Waste and recycling

I really want to believe this Nokia robot made of used cell phones is just out to promote green living. But what if it's sitting there quietly on the bench reading Go Green magazine just to throw us off? Nokia couldn't let it read "Robopocalypse" in public or we'd be on to its true intent.

OK, maybe I've just been listening to too many Eric and Donald podcasts.

For now, I'm going to take Nokia at its word that it built the aptly named "Mobile Man" to promote cell phone recycling in Asia as part of its global push to get consumers to reuse and recycle old handsets rather than toss them in a drawer, or--worse yet--the trash.

In collaboration with the postal service in Beijing, the Finnish mobile giant is giving free movie tickets to those who turn in old phones at more than 40 Beijing post offices.

All they have to do is put their handset in a designated envelope and they'll also get a receipt that lets them stay updated on the status of their phone as it gets dismantled and recycled. Cell phone materials that can be recovered and reused include plastic, nickel, copper, iron, and aluminum. … Read more

Ford Motor today announced it has combined rubber from more than 2.2 million pounds of recycled tires with other material, such as soybean oil, to produce what it says are environmentally friendly gaskets and seals for new cars.

Teaming up with Detroit-based supplier Recycled Polymeric Materials, Ford has turned 210,000 used tires and 150,000 pounds of soy into material for the new gaskets and seals.

"The gaskets and seals are derived from 25 percent post-consumer, recycled-tire particulate and 17 percent biorenewable content from soy," Ford said in a press release.

"The sustainable gaskets were … Read more

Is it fair to imagine that some people just don't want to know about how certain things are done? If they did, perhaps their irrational side might overwhelm the blinkered side that helps them get through each and every painful day.

Does everyone want to know, for example, that the Boeing 737 in which they are strapped is flying on the detritus of some very fine french fries?

In the last few days, KLM and Thomson Airways, two European airlines, announced that they would be flying a plane or two using cooking oil.

In KLM's case, the BBC reported … Read more

General Electric, NRG Energy, and ConocoPhillips, through their joint venture firm, have invested in a new kind of wastewater treatment technology.

They're backing Israel-based Emefcy, developer of the Megawatter System, which uses bacteria to turn a regular wastewater treatment plant into an electricity-producing bioreactor that produces both clean water and electricity.

The electrogenic bioreactor draws on organic matter in the wastewater to supply microbial fuel cells (MFCs). It uses the electrogenic bacteria Shewanella, Geobacter, and Rhodoferax as catalysts to decompose the glutens in the water.

The Megawatter System is not built as a standalone plant, but is actually a … Read more

An oil drill in Mississippi is breaking new ground in waste heat, using unwanted water to run a generator that runs on waste heat.

ElectraTherm, which makes the waste heat generator, said the Denbury oil well near Laurel, Miss., has successfully installed its GreenMachine product and shown that it can provide 20 percent of the electric power needed for the drilling. The demonstration was funded by a $460,000 federal government grant, half of which was paid for by one of ElectraTherm's distributors.

Waste heat is considered a relatively untapped source of energy that could make many industrial processes, … Read more

You may have seen solar panels attached to parking meters or highway traffic signals. Now there dumpsters powered, at least a bit, by solar panels.

Waste Management last week said that it has developed a product called the SmartEnergy Compactor that uses a solar panel to operate the controls of a compacting dumpster.

The dumpster can also be remotely monitored to indicate how full it is, which can save fuel in unnecessary disposal truck runs.

The technology behind the electronic control system originated at Big Belly Solar, which makes public trash and recycling bins equipped with solar panels that power … Read more

Valuable metals contained in electronics and green-technology products are being recycled at "discouragingly" low rates, raising the prospect of material shortages, according to a United Nations-sponsored report.

The U.N. report, released last week, found a wide disparity in metal recycling rates and very low rates among even highly prized metals, such as gold, from electronics. The study recommends using product designs that make recycling easier and addressing the problem of obsolete electronics. About 18 percent of TVs and PCs are recycled and about 10 percent of cell phones, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Less than one third of about 60 metals had an end-of-life recycling rate over 50 percent and 34 elements had a recycling rate below 1 percent. In addition to creating a larger supply of metals, recycling is estimated to be two to 10 times more resource-efficient than smelting metals from ore, according to the study.

"In theory, metals can be used over and over again, minimizing the need to mine and process virgin materials and thus saving substantial amounts of energy and water while minimizing environmental degradation," said Achim Steiner, U.N. under-secretary general and executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, in a statement.

Lead, which is most commonly used in batteries, is the most recycled, with a rate around 80 percent. Iron and other components of stainless steel are recycled at over 50 percent, as are precious metals platinum, gold, and silver. Gold is recycled at a high rate from industrial use, but only 10 percent to 15 percent from electronics, such as cell phones.

Meanwhile, there are several metals considered vital to green-technology… Read more

Australia-based MBD Energy is installing an algae system from OriginOil at its coal power station in Tarong, Australia, both companies announced today.

The system will capture flue-gas emitted from the coal-fired power station using a bio-based carbon capture storage device containing micro-algae. The micro-algae uses the captured CO2 to reproduce more algae biomass, which can then be used for fuel or plastics.

The Tarong power station in Queensland will be able to process up to 300 gallons of algae culture per minute, but is only a one-hectare site. The small station will serve as the test site for a larger … Read more

WORCESTER, Mass.--The electronic waste piling up in our closets and basements holds valuable material that could be used to make something new, as is the case with old newspapers and plastic bottles. The challenge is ensuring that e-waste gets recycled without threatening public health.

Earlier this week, I took a tour of a small electronics recycler here that caters to people who want to be sure that their e-waste is handled responsibly, rather than be shipped to a destination with unknown or unverified practices. The center, operated by Metech Recycling, provided a peek into how everyday products find a … Read more