Greatly Increased Metal Recycling!

“Covanta has increased ferrous metal recycling from waste to bottom ash by upgrading its magnetic sorting systems” their waste energy facilities’ new method could potentially recover 7.5 million tons of metal each year.

Bottom ash is what results from burning mixed solid waste (Covanta burns this to generate energy), combustion and air pollution control take place and then, bottom ash is produced. The amount of metals in the ash is significant and magnets are then used to capture the metals from the ash which will then be recycled.

By updating their equipment they found that they were able to capture more ferrous and nonferrous metals from waste. The rare earth magnetic scrap drum is one such piece of equipment, as it has the power to attract more metals across its surface compared to other magnets.

Some weeks ago we posted some amazing articles about capturing precious resources and using magnets.

This article talks about a satellite equipped with a giant magnet in space that collects orbiting debris: https://wastetracking.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/japan-prepares-to-launch-giant-net-into-orbit-to-sweep-up-space-debris/

And these robots are designed to separate more debris from mixed construction and demolition debris: https://wastetracking.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/for-those-in-robotics-construction-and-waste-prepare-to-be-amazed-by-zenrobtics/

It turns out that magnets do a lot more than just deliver music to our ears.

Source: http://www.waste-management-world.com/articles/2014/08/case-study-increased-metal-recycling-from-waste-to-energy-ash-with-rare-earth-magnet.html

 

 

Gadgets and innovations in the solar panel industry

We’ve written and shared so many articles on solar panels it’s hard to tell where to start.We wanted to update the list of cool solar panel innovations in a visual way (seen below). If you’re interested in learning more about solar panels please scroll to the bottom of our page and use the search feature above “Recent Posts”. Here is a short list of our most recent solar posts:

Google Buys Solar-Powered Drone Manufacturer “Titan Aerospace” to Boost Internet Access in Third World Countries 

280MW Solar Plant in Arizona Can Produce Power 6 Hours After the Sun Goes Down

Could Mexico Be at the Start of a Solar Boom?

…and that’s just a sneak peak at some of our articles. Here are the new solar panel innovations!

 

    

 

Please, feel free to show us more @wastetracking on Twitter!

Don’t Recycle That Pizza Box Until You Read This

Oil/grease is one of the worst contaminates in the paper recycling process because paper recycling undergoes a heat process, gets mixed with water and pulverized to paper pulp to make recycled paper. If there is oil in the paper pulp mixture then the paper ends up having spots and holes.

About three years ago we wrote about the fact that many corrugated cardboard pizza boxes are recyclable if and only if they are clean. You can read about the pizza box recycling debate here.

We hope that by spreading the word about this and providing you with some visuals about the seriousness of ruining entire batches of recycling because you didn’t know that oil soaked cardboard shouldn’t be recycled in any amount, we can make people aware of this simple point: it might be better to throw that oily box away.

If you still want to recycle that pizza then there are great ways to go about this:

1. If the top half of the pizza box has no grease on it then feel free to rip that half away from the bottom and recycle the top half!
2. Share this article with others who could learn a thing or two about how recycled paper is made, trust us, they won’t forget the next time they have an oily pizza box!

The 3 Best Ways to Find Food Trucks Online

Food trucks are eco-friendly for a number of reasons which can be seen here. To encourage the frequency of dining at these small, efficient eateries here are a few websites that show you the location of food trucks (click to go to their website):

 

 

Another great Green article from WasteTracking.com

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Invention allows vegetables to be safe for consumption even if planted in polluted soil

Medical-membrane technology was used by Dr. Yuichi Mori to grow agricultural crops with minimized water and soil consumption which he presented at TEDx. Seeing this “hydromembrane”, a gel plastic wrap looking material interestingly enough supports plant growth so that they are safe for consumption.

A video of Dr. Mori with the Imec membrane and cress that grew from it can be seen here:

Source: http://www.mebiol.co.jp/en/product/

For those in #robotics, #construction and #waste, prepare to be amazed by @zenrobtics

The ZenRobotics Recycler currently separates Metal, Wood and Stone from mixed construction and demolition debris. The separator received the Global Cleantech Cluster Association’s Later Stage Award for Best in Waste Management at the end of 2013 and ZenRobotics Ltd. is working on increasing the features of this product. Separating mixed construction and demolition debris is important because currently people perform their arduous task and their labor could be use very effectively elsewhere in waste facilities. Not only does this take a dangerous and tedious task off of the hands of waste facility employees, but this robot even improves recovery rates and sorting efficiency.

Jaakko Särelä, CEO of ZenRobotics, says that ““It is already clear that clean technology will develop to a globally significant business sector. What is now needed is a national strategy for the development of environmental technology”. The minimum amount of reclaimed debris that the sorter can reclaim annually is 12,000 tons with the potential to sort up to 60,000 tons. In addition, the sorter little energy, and only costs $1.36/hour to operate.

 

Source: https://mygreenhalo.wordpress.com/

Another great Green article from WasteTracking.com

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How do planners decide where to build a waste station?

In New York, there were lawsuits that sought to lock out the construction of a controversial waste-transfer station from the East River at E. 91^St St. in Manhattan.

The plaintiffs, argued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in issuing the city a construction permit saying that they failed to look hard at the environmental consequence of building the station at that aforementioned location.

On the contrary Manhattan Federal Judge Paul Crotty said that the decision to build a 10 story waste transfere station on East 91^st St. is “rational and well-supported”.

 

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/judge-dismisses-lawsuits-seeking-block-construction-upper-east-side-garbage-transfer-station-article-1.1863023

 

Another great Green article from WasteTracking.com

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“Japanese Demolition” Non-Disruptive and Incredibly #Eco-Friendly

This is a common way to demolish tall buildings

This is the before and after image of Taisei Corporation’s Ecologoligal Reproduction System (Tecorep)

A Japanese company has a revolutionary approach to demolishing tall buildings that reuses as much as possible, doesn’t disrupt the surroundings (in contract to the common demolishing method which involves blowing the building up), and is much more eco-friendly; this reduces the carbon footprint by 85%!

Taisei Corporation is the genius behind this method and it developed the Ecologoligal Reproduction System (Tecorep) that demolished the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in a quiet and eco-friendly way that was previously unheard of. Time lapse videos of this process shows: the hotel shrinking as a crane inside of the hotel places interior debris outside of the building meanwhile a temporary floor gets built so that the crane that recycles energy from lowering the debris can get lowered and the process can be repeated until the hotel is significantly lowered.

This video shows someone from Taisei Corporation standing in front of the hotel, there is footage inside of the demolition and footage from the quiet outside so that you can see the building shrink. This is definitely a must see if you haven’t yet. Please tell us what you think @wastetracking on Twitter.

Bill Nye @TheScienceGuy, #NASA Chief Scientist and #JPL’s Europa Study Scientist talk about #Europa!

Bill Nye Did a Reddit #AMA (ask me anything) on Tuesday along with two others to talk about Jupiter’s moon Europa which might have had, or might still have extraterrestrial life! Bill fans have been talking all week about his inspiring answers, the way that he got them interested in science as youngsters, Europa and much anticipated new Bill shows that he hinted at!

The entire AMA conversation is here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2arlx5/i_am_bill_nye_the_science_guy_and_ceo_of_the/

Bill tells hilarious jokes, like this one:

 

And really sheds light on how important it is to discover more about Mars.

Bill also let people know what he’s been up to lately. Bill is the CEO of the Planetary Society, he’s talked about having another Science Guy show, his new book that comes out in November, and many more highlights that can be seen here:

Bill is a beloved teacher who’s series lives strong in classrooms. We’re eager to see what Europa has up its sleeve.

 

 

Source: http://www.themarysue.com/bill-nye-europa-ama/

Another great Green article from WasteTracking.com

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The Eco-Friendly, #Digital Printing Solution for Textile Production

Kornit launched two awesome products in 2005 and the reason that they are so noteworthy is because they were the first printers to offer a direct to garment printing in a much more eco-friendly way than traditional textile production.

There are initiatives from groups such as Greenpeace’s Detox which look into the environmental ethicacy of fabrics and their production process. Kornit manufactures their own textile printing ink which is 100% non-toxic, organic, vegan-friendly and safe for infants and young children. Kornit’s system doesn’t require any pre-treatment of the fabrics like cotton, satin, leather, synthetic leather, linen, microfiber, silk and other fabrics that their technology can print on.

The traditional method of dying fabrics using a lot of water that gets contaminated and wasted as a result. Kornit’s technology prints on fabric in a dry process so that less water is wasted.

In this video you can see for yourself how awesome their digital prints turnout and it is also easy to imagine how much safer this work environment is for employees too!

 

Source: http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2014/07/15/israels-kornit-offers-green-fabric-printing/

Another great Green article from WasteTracking.com

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