no more than 2.2 million tons in 2005. China was the runner-up at 7.2 million tons, but it also has a much larger population; researches estimate that the US generated nearly 30 tons of waste per person versus just 5.4 in China. As to why Americans have so much tech junk? Most likely, it stems from an obsession with cellphones. A simultaneous study from MIT and the US National Center for Electronics Recycling shows that handsets represented 120 million of the 258.2 million used electronic devices in the US during 2010, and that ratio likely isn't getting any smaller. Whatever the cause, developing countries have to bear the brunt of our e-waste; MIT notes that most used gadgets leaving the US are going to China and Latin America. And that's only counting trackable shipments -- both the UN and MIT believe that there are many gaps in their data, which hints that the problem is considerably worse. [Image credit: Curtis Palmer, Flickr]
Microsoft deliberately wasted energy at data center to avoid fine, says NY Times
Microsoft's desire to avoid a fine combined with a power company's strict electricity usage rules resulted in the software giant deliberately wasting millions of watts of power, according to the New York Times. Redmond's Quincy data center, which houses Bing, Hotmail and other cloud-based servers, had an agreement in place with a Washington state utility containing clauses which imposed penalties for under-consumption of electricity. A $210,000 fine was levied last year, since the facility was well below its power-use target, which prompted Microsoft to deliberately burn $70,000 worth of electricity in three days "in a commercially unproductive manner" to avoid it, according to its own documents. The utility board capitulated and reduced the amend to $60k, but the messy situation seems a far cry from Redmond's pledge to become carbon neutral by this summer. [Image credit: New York Times]
Researchers create super-efficient microbial fuel cell, dream of selling excess electricity
Recycling wastewater to generate energy has turned up noses before, but researchers at Oregon State University have developed a microbial fuel cell that can create 10 to 50, or even 100 times more electricity per volume than similar technologies. After refining the tech for several years using new materials, techniques and selecting better microbes, the team can now extract two kilowatts per cubic meter of refuse. As bacteria oxidizes organic matter, electrons -- rather than the hydrogen or methane that other methods rely upon -- are produced and run from an anode to a cathode within the device to create an electric current. Once implementation costs are cut down, the technology could power waste treatment plants and enable them to sell excess electricity. The contraption isn't just for processing what comes out of the porcelain throne -- it can also utilize materials ranging from grass straw to beer brewing byproducts. For now, however, the cell will tackle a pilot study before it inches closer to your local brewery or water treatment facility.
Scientists develop flush-efficient toilet system that can turn waste into energy, sort before it recycles
Scientists from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University aren't keen on being wasteful -- that's why they've developed a toilet that uses 90% less water than other commodes and is capable of generating energy. Aptly named the No-Mix Vacuum Toilet, the porcelain pedestal's pot divides waste between two partitions -- one side for liquids, the other for solids -- and uses vacuum tech reminiscent of airline lavatories. Flushing solid and fluid wastes with 1 and 0.2 liters of H2O, respectively, the can will be able to route refuse to external processing facilities. Fertilizer ingredients such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous would then be harvested from liquids. Similarly, methane can be coaxed from solids for conversion to electricity or as a replacement for other natural gasses. Two of the university's restrooms are slated to have the toilets installed in the near future, and the team expects the thrones to roll out worldwide within three years. [Thanks, Yuka]
Waste Landscape installation reminds us why CDs weren't that great (video)
For most people, the term "waste landscape" may evoke images of desolate industrial zones, toxic sewage leaks, or Phish concerts. But architect Clémence Eliard and artist Elise Morin took a slightly more digital approach to the concept, constructing their undulating Waste Landscape installation from 65,000 unsold (and unwanted) CDs. To do this, the pair sewed the discs together by hand, before blanketing them over dune-like wire constructions inside the Centquatre -- a Parisian art space that, appropriately enough, was once a funeral home. The result is an array of sloping, shimmering hills that emerge from the floor like disco ball pimples, creating a space that the artists not-so subtly compare to an oil spill. It's a pretty sobering reminder of the environmental fingerprint archaic technologies can leave behind, but Eliard and Morin's story has a happy ending. When the exhibit comes to a close, every single CD will be recycled into polycarbonate. Spin past the break to see a video that'll make you wanna give your iPod a hug.
Android trash can robot begs the question: 'Why are you hitting yourself?' (video)
We've seen robots that look like they've had one too many, but we're pretty sure this little guy needs to check into rehab. Despite its absolutely adorable appearance, this Android seems hell-bent on destruction, literally beating itself up, and eventually falling on its face. Built using the requisite Arduino, a trash can, some LEDs, and a slew of other components, this little guy was apparently created in three days on a budget just barely exceeding $100. You can see a video of the waste-bin bot hitting rock bottom at the source link below, but please refrain from laughing; Android alcoholism is a serious issue.
Biodiesel can be harvested from leftover food, kids no longer have to clear their plates
The best dishes always contain 30 per cent fat minimum. This doesn't merely ensure a level of hearty satisfaction (Windows 7 Whopper anybody?), it also means the leftovers contain plenty of the greasy good stuff, which can be cleverly harvested and metamorphosed into biodiesel. The technology behind this process has been around for a while, but now British firm Greenergy claims it is ramping up commercial production. The firm's CEO reckons each of his new £50million ($80million) biodiesel plants will digest a sufficient volume of waste pies, fries and taramasalata to "fill out a cruise ship every year". Mmmm, pie.
RC car runs on soda can rings, Doc Brown approves (video)
Many a future engineer was inspired by Back to the Future's Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, and not just because he proved that unkempt eccentrics could truly change the world. No, he also pioneered Mr. Fusion, the coffee maker/cold fusion reactor that turned garbage into energy. And while we're still waiting for cold fusion and time travel to become a reality, today we're all one step closer to waste-powered cars. A pair of Spanish engineers have recently unveiled the dAlH2Orean (see what they did there?), a R/C car that runs on aluminum. Dropping a few soda can tabs into a tank of sodium hydroxide produces enough hydrogen to power the little speedster for 40 minutes – at almost 20mph. Hit the video above to see it in action, along with your daily helping of the Chemical Brothers. Fitting.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: SunPower supplants Ford, lava power, and the airlifted eco shelter
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. This week Inhabitat saw geothermal power projects pick up steam around the world as Iceland eyed liquid magma as an energy source and the UK sought to tap geothermal reserves under Newcastle. We also saw scientists develop a stretchable solar-powered sensor that can detect the drop of a pin, and we were impressed by a brilliant system that uses algae to treat wastewater and generate fuel in one fell swoop. We also showcased several innovative examples of high-tech architecture - Wales' futuristic newport transit station and a massive green-roofed innovation hub that is set to become Botswana's first LEED-certified building. Solar-powered structures were a hot topic as well as we took a look inside SunPower's incredible renovated headquarters, learned about the new location of the 2011 Solar Decathlon, and showcased a photovoltaic-powered alpine eco shelter. Finally, this week we got set for the start of spring by sharing our five favorite green gadget gardening tools and a rainwater recycling system that comes complete with a solar pump. We also spotted a chic cradle-to-cradle raincoat that will fend off impending showers and a natty wool iPad cover that will keep your tablet cozy in blustery weather.
New York City turns to sewers for energy solutions
Listen up New Yorkers, those hot nuts you just swallowed could be used to light the signs on Broadway. Okay, so that's a stretch, but the city's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) just issued a plan to turn the stuff you flush, along with rest of its wastewater, into renewable energy. New York City produces about 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater daily, yielding 1,200 tons of biosolids that can be harvested to procure methane -- already accounting for 20 percent of the city's energy -- and butanol, a clean gasoline alternative. The plan, which also includes wind and solar projects, aims to use gas, converted by large digesters, to "power wastewater operations, meet on-site heat and electricity needs, and, where feasible, sell excess energy to the market." As the DEP points out, the plan isn't far fetched -- we've seen a couple of solutions for turning human excrement into usable energy, and a project already under way in Greenpoint is estimated to procure enough methane over the next year to heat 2,500 homes. Now, if that doesn't give you a newfound respect for the porcelain throne, we don't know what will.
MobileMe may be Apple's least "green" product, packaging-wise
When I purchased my MacBook Pro in early 2008, I threw down US$69 for a .Mac (now known as MobileMe) membership. I expected to get an email confirmation of my .Mac order (which I did), followed shortly by another email with an activation code. Instead, I received the hot mess you see in the pic above (US size 9.5 shoe included for scaling purposes). First, a huge FedEx package, about the same size as the current MacBook's packaging. Rattling around inside of it was a cardboard box with .Mac emblazoned on the front, large enough to fit a CD or DVD inside. But instead of a CD or DVD, I found a small paper booklet with a sticker on the front page containing my activation code. In all, it was about a pound of packaging (at least) for something that really didn't need to be mailed to me at all. Nearly three years later, the situation hasn't improved. The New York Times notes that MobileMe's packaging needs to go on a diet, and they're absolutely right. Apple's made a big deal in recent years about its push for "greener" practices in both its products and its packaging, and they've made big strides. In 2006, Greenpeace gave Apple very poor ratings for its environmental practices. Greenpeace spent the next few years hounding Apple for its environmental record, until earlier this year when Apple got top ratings. Apple has since slipped to ninth place in the rankings.
No Comment: A diamond-encrusted iPhone 4
So, Apple's free bumper case wasn't enough for you? Do you want to encase your iPhone in something a little more ... erm, maybe "classy" isn't necessarily the word for this one. At any rate, as you can see above, customizer Stuart Hughes has enwrapped this iPhone 4 in over 500 diamonds (totaling over 100 karats), which are placed around the outside (that antenna gap has never looked so sparkly), on the Apple logo, and on the Home button. The back of the phone is plated in gold, and the unit comes in its own custom-made granite box. Total price: US$8 million. Apparently, two were made, and both were for an Australian businessman who wanted a little more bling on his iOS device. Was it worth it? No comment. [via Engadget]
Only 600 products use Amazon's frustration-free packaging
We know it's been said before, but it's worth saying again: over-packaging is, by almost everyone's judgment, rampant and ridiculous. Nearly two years after Amazon introduced its "frustration-free" packaging -- with a few hiccups -- only 600 of the millions of products on Amazon.com have been modified to reflect the simpler packaging needs of online customers over their retail counterparts (no need for theft deterrence or making products stand out on the shelf). It's a big hit with customers: when manufacturers switch to more streamlined wrappers their products earn a whopping 73% reduction in negative feedback. Amazon is trying to take this message directly to product manufacturers: Philips, for example, recently saw success with downsized packaging for its Essence toothbrush and plans to "expand [its] frustration-free packaging options with Amazon." Happy online shoppers still don't seem to be enough to make a lot of the big dogs cut down on packaging, however. Even though streamlined wrappers save oodles of resources up and down the supply chain, the bottleneck towards making the switch seems to be in the glacial pace of change in packaging design and distribution at big manufacturers and retailers like Target and Walmart. Le sigh. If we were running for office in 2012 -- which we can neither confirm nor deny at this point -- we'd fast-track wrapper downsizing faster than you could say "I just slashed my wrist trying to open this bubble pack of ball-point pens." [Image credit: boltron~'s flickr]
Urinal power plants to juice up Lollapalooza-dwelling robots
Do you have to relieve yourself? Is your robot low on batteries? Your previously problematic world could soon be harmonized in one magical step. The Bristol Robotics Lab has been feeding funny trash to its Microbial Fuel Cells for quite some time -- rotten fruit, decomposed-in-sludge fly juice, grass clippings -- things like that. The Lab has now found that the nitrogen-urea-chloride-potassium-bilirubin cocktail present in urine is a particularly useful waste fuel which will play nicely with stacked fuel cells, as long as the fuel is, um... flowing. They've already partnered with waterless urinal manufacturer Ecoprod to create a portable urinal power plant that "could be used [...] at music festivals and other outdoor events," and hey, if HP can power their data centers with excrement, who can take offense to this? [Image of Dr. Ioannis Ieropolous holding a microbial fuel cell courtesy of University of the West of England]
Citizen Evolution concepts tickle our green fancy, freak us out
We've nothing against sustainable living -- in fact, we wholeheartedly support it -- but Wollersberger & Charlesworth's first project is certainly out there. Showcased at the opening of the 'Project Vienna – How to react to a city?' exhibition at MAK Vienna, Citizen Evolution demonstrates four specific service models for humans of the future. From a sophisticated funneling system that gathers pigeon waste and converts it into power for the home to a downright creepy energy gathering apparatus that taps into old coffins, there's a whole lot of far-fetched ideas here that may just morph into reality before we know it. Hit the source link if you're looking to expand your mind on a day when most shut it down.
Belkin Conserve lineup will make you feel even worse about all the electricity you're wasting
Belkin's just made four new Conserve products available for pre-order. The Conserve Insight tracks your actual devices' electrical usage and tells you how much they cost you on a yearly basis. It also calculates CO2 emissions produced by usage of a given device on either a monthly or yearly basis. The Conserve Smart AV is a greener power strip with five regular outlets and one green outlet for your television, which can auto-detect the power state of your teevee and turn off your peripherals. The conserve Valet is a four device capacity charging station which turns off automatically once devices are finished juicing up. Finally, the Conserve Socket is plugged into your wall outlet and boasts a timer for automatic power offs. The Conserve products will all ship mid-July, and they range in price from $9.99 to $39.99. Gallery of all four devices below.
HP data center fueled by hopes, dreams and... cow dung
We've seen data centers use excess heat for greener purposes, but how's about injecting a little green into the other side of that equation? HP Labs is on that very wavelength, going so far as to publish details on how these centers could be partially powered by none other than cow manure. Yeah, cowpies. The essential thought process went a little something like this: "Data centers need a lot of energy. Dairy farms create a lot of methane. Let's make it happen." Purportedly, 10,000 dairy cows could "fulfill the power requirements of a 1-megawatt data center -- the equivalent of a medium-sized data center -- with power left over to support other needs on the farm," and heat generated by the data center could "be used to increase the efficiency of the anaerobic digestion of animal waste." The stomach-twisting details can be found beyond the break, but we can't be held responsible for any images you conjure up. Remember -- once your third eye sees it, you can't un-see it. [Thanks, Bob]
United Nations identifies e-waste as an urgent and growing problem, wants change
E-waste might be one of the biggest misnomers in the history of nomery -- the image it creates in the mind is of a bunch of email and document files clogging up your local internet pipes. The reality of it is that electronic waste is rapidly populating ever-growing landfill areas in so-called developing countries (they're poor, just call a spade a spade) and the issue has now garnered the attention of the United Nations. The UN Environment Programme has issued a wideranging report warning that e-waste in China and South Africa could double or even quadruple within the next decade, whereas India could experience a five-fold rise. Major hazards exist in the unregulated and informal recycling of circuit boards and techno gadgets, as processes like backyard incineration for the retrieval of gold generate toxic gases while also being wildly inefficient. The whole point of the report is to encourage some global cooperation in setting up modern and safe recycling facilities in the affected countries to ameliorate the problem, though being generally more careful in our consumption and disposal of electronics wouldn't do the environment's chances any harm either.
Psystar files one more appeal in court
They're like cockroaches! Psystar is back yet again, this time filing yet another appeal against yet another injunction by Apple telling them that they can no longer sell their unauthorized OS X PCs. As previously reported, they've been on Apple's bad legal side for a long time, and the last injunction had them down to selling t-shirts. Now, they've got only one copy left of their Rebel EFI product, and it's in the hands of the lawyers trying to keep the case open. Just as they promised, they're filing one more appeal against the far-reaching injunction to try and keep the case open... I'm as big a fan of Psystar as the next guy, and despite their complete and total losses in court, I almost want to see them keep going in a car-crash sort of way. But at this point, it's pointless -- Apple has won in every conceivable way, and Psystar is just wasting their own money and the courts' time by carrying on. It's their right to do so, of course, but this likely means that the next judge to look at the case will just lay the smack down that much harder. [via Macworld]
Apple supporting universal European handset chargers
Last week I ordered my iPhone 3GS from the AT&T Store (no Apple Stores out here in the boonies). Five days later it was ready to be picked up and I drove out to the mall to get it.While the AT&T employee activated it and performed the soul-stealing voodoo that accompanies a new sale, a woman at the next counter was exchanging her own AT&T phone (not an iPhone). I only heard a part of her conversation, but it went something like this:"Can I use my old adapter with this one?""No, m'am. You'll have to buy a new one.""What about my car charger?""No, that will need to be replaced, too.""Ugh. OK. I'll just throw them away."What a nuisance. She's got to spend extra money and those plastic and electronic doodads will occupy the bottom of a landfill until The End Of Days. The problem is even worse in the Europen Union. Fortunately, a group of manufacturers, including Apple, is working to change that. Apple, Nokia and Research in Motion have agreed to support a European Union-backed initiative to standardize these devices across the EU. It's a good idea that would benefit consumers and the environment. The agreement is limited to smartphones for now, but if all goes well, will be expanded in 2012. Good luck to everyone involved.
