Earth Day 2013: Philippines unveils building made from plastic bottles

Via: @GuardianSustBiz

A Philippines building powered by solar energy and built from old plastic bottles was opened this weekend to showcase renewable energy and highlight the problem of waste ahead of today’s Earth Day.

Designed in partnership with Stephen Lamb, founder of South Africa based green design firm Touching the Earth Lightly, the Solar Revolution Pavilion is a 200 sq metre, 6-metre high structure built of 1,600 plastic vegetable crates containing reused plastic bottles.. The crates will eventually become eco-friendly bricks for a school library’s walls.

The environmentalist David de Rothschild who journeyed across the Pacific on a boat made from plastic bottles in 2010, said at the building’s unveiling in Manila’s Luneta Park: “This is a living example of how you can take food, shelter, water and energy using existing resources that people often disregard as wasteful and actually turn them into something that is useful, and beneficial and can create a quality of life.”

The Filipino social entrepreneur Ilac Diaz who helped open the building and whose My Shelter Foundation’s “Liter of Light” project has transformed plastic bottles into sunlight-powered bulbs for 120,000 homes of the 20 million Filipinos still living without electricity, said the pavilion will also see the launch of a new solar night light. Made by adding LED lights and batteries to the bottles, these lights will be distributed to 150 locations around the country.

Visitors to the building will also be able to learn about other locally available green technologies, such as hydroponics, which involves growing plants without soil.

Diaz said: “The point is to teach people how to do it. The world has been too much about expensive technologies that are imported and brought in off-the-shelf. We want people to be able to come out of that pavilion knowing how to build these technologies themselves.”

Source:  www.guardian.co.uk 

Beer Barrel Bedroom brings new meaning to recycling

Reblogged from amartsmedia:

The Beer Barrel Bedroom belongs to that category of artworks that take recycling to its next level. Carved out of a genuine 19th century beer barrel, the bed awaits your visit at a rentable room in Ostbevern, Germany.

This is rather genius. I bet the aroma is pleasant.

Love it!

Bikini made of Solar Panels

If you liked the previous post on the outdoor lounge charging stations, then you gonna love this!  It was posted in 2011 already.. wonder how its going?

For those of you fed up with your iPod running out of power when lazing about in a bikini or man thong, New York-based designer Andrew Schneider may have the answer for you.

iKini comes in the shape of a $200 (£120) swimsuit made of solar panels that can charge everything from an MP3 to a camera, to things that go ‘bump’ in the night. And if you’re worried about getting your iKini wet, don’t be–as long as you make sure the suit is dry before plugging in your device. “You wouldn’t even feel the charge,” says Schneider.

The swimsuit is powered by photo-voltaic panels sewn together with conductive thread and takes about 80 hours to create.

So what about us guys… Andrew Schneider, is even hoping to create a pair of trunks that can cool beer…

SOURCE: http://helablog.com

19-Year-Old Develops Ocean Cleanup Array of Plastic From the World's Oceans by Timon Singh

Reblogged from The JobShop Blog:

19-year-old Boyan Slat has unveiled plans to create an Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans. The device consists of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms that could be dispatched to garbage patches around the world. Instead of moving through the ocean, the array would span the radius of a garbage patch, acting as a giant funnel.

Read more… 158 more words

Clean Energy Charging Stations Disguised as Outdoor Lounge Furniture

Developed by architecture students at MIT, SOFT Rocker is a solar powered outdoor rocking lounger whereby you can relax and recharge your electronics.

These curved, solar-panel-covered seats rotate on an interactive 1.5 axis, 35 watt solar tracking system to keep them facing the sun, generating additional energy from the rocking motion created when people climb inside. All that harvested electricity can be used to recharge gadgets plugged into the three USB ports and to illuminate a light strip on the inside of the loop.

The leaf-like tear drop shaped lounger utilizes a 12-ampere hour battery storing the solar energy harvested during sunlight hours so you to charge your gadgets even after sunset.

 

SOURCE: http://helablog.com

China To Introduce Carbon Tax: Report – By Bonnie Kavoussi

via @HuffPostGreen

In a step toward combating global warming, China announced earlier this week that it would implement a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, reports Xinhua, China’s official state news agency.

Some economists view action by China as key in the international push to preserve the environment. While U.S. carbon emissions recently hit a 20-year low, China’s carbon emissions continue to rise and reportedly account for most of the world’s growth in carbon emissions. China is the largest polluter in the world and now burns nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined.

In the U.S., there is no carbon tax, though two liberal senators proposed a bill to tax carbon emissions last week, according to Reuters.

A high tax on carbon dioxide emissions could eventually stabilize the climate by forcing people to drive more fuel-efficient vehicles, according to Cornell University economist Robert Frank.

US scientists turn plastic bags into batteries

The US is investing millions of dollars in a new center designed to recycle used plastic bags, turning them into batteries that can power everything from smartphones to electric cars. Al Jazeera’s John Hendren spent a day at the government laboratory near Chicago where scientists have made a breakthrough in green technology.

Zuma falls short on green issues, says WWF – by By John Yeld

Cape Town – Half of South Africa’s precious freshwater resources are generated from just eight percent of the country’s land surface area – but much of this area overlies abundant coal reserves in places like Mpumalanga, says conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature SA (WWF-SA).

Responding to President Zuma’s State of the Nation address last week, the group said it had hoped the president would have dealt explicitly with the conflict between conserving water sources and exploiting coal.

“Furthermore, WWF would like to see greater leadership on how the impacts of coal mining on water will be minimised, after Mining Minister Susan Shabangu recently proposed that coal be declared a ‘strategic resource’.”

The group welcomed the State of the Nation address with its emphasis on social infrastructure, and

congratulated the government on the establishment of the R800 million Green Fund and investments made in green economy projects.

“However, we caution that key environmental matters were not addressed. What is even more worrying is that these very issues will have a profound effect on the future health of our economy and well-being of our people,” it added.

It noted that Zuma had referred in his speech to the development of two new dams: the Umzimvubu Dam in the Eastern Cape and construction of the first phase of the Mokolo Crocodile River Water Augmentation scheme near Lephalale and Thabazimbi in Limpopo.

WWF-SA demanded to see how the catchments supplying these dams would be managed.

The group said it had concerns about fracking for shale gas since the lifting last year of the moratorium on fracking in the Karoo, as it doubted the government’s capacity and willingness to implement and monitor stringent environmental standards – “given the poor record in the mining sector”.

It recognised the government’s rollout of renewable energy projects.

“But for renewables to have lasting and beneficial impacts on our economy, we have to have a much longer term horizon for the development of the renewable sector in the country.

“South Africa needs to move away from its minerals intensive economy to other sources of growth, and our main interest is in expansion of the green economy.”

It had also wanted President Zuma to have said more about rhino poaching.

“This is a critical issue with broader impacts on both the national economy and security.

More than two-thirds of our poached rhino horns are exported through Mozambique, and it’s critical that our president takes this matter up with his Mozambican counterpart.” – Cape Argus

SOURCE:  www.iol.co.za

Cape building wins 6 star green rating – by Duncan Alfreds

A new building in Cape Town has been awarded a six star green rating for its environmentally sensitive construction.

The No 1 Silo office building at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront is the biggest building in SA to receive the rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa.

“We have adopted a rigorous approach to green construction and sustainable design principles, and the efficient use of natural and energy resources,” said David Green, CEO of the V&A Waterfront.

Some of the features of the building, slated for completion in June 2013, include extensive use of LED lights coupled to an intelligent management system that lowers the lighting when there more ambient natural light.

There is also innovative water heating used in the building. The water is heated as a by-product of the chillers and sea water is used to absorb heat from the cooling plant in the building.

Read more: www.news24.com

Local SA Company’s Cooking Oil Powers Engines

OVER a million litres of vegetable cooking oil used by the Spur Corporation across three of its restaurant operations in the Western Cape have been converted to biodiesel to power a range of fishing vessels, trucks and mining equipment.

The oil recycling initiative that forms part of the group’s waste management programme has been running for six years, with one million litres collected to date. As a result, some 870 000 litres of biodiesel were produced, translating into a saving of 3.1 million kg of CO2 equivalent emissions.

Working through a Western Cape company, Envirodiesel, the oil is collected weekly from the group’s Spur Steak Ranches, Panarottis Pizza Pasta and John Dory’s Fish Grill Sushi, and is purified and converted to biodiesel which is then sold on to companies using this type of fuel.

Envirodiesel even powers its own collection vehicles with the biodiesel as it is cleaner and more fuel-efficient than diesel and provides better engine lubrication.

According to CEO Pierre van Tonder, all the oil collected by Enviro-diesel is converted into biodiesel.

“We have made it mandatory that oil waste has to be collected from our restaurants once a week and a register is maintained to track compliance by all our franchisees.”

“We are aware that some environmentalists do not promote biofuel production where land is involved that could be used to grow food. However, this is not an issue here. We are converting waste into a viable source of energy.”

Read more: www.cbn.co.za