what to do with that old engine block

How to recycle cars that just won't run anymore: turn their parts into multimachines that are accurate drill presses, sanders, grinders, metal mills, wood or metal lathes, and just about any other tool you can imagine. Pat Delany has invented the ultimate high-precision, low-cost machine. And the best part? The plans are freely available online.

upcycling

We generally assume that the initial use for which something is designed is its primary use, and any opportunity to give the thing a second life by using it for another purpose is just a fortunate way to avoid sending it to the dump. Here's an idea that turns that concept on its head: a water bottle that is shaped deliberately so that it can be used like a brick in a building, by filling it with soil. One product, two uses. The designers call it the united bottle.

The Earth Architecture site has loads of other ideas and information on building with natural materials. Which brings me to the thought that while it is certainly a worthy achievement for the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center to be the first-ever LEED-platinum carbon neutral building on the planet, and for this office building to use LED lighting as the only source of artificial light, let's not forget that over the millennia, billions of people have lived in carbon neutral, zero-impact dwellings.

the last resort

No matter how efficient we get in using resources and diverting waste as inputs to various processes, I imagine there will always be some waste remaining. So maybe its not so bad that the last unused bit should just be incinerated to squeeze out whatever energy is left. Of course, burning anything to get energy from waste will emit carbon, but that impact has to be weighed up against the carbon that would be given off through generating electricity from other sources, and also against the environmental impacts of dumping the waste instead.

The real problem right now is that so much waste is toxic (when did you last separate your dud batteries from other trash?) that incineration can only safely use a few waste sources. But after writing yesterday's post about the coming recycling revolution, I started wondering if the pressure to sort waste efficiently would eventually increase the proportion of waste that would be safe to incinerate. I hope that in 10 years, we'll be using fewer toxic materials in consumer products anyway. Maybe our resource use will be so efficient (reduce, reuse, repair, repurpose - and only then recycle) that the problem will be a shortage of waste to feed the incinerators. Now that would be a good challenge to face.

earth audit: turf wars of the future

It's not just established technologies - like those relying on oil - that are facing a resource crunch as supplies decline. As reported in New Scientist [subscription required] we are mining a whole raft of minerals and ores at such a rate that even new technologies will soon be affected.

Gallium and iridium are two minerals that some analysts say may only last ten more years before they run out, but are being used in a new-generation solar cell that promises to be twice as efficient as current technologies. Gallium is also used for making LCDs, which raises serious questions about the long-term future of flat screens for computers and televisions; and for LEDs, which are hailed as the next generation of lighting that will replace compact flurorescent bulbs. And even the CFL bulbs are threatened by the supply of terbium, which could be used up by 2012.

Of course, nobody knows for sure when any mined resource will run out, but without a global storekeeper watching over earth's underground supplies, we are in danger of banking on the wrong technology to address current environmental or energy challenges. What happens if we all switch to LED lighting to reduce energy consumption, and find there's only a five-year supply of the raw materials needed to make them?

We can keep hopping from one technology to the next - or make some drastic changes to the way we consume resources, and completely revolutionise the concept of recycling. As raw materials become more scarce and costly, companies are starting to look at new ways to extract material from what has historically been treated as waste. Mine dumps are one such source. Another, believe it or not, is roadside dust. In countries like the US, where catalytic converters are in widespread use, platinum is lost through vehicle exhausts, and ends up literally everywhere that vehicles go. Platinum is also in short supply (with an otherwise promising future in fuel cells), and geologist Hazel Prichard wonders if there's a way to collect it from road-sweeping machines for recycling.

Is Hazel Prichard the bag lady of the future, wandering the streets in search of platinum? "Hey, buddy, step away from the trash can. This is my turf." The revolution is nigh.

Bostonians do it bigger

On the topic of Boston, the city seems to be working hard at reclaiming lost space. The Big Dig is moving an elevated highway underground, releasing prime downtown land for the Rose Kennedy Greenway and restoring the connection of the city with the waterfront. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority provides images, plans and descriptions of how the greenway transformation will be done - while removing the highway frees up 30 acres, the total project will create more than 300 acres of landscaped and restored open space, including over 45 parks and major public plazas. The old Central Artery isn't cleared away yet, but the last car drove the highway last weekend.

Whether the Big Dig was worth its $15 billion price tag is another story, but two spinoff projects provide some compensation. One is the Big Dig House that I mentioned in April. Here's another description of how the house reused material from the Central Artery in a way that could be replicated in other building projects. Small in scale, big in ideas.

The other project is reclamation of a 105-acre waste dump on Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor by covering it with 6 million tons of material from the Big Dig tunnelling, creating a new park complete with solar-powered visitor centre with exhibits and information on the island's history. And can the planners be faulted for installing a composting toilet atop an "80-foot-high mound of trash"? [via Metaboston]

how to recycle a highway

A modern, award-winning house built entirely from material salvaged from Boston's dismantled elevated artery: the Big Dig House.

burning down the house

Cape Town, 1985: Tyres are burning in the streets in protest against apartheid laws.

Cape Town, 2007: Tyres are burning in the streets to extract scrap metal that can be sold to dealers for recycling.

The air pollution is horrendous, and South Africa has now published draft waste tyre regulations for comment. There are at least two possibilities for disposing of the 11 million scrapped tyres each year in South Africa. One is to grind them for use in rubber carpets, athletic tracks and tarmac. The other is to burn them in kilns as an alternative energy source.

[Source: Cape Times, 12 March 2007]

salvaging demolished buildings

In the US, up to 40 percent of solid waste is construction and demolition debris, and only 35 to 45 percent of this debris actually makes it into properly designated landfills. The vast majority of this waste is from renovation and demolition, so there is a strong need to deconstruct buildings rather than bulldoze them, so that materials can be reused. This means that buildings should be designed to make deconstruction easier.

In South Africa there is a nascent industry in crushing concrete for reuse, and salvaging bricks for resale. Some of this activity is creating jobs in the informal sector for enterprising individuals who sell bricks at the side of the road, but demolition companies have been selling timber, windows, doors and other building fittings for a number of years. In fact, some of these sell at a premium, satisfying market demand for older building items.

glassy jobs

A new nonprofit organisation in South Africa aims to increase the glass recycling rate from 20% to 50% within five years, and in the process create informal jobs. South Africa currenlty retrieves only 140 000 tons of all glass containers for recycling annually, with 550 000 tons going to landfill. In comparison, Holland recycles 90%, Australia 50%, Britain 45% and Brazil 40%. The Glass Recycling Company hopes to create 4000 informal jobs in the first year.

[Source: Cape Argus, 8 Dec 2006.]

SA and Swiss partner to dispose of e-waste

The City of Joburg has set up 25 public collection points for discarded computers, cellphones, microwaves and other electronic equipment. This e-waste will go to recycling companies for dismantling, reducing waste going to landfill sites. About 70% of South Africa's e-waste is thought to be in storage, representing up to 20,000 tons of waste. Switzerland will use its decade-long experience in recycling e-waste to help Joburg's waste management utility, Pikitup.

[Source: The Star (Johannesburg), 17 November 2006]

The Star in Johannesburg reports:

In 2004 more than 180-million PCs were sold worldwide. In the same year, an estimated 100-million obsolete PCs entered the waste streams... In South Africa, it is estimated that betweeen 1.2 and 1.5 million computers enter the market each year.