Waste and recycling

Construction began yesterday in Florida on the grounds of a former citrus-processing factory to build one of the first commercial-scale biofuel plants in the U.S.

When completed and fully operational, the Indian River BioEnergy Center is expected to produce 8 million gallons of bio-ethanol per year.

The center will be run by Ineos New Planet BioEnergy (INPB), a joint venture formed by Ineos Bio, a subsidiary of the chemical conglomerate Ineos, and New Planet Energy, a company specializing in the commercialization of sustainable refinery technology.

The plant will use technology developed by Ineos that enables bacteria to produce biogas … Read more

Tons of electronics will be transformed back into raw materials using a highly automated series of electronic machines in a new facility in Ontario, Canada.

Sims Recycling Solutions flipped the switch on an e-waste recycling and refurbishing operation yesterday in Mississauga outside Toronto, which converts all incoming material. The facility will be able to treat and resell 75,000 metric tons of e-waste annually, including CRT monitors, TVs, PCs, and other electronics gadgets, such as digital music players and mobile phones.

In the U.S., electronic waste is a fast-growing source of waste. In 2007, about 18 percent of TVs … Read more

Conserval Engineering is testing a new product with the U.S. Army based on its original solar thermal wall panels that could help cool a building in addition to helping heat it up, the company announced today.

The company is best known for its SolarWall corrugated galvanized-steel solar collectors that can be used to heat a building's HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) system as a way to save energy and bring down heating costs. It's used mainly on commercial, industrial, or large apartment buildings with vast wall space. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, for example, installed a … Read more

Best Buy is trying a novel approach to tempt Super Bowl watchers to buy more electronics.

The retailer will officially launch a buy-back service designed to lessen consumers' concerns about tech obsolescence, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn said in an e-mail to customers. The program could also help increase electronics recycling rates.

The Buy Back program is sort of an insurance policy, letting consumers get some money back for their gadgets while the goods still have some value--at least to somebody else.

After purchasing a TV, mobile phone, laptop, Netbook, or tablet with the Buy Back program, a buyer has two years to bring it back and get a percentage of the purchase price as long as it's in good condition. Rates range from 50 percent within 6 months to 20 percent for between 18 months and 2 years. Between 2 years and 4 years, TV buyers can get 10 percent of the purchase price. … Read more

The U.S. railroad is about to get a minor makeover.

Axion International has won a $15 million contract to make railroad ties made from recycled plastic, the company announced yesterday.

The railroad ties will specifically be made of Recycled Structural Composite (RSC), the signature recycled plastic composite developed by Axion in conjunction with Rutgers University. RSC is a thermoplastic composite produced from 100 percent recycled consumer plastics (such as milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles) and industrial plastic waste.

Axion's deal to provide replacement railroad ties over the next three years is with an unnamed company purported to … Read more

WALTHAM, Mass.--In the quest for renewable sources of energy, the military is giving garbage a go.

The Edwards Air Force base in Southern California will test out a shipping container-sized trash-to-energy unit from IST Energy. The Air Force will be the first customer for IST Energy's Green Energy Machine (GEM), which is designed to convert waste into electricity and heat, according to the company.

Two years ago, IST Energy showed off the prototype of the GEM and earlier this month began showing the unit to potential customers. About 20 companies, which either have a sustainability initiative or pay … Read more

editor's notebook SAN FRANCISCO--I had the good fortune this past weekend of attending Compostmodern, a two-day conference here devoted to exploring different ways in which designers can help create a sustainable future. And I'd like to mention a few of the tech- and Internet-related highlights--some of which are new, some of which you, like me, may have missed the first time around. There's a variety of supercool stuff here, so read on.

Organized by the San Francisco chapter of AIGA (one of the country's premier professional groups for designers)--and sponsored by Adobe and other companies, … Read more

BOSTON--Who knew a warehouse full of garbage and conveyor belts could be so high-tech?

Last Thursday, I had the chance to tour a single-stream recycling center here, where a suite of specialized machines has vastly sped up the traditional manual sorting method now commonly used in recycling.

Well over 100 full-time employees still work at the plant, but the bulk of the separation work is done by a combination of belts, magnets, and optical readers clever enough to tell the difference between a plastic milk jug and a laundry detergent container.

The tour opened my eyes to how single stream … Read more

The Greek island of Crete is planning for a 38-megawatt solar plant an BrightSource has been tapped to help build it.

Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource has signed a deal with Nur Energie, the U.K. company developing the solar project, to use its LPT 550 energy system, the solar manufacturer announced today.

When complete and running at full capacity, the plant is expected to generate enough electricity for 13,000 homes.

BrightSource is known for its signature solar "power tower" technology that employs hundreds of sun-worshipping heliostats. The solar-tracking mirrors reflect solar rays on a common tower containing … Read more