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.
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 be used as a secondary energy source for dark or low light conditions.
Such a toilet could operate entirely off the grid, especially useful in third-world countries where human waste often contaminates fresh drinking and bathing water supplies.
Have a gander at the ground-breaking toilet
The machine extracts approximately 95 percent of insulating foam from processed fridges, removing potentially harmful gasses from the material and turning it into pellets that can be used as fuel for cement manufacturing, among other various uses.
Take an up close look at the machine and see how the machine has broken down more than 100,000 fridges in the last year.
View the original article here
Ever since becoming involved in the recycling and green energy movement, I've adopted the philosphy that recycling has to be simply and uncomplicated for people to take advantage of it. The more convenient and simple it becomes to recycle, the more people will participate in the process. I think technology is the key to that goal. Eventually, technology will evolve to the point where people simply have to place an item into a trash disposal units and it will take care of evaluating the item for recycling and initiate the recycling process. No more manual sorting, driving to the local recycling center, etc. I just hope it happens before we run out of raw materials to recycle....
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