While I admit to being a fan of technology, rarely does it go hand in hand with my green philosophy. I typically try to maintain a middle of the road approach and evaluate technology from the standpoint of it's benefits versus the environmental impact. However, as you are about to see, technology can be applied to recycling with some amazing results. I recently saw this blog post from Earth911.org and had to pass it on. The ideas and technology that are being displayed in this article are so far ahead of the times, it's unreal.
Read and enjoy...
Recycling and waste reduction are nothing without people; folks wanting to make a personal change, people pushing for more solutions and, of course, the people actually collecting and processing our trash and recycling.
But technology in waste reduction has come a long way, to the point that practical, viable solutions now often resemble robots from a science fiction movies. Check out a selection of the more mind-blowing advancements.
Photo: Olga Kalugina, coroflot.com
Scarab, a design concept by Olga Kalugina, is a tiny automated robot that has been designed to pick up trash in large, urban areas. Similar to how the Roomba vacumming robot cleans rooms, an operational Scarab could keep streets and public places free of litter.
As reported by Tuvie, Scarab's two web cameras and sensors would estimate the size of the area being cleaned and detect various refuse, which would then be picked up with the robot's 'arms,' diagonal sweeper collectors.
The robot would then sort rubbish internally based on size, then properly dispose of trash and recyclables in nearby recepticles.
The Scarab robot is still in design stages, but a prototype could make both techies and city-dwellers very happy.
Even as a growing number of people shun technology in farming for a more more holistic approach to growing food, Ben Gurion University of the Negev in southern Israel is finding new ways for farming machinery and nature to live in harmony.
The school's Mobile Robotics Lab has developed argicultural robots to help farmers get better crop yields while using less pesticides and water. The vehicular robots are mobile, about the size of a very small car and water plants with drip irrigation and spray crops with minimal pesticides, dependent upon each plant's individual needs as detected by the robots' advanced software. This carefully calculated approach is designed to prevent water run-off and drastically reduce the need for pesticides in farming.
Take a closer look at these high-tech robots and the people who created them.
California Institute of Technology's winning toilet prototype generates energy from human waste and the sun. Photo: Michael Hanson, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Bill Gates has helped change the way much of the world operates, and bathrooms are no exception. Earlier this year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored a fair in which universities and other research facilities competed to reinvent the toilet.
The winning entry was designed by the California Institute of Technology and garnered the school a $100,000 prize. The solar-powered toilet prototype turns urine and feces into hydrogen gas, which is then stored in fuel cells to b
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