Rounding Out Shelter Design

October 27, 2009

Recently the winner of a shelter design contest organized by the Guggenheim Museum and Google's 3-D modeling arm SketchUp was announced--a Danish tidal sea space. But a finalist's garbage-transportation shelter really captured my imagination.

The Design It: Shelter Competition asked entrants to design simple off-grid small shelters where a person could study and sleep. It could be anywhere on Earth as long as the plans didn't require removing any existing structures.

Slovenian architect Alexander Niño Ruiz designed a circular, functional rolling shelter for waste-collectors in Bogotá. Thousands of families in the Colombian city gather waste for recycling and sadly tend to find refuge from the elements in the very materials they pick up. Ruiz's corrugated metal barrels nest to form rolling storage. At night, the reflective wheel expands to become a protective space. While I'm not sure how easy--and inexpensive--it would be to construct one of these from scrap materials, I hope Ruiz puts his idea into motion.

Here's a video with more details about the Waste-Pickers Shelter:

Image: Rendering of a Waste-pickers shelter in Bogota at night. Credit: Alexander Niño Ruiz.

Plastic Vortex Eyed As Potential Fuel Source

August 10, 2009

Scientist Charles Moore has worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the insidious plastic soup swirling in the North Pacific, but he has said that cleaning it up is impossible. A scientific mission is under way now to see if it's not only possible but an opportunity for recycling.

Project Kaisei is a diverse team of marine scientists, environmentalists, and entrepreneurs sponsored in part by recycling businesses, is working in collaboration with researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Over the weekend, the Kaisei brigatine and Scripps's converted fishing vessel New Horizon reached the gyre, where an estimated four million tons of plastic has gathered due to ocean currents.

Moore has pointed out that some of the plastic pellets are so small that there's no way to remove them without damaging marine life. Plus, it would undoubtedly be an expensive, fuel-intensive endeavor. Kaisei cofounder Mary Crowley told AOL News that her team is looking into ways to remove the plastic debris and turn it into fuel. "We're working on capture technology, all in our effort to figure out the most energy efficient way to collect the debris in the ocean," she told reporter Christine Riedel.

The team is testing out different kinds of active and passive capture methods, including a new barrel-capture technology that might be scalable. In addition, the scientists want to learn more about exactly what all the plastic is, where it is, and what's in it. Once they do, the plastic could go from ocean trash to recyclable treasure.

Photo: The Scripps team uses dip nets to collect specimens from the North Pacific ocean gyre. Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Trash Gets Wired

July 15, 2009

Back in 2007, my colleagues and I tried to figure out where the "recycling" in our building actually went. We hit a dead end with a Jersey-based trash collection service--cue the Sopranos theme song. Now a new trash project could show us what's actually going on.

The Trash Track project out of MIT's Senseable City Lab will be arranging to put thousands of wireless location markers on samples of city trash in New York and Seattle. Triangulation will allow the markers to update servers on their locations in real-time. Starting in September, the public will be able to see the paths in real-time online.

If all goes well, the researchers will succeed in making the removal chain more transparent, identifying bottlenecks in citywide recycling and sanitation. Plus, they'll be reconnecting us with the things we think we're throwing "away."

Trash Track plans to recruit volunteers who will let the researchers follow their refuse. Maybe I've been watching too many episodes of the Wire, but I know just the building in Manhattan to target for volunteers.

Image: Mockup of how the tracking system will look. Credit: E. Roon Kang/SENSEable City Lab.

Sustainable shoutout: From lost ladybugs to the Great Garbage Patch, get the latest on the science behind global warming at Discovery Earth Live.

DustCart Robot Does the Dirty Work

July 10, 2009

I've written about recycling robots before, but they can't even touch the DustCart, a trash and recycling robot that's been tested on narrow Italian streets. Besides being adorable, it has the potential to change the way we deal with discards.

Sure, you might have seen it featured on Engadget, Inhabitat, and TreeHugger but the DustBot pilot project is worth a closer look. The project aims to design autonomous robots that improve urban municipal waste management. If all goes well, DustCart could lead to smarter and more efficient trash and recycling collection, as well as pollution-monitoring.

Recently DustCart rolled around Peccioli, a tiny town in Italy. Where trash trucks can get stuck in the narrow 8th Century streets, DustCart turns the corners with ease. The robot is programmed to respond to residents who call and tell it what they're tossing--organic waste, recyclables. It shows up at the door, opens its belly, and then drops everything off at a waste-collection facility, all while sensors monitor pollutants in the air. Anyone who has been awoken by dump trucks in the middle of the night will appreciate that it runs quietly on lithium ion batteries. 

There are definitely drawbacks to the DustCart. One of these little guys clearly can't replace a fleet of dump trucks in urban areas, plus it could pose a Segway-like problem for traffic and big eyes can't always override human skepticism. Fortunately, the robot will undergo more tests in Spain, Japan, and St. Louis this year--if it isn't stolen by rabid WALL-E fans first.

Photo: The Dustbot enjoys the sights in Italy. Credit: Fulvio Paolocci/Global Post.

Wide Angle: Recycle-Bots Take Over

May 18, 2009

MIT's 2.007 mechanical engineering design class held its annual competition recently, pitting robot against robot. This year it had an environmental theme: construct robots that can pick up and drop off recycling.

Get the can! The winning robot (video of the finals) built by sophomore Edward Grinnell actually racked up the most points by using a second "bother bot" to slow down opponents. Hrm. Sounds more strategic than efficiently green, but it's impressive to see the competitors' vastly different designs built mostly from the same kits.

What might be better than recycling robots--robots made from recycling. Gearheads cheered a national grassroots stuff-swap effort called Curb Day, which took place over the weekend. Robots.net predicted that "you'll be [...] looking for those motors, gears, motherboards, or old lawnmower engines you need to complete your next robot project." Reuse WIN.

Photo: Don't worry kid, it's only Curby the "recycling robot" of Roseville, California.

GET MORE OF THE WIDE ANGLE
Artificial intelligence, meet reality:

IM Interview: Upgrading Humans

Quiz: Is It A Robot Or A Cyborg?

News: Ethical Guide for Robot Warriors in the Works

Feature: Cyborg Moth Gets New Radio

Podcast: SixthSense Project Bridges the Gap between Real and Virtual Worlds

Wide Angle: Cleaning Everest by the Kilo

May 14, 2009

Everest is the world's highest dump--any higher and you're looking at space debris. A trash-collection expedition this spring proves that unwieldy gear can be a killer.

"The garbage left behind by the earlier expedition teams is a major problem," WWF Nepal's Sanjib Chaudhary writes in an email. "All kinds of garbage including cans, LPG gas cylinders, tins, bottles, oxygen cylinders, batteries." Sadly, even the dead bodies of climbers are left behind.

Climbers shed gear to make the treacherous trek easier, but an Eco Everest Expedition team has been testing out lighter, more efficient equipment. Last year, leader Dawa Steven Sherpa successfully replaced LPG gas cylinders with a portable parabolic solar cooker and heat-retaining box. In addition, the team used a SteriPEN device to clean water with ultraviolet light and a rechargeable solar lamp for reading light.

This year's Eco Everest team is still on the mountain. They recently hit bad weather and had to descend to Base Camp, postponing their summit bid until May 18, Chaudhary reports. So far, the team has collected five tons of garbage to bring down--blowing past last year's one-ton haul. The expedition organizers will pay the Sherpas about $1 per pound of trash.

Photo: An image of Base Camp from April 2006. Credit: Flickr user Mahatma4711.

GET MORE OF THE WIDE ANGLE
Dare to go where the air is rare:

Blog: The Clean Mountain Can

Poll: Is Littering on Everest OK?

Slideshow: Mountain Rescue Technologies

Blog: Live From Everest

My Take: Active Amputees Need Better Prosthetics

Game: Experience Everest: The Razor's Edge

HowStuffWorks: 5 Amazing Rescues

Keeping the Plastiki Boat Afloat

April 03, 2009

Young adventurer and eco-minded heir David de Rothschild plans to cross the Pacific sustainably in a boat made entirely out of recyclable plastic. If he succeeds, his Plaskiki could revolutionize the way we manufacture plastic parts.

The expedition, a nod to Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 crossing in the Kon-Tiki raft, will explore the giant plastic stew called the Eastern Garbage Patch en route. Reading about the Plastiki made me realize how little I understood boat construction. According to John Colapinto in a recent New Yorker article about the project, fiberglass boats can't be recycled--they have to be pulped and buried. Boat recycling might seem unimportant, but de Rothschild is using plastic bottles and self-reinforced polyethylene terephthalate or srPET, a relatively new, clothlike, and entirely recyclable plastic. If he can prove that srPET is a real contender, we could end up with larger-scale cradle-to-cradle manufacturing. Plus, we all might end up living in boats if sea levels keep rising.

The boat's launch has been pushed back from the end of this month until late summer due in part to construction problems. Still, de Rothschild's Plastiki at San Francisco's Pier 31 is looking more catamaran than Cast Away.

Photo: The Plastiki in progress. Credit: Peter Jamison/San Francisco Weekly.

In a World Where...Everyone Has a Library

January 26, 2009

Did I lend my copy of the David Sedaris book Me Talk Pretty One Day to someone? And, hey, these DVDs are collecting dust. An online service called LendAround might resolve this, letting me become a better library for the people I trust.

Today my guilty pleasure site BoingBoing.net reported on the free service, which is in private beta testing. LendAround is starting with DVDs--users can type in the names of movies in their collection to generate the list. The site facilitates lending DVDs to friends, colleagues, trusted acquaintances. It also lets participants rate and review movies. Send DVDs to friends nearby with a single stamp and the service keeps track of who's got what. It's also possible to send gentle reminders.

DVDs and CDs tend to be bad news for the environment--they require plastics, packaging, and plenty of shipping. Plus, millions get trashed every year. LendAround extends the noble public library concept and encourages us to share what we've already got, preventing waste.

My main concern with LendAround is embarrassment about my DVD collection. But I stand by the Adventures in Babysitting purchase. That's a classic.

Update: LendAround founder Tim Jackson kindly extended a private beta testing invitation to people who know me. If you're interested, send an email to alyssasfriends@lendaround.com.

Photo Credit: Nick Stone.

How to Recycle a Power Plant

January 24, 2009

The Prince George Citizen reports today that a giant power plant in Ontario, Canada, is going to be repurposed. As much as I wanted the article to say that the plant will become a composting center, the actual news isn't that far off.

Ontario Power Generation plans to take a coal-fired power plant near Thunder Bay and convert it into a biomass plant that burns forest and agricultural waste to produce electricity. Before the electric company can start doing any conversions it is going to scope out potential biomass suppliers. Ontario seems like a good place to find them, though.

A World Wildlife Fund rep told the paper that he likes the idea but wants to make sure there are strict rules about the biomass used. If the plant retrofit succeeds, OPG says it has an eye on three other facilities that could be converted. Then, when they're done, maybe they can come to the U.S. and help recycle some more.

Photo Credit: Graeme via Flickr.

New Life for Junked Cars

December 22, 2008

When it comes to the auto industry, the news has been mighty grim all around. Here's one silver lining: unwanted car parts could save lives.

Recent news about a project that takes car parts and turns them into incubators for newborns caught my eye. Nearly 30 percent of neonatal deaths in developing areas are caused by premature birth. Babies born underweight and have trouble controlling their body temperatures so cool air becomes deadly. This is easily prevented by incubators, especially if the mother isn't well enough to hold the baby close.

The trouble with all the machines that currently sit around hospitals is that when they break few people have the parts and expertise to repair them. With that in mind, a consortium in Boston called the Center for Integration of Medicine & Innovative Technology (CIMIT) hired the nonprofit Design That Matters to collaborate on a better incubator.

CIMIT's incubators were crafted from Toyota 4Runners--the headlights provide heat, a filter and fan control the temperature. The top part turns into a bassinet and a car mechanic could easily repair one if it breaks. Currently the team is building a real prototype and working on developing partnerships overseas. With Toyota's recent troubles, the team could be in for a boon.

Image: Concept drawing for the Car-Part Incubator Project. Credit: CIMIT.