Plastic Houses

Affresol makes modular portable homes from recycled plastic

After working with Cardiff and Glamorgan universities for two years, Affresol Ltd., an innovative manufacturer of high quality, low cost, quick construction systems, has developed a new material called Thermo Poly Rock (TPR) from recycled plastics and minerals. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the Carbon Trust also played a vital role in developing the revolutionary construction material. Now the company is using this newly developed material in making eco-friendly homes, each of which is made up of four tons of it. Until date, the company has recycled 18 tons of waste plastic in making modular portable buildings.

Ian McPherson, Affresol managing director, says, “ Every country in the world has issues with waste and we now have an opportunity to turn waste into an enduring housing resource that is 100% recyclable.”

Making use of a patented low energy cold process, Affresol converts the plastics into concrete, waterproof, fire retardant TPR panels. These panels form the load-bearing frame of the house and can support brick, block or stone, when it’s properly insulated and plastered. The roof is tiled with recycled materials. When the inhabitants abandon their living place – estimated life of the house is 60 years – the remnants of the TPR could be recycled again. Affresol will soon be launching a range of eco-friendly modular homes made from recycled plastic waste.

Read more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8531170.stm

Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ0FSX8i6S0&feature=player_embedded

Office A4 Sheets into toilet roll in half an hour

Turn waste office paper into toilet paper

While many environmentalists hope that we can eventually have a paperless office, one company in Japan has developed a machine that shreds paper and then converts the waste into readily usable toilet paper.

The process requires you to add water, and it requires about 30 minutes to thin out the paper and generate one roll of toilet paper. This 'TP' looks far from snuggly soft, but it's undeniably a significant step towards a greener office space. The entire process is automated, so it's definitely a big convenience.

The 'White Goat' as it's called is not a contraption that you're likely to squeeze under your desk however. It's mammoth size (1.8m tall and 600kg) would definitely be a better fit in your server room if you have one.

It's set to go on sale this summer in Japan for a price of about US$100,000.

Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i51zo3LA70U&feature=player_embedded

Read more at: http://www.gizmag.com/waste-paper-in-toilet-paper-out/14048/

Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program: Running tracks made of shoe

Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program

Established in the early 1990s, Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program collects old, worn-out athletic shoes for recycling, transforming them into Nike Grind, a material used in creating athletic and playground surfaces as well as select Nike products

Since the launch of its Reuse-A-Shoe program in 1990, Nike has recycled more than 21 million pairs of athletic shoes to create public basketball courts and athletic tracks around the world. Its new Considered Design approach aims to reduce waste and eliminate toxins from its factories, further reducing its carbon shoe print.

Check out how shoes are re-used: http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/

e-Cycler connects people with recyclables but no recycling service, and people who want to collect recyclables for profit.

e-Cycler is a new website that makes the process of collecting - and having collected - recyclables look much more like a part time job than a random act of frugal greenness. It connects people who have recyclables but no recycling service with people who want to collect recyclables for profit.


Both Collectors and Discarders Can Make Money
Two types of people sign up with e-Cycler - those who want to collect recyclables in order to turn a profit, and those who want someone to come pick up their recyclables (and possibly also make a profit). The website connects the two people, and collectors can make either 100% profit from what they collect and take in to centers in exchange for cash, or they can make a 60% profit, giving 40% to the person from whom they collected the recyclables. It's up to the person setting their recyclables out whether or not they want to simply give them away, or gain some extra pocket change themselves.

And e-Cycler Wants Money Too
e-Cycler wants to turn their own profit, so they are initializing a small fee on the collector for each lead they receive from the site on who they can go collect from. Even if you as a collector are paying a fee to e-Cycler and giving 40% to the discarder, if you're hard up for some extra income and/or have a passion for seeing recyclables actually get recycled, the cut in profit may still be made up for in the saved time of going straight for a batch of recyclables rather than randomly scouring gutters and trash bins during daily walks.

What's the Impact of All These Collectors?
While this is a great system to help get recyclables to recycling facilities in areas where there isn't curbside pickup provided by the city, we are still curious about the impact of having people most likely driving around in cars and pickup trucks collecting the recyclables and driving to centers to turn them in. Maybe there could be an option for reduced fees for collectors who use bicycles with carts rather than cars. No matter what, e-Cycler seems like a better option than having no curbside recycling at all, and likely a smaller impact than city garbage trucks grumbling down the roads.

Check out the website: http://ecycler.com/

Paper made from crushed stone

TerraSkin: Paper Made from Rock: The treeless new product from Taiwan requires little energy to produce. It's recyclable—and degradable

Used to be bag options at the store were paper or plastic. Now shoppers can choose cloth bags, too. They may have another alternative: rock. Shopping bags and boxes from gift stores at New York's Museum of Modern Art, bags from personal-care company Erno Laszlo, and packaging of consumer products from Burt's Bees look, feel, and fold like paper, but they're made of crushed stone.

The treeless paper, manufactured in Taiwan and sold under the TerraSkin brand, is three parts recycled calcium carbonate—the same mineral in marble and limestone—and one part polyethylene binder. Production requires no water or bleach and only half the energy needed to make traditional paper. The material is durable; tote bags can be used over and over. It is also recyclable. And TerraSkin breaks down into a talcum-like powder if exposed to sunlight and humidity long enough.

Its limitation: Price. Though the raw materials are cheap, sales volumes are low so its manufacturer has to make it in small batches. As a result, it typically wholesales for at least 8% more than packaging paper. Nonetheless, sales will triple in 2009, predicts Design & Source, a New York green packaging company that distributes TerraSkin in North America. Other premium-end customers include Herman Miller (MLHR) and Hilton Hotels. MoMA recently ordered 682,000 TerraSkin shopping bags, which cost 25% more than previous plastic bags. Customers are "blown away by it," says Kathy Thornton-Bias, general manager for MoMA Retail.

Rising sales volume could lower costs, which might attract more customers. "We want to build economies of scale and streamline production process more," says Nicole Smith, environmental director for Design & Source. The company aims to make TerraSkin competitive with paper by 2012. Complicating that task: Coated-paper prices have dipped because of weak demand.

Check the website: http://terraskin.com/

Biogas plant run solely on waste

First-ever biogas plant to run purely on waste

Researchers have developed the first-ever biogas plant to run purely on waste instead of edible raw materials — transforming waste into valuable material. The plant generates 30 percent more biogas than its predecessors. A fuel cell efficiently converts the gas into electricity.

“In our pilot plant, we exclusively use agricultural waste such as corn stalks – that is, the corn plants without the cobs. This allows us to generate 30 percent more biogas than in conventional facilities,” says IKTS head of department Dr. Michael Stelter. Until now, biogas plants have only been able to process a certain proportion of waste material, as this tends to be more difficult to convert into biogas than pure cereal crops or corn, for instance.

This is not the only advantage: The time for which the decomposing waste material, or silage, is stored in the plant can be reduced by 50 to 70 percent. Biomass is usually kept in the fermenter, building up biogas, for 80 days. Thanks to the right kind of pre-treatment, this only takes about 30 days in the new plant.

The researchers have also optimized the conversion of biogas into electricity. They divert the gas into a high-temperature fuel cell with an electrical efficiency of 40 to 55 percent. By comparison, the gas engine normally used for this purpose only achieves an average efficiency of 38 percent. What is more, the fuel cell operates at 850 degrees Celsius. The heat can be used directly for heating or fed into the district heating network. If the electrical and thermal efficiency are added up, the fuel cell has an overall efficiency of up to 85 percent.

Read Full article at: http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/energy_engineering/electricity_straw_126673.html

paraSITE - an inflatable shelter for the homeless

The paraSITE - an inflatable shelter for the homeless that runs off expelled HVAC air

Artist Michael Rakowitz’s ongoing ParaSITE project provides portable inflatable shelters for homeless people. ParaSITE shelters utilize the vents and ventilation systems from buildings for both temperature and warmth.
When warm air leaves the building, it inflates the shelter’s double membrane and simultaneously heats it. ParaSITE inflatable homes have been built and used by over 30 homeless people in Boston and Cambridge, MA and New York City.
The temporary owners of these homes got a lot of questions from confused police officers who weren’t sure whether the ParaSITE inflatable shelters were breaking the law. The structures were designed to be more like a sleeping bag or a body extension than a tent, however, and were thereby deemed legal.

Rakowitz has now been nominated for a prestigious Index Award for the paraSITE and his work is far from finished.

Read more at: http://www.gizmag.com/go/4455/

Plastic soda bottles- your new car seat cover

Ford Explores 'Suede' Fabrics Made From Pop Bottles, Nanotechnology, and More
Ford Motor Co., which is turning recycling plastic soda bottles into suede-like fabrics for vehicle interiors, is wading deeper into bio-based materials with soy-based rubber fillers and plastics that can biodegrade in 90 to 120 days -- compared to 1,000 years for conventional petroleum-based plastic.

The company introduced soy-based polyurethane foam seat cushions and backs in 2007, and has since included the cushions in more than a million vehicles, with a million more planned this year. The switch has avoided more than 5 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

A soy-foam headliner is destined for the 2010 Escape and Mariner models. Now under development is rubber made with soy protein fillers instead of petroleum-based fillers for door seals, floor mats, gaskets and splash shields.
Other examples of innovative materials in use at Ford include recycled and reassembled ebony wood used in Lincoln vehicles, such as the Navigator.

The resins from used detergent bottles, tires and battery casings are also recycled into underbody systems, including aerodynamic shields, splash shields and radiator deflector shields. All 2009 models in North America will use recycled resin.

The 2010 Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids will sport seat fabrics made from 100 percent post-industrial recycled yarns, which will reduce energy consumption 64 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent.

Twenty used soda bottles make one meter of the faux suede fabric used for the seats of the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO and Lincoln MKZ models.

To read more on what Ford is doing: http://www.ford.com/about-ford/news-announcements/press-releases/press-releases-detail/pr-ford-builds-on-ecofriendly-30398