waste

A sampling of green-tech news with quick commentary.

Is first eInk magazine an e-waste misstep? - Fast CompanyEsquire's experimental eInk issue will make an ecological mess, according to a Fast Company calculation, which says producing the magazine would lead to electronics waste and emit as much carbon dioxide as 15 Hummers over a year.

Tying wind power to power lines - Greentech Media Wind energy can be cheaper than solar, but tying it to the grid remains a costly challenge. Still, some investors see the problem as an opportunity to profit.

Manure could provide as much energy as renewables - Earth2Tech … Read more

The California Clean Tech Open, dubbed the "start-up in a box" contest, named 44 finalists Tuesday. It awards $100,000 in cash, office space, and professional services to each of the six winners. Categories are air, water, and waste; energy efficiency; green building; renewables; smart power; and transportation.

The Google-sponsored contest, run by the nonprofit Acterra, touts success stories such as GreenVolts, which makes photovoltaic solar concentrating systems, and BuildFast, which sells eco-friendly house kits for developing regions. Contest organizers said that tech for the developing world has become an increasing area of focus.

Prizes are due to … Read more

Saving on fuel isn't a question of conservation for the military. It's about saving lives.

The U.S. Army is testing two prototype generators in Iraq that run on garbage, rather than diesel fuel.

The Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery (TGER, pronounced "tiger"), was co-developed with Purdue University and deployed in May at Victory Base camp in Baghdad, where it will be tested until August.

The purpose of the unit is to cut down on the amount of diesel fuel used and to cut down on the amount of garbage that camps generate, which are both … Read more

BlueFire Ethanol expects to start construction of a plant within weeks that will convert landfill waste into the fuel ethanol.

CEO Arnie Klann on Thursday provided a timeline for the company's trash-to-ethanol projects at the Jeffries Global Clean Technologies conference, saying that there are two other larger plants already being pursued.

He argued that making ethanol from municipal solid waste is more economical than making it from corn, as is done now, or from agricultural and forestry wastes. Its process can make 70 gallons per ton of waste stream going into its machines.

BlueFire Ethanol intends to locate its … Read more

Thermoelectricity--the practice of drawing electricity from heat--is getting a real-life work-out.

ElectraTherm on Thursday said that it has installed a 50-kilowatt machine that uses industrial waste heat as its "fuel."

The company says that the ElectraTherm Green Machine, installed at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, will recoup its purchase cost in three to four years with electricity costing three or four cents per kilowatt-hour during that time.

The machine uses an organic Rankine cycle to heat liquids which are turned into a vapor that turns a turbine to make electricity.

The thermoelectric effect has been known since the … Read more

The trash-powered car may someday see the light of day.

CleanTech Biofuels is developing a multistep process designed to take municipal solid waste from a transfer station and turn out ethanol on the other side.

The company recently purchased the equipment and found a site in Golden, Colo., to test it using trash, as well other agricultural and forest wastes, to make ethanol. On Tuesday, it said that it trying to identify a site near landfills and garbage haulers to construct a commercial plant.

Within two years, the company expects to move from a proof-of-concept plant to a commercial plant, … Read more

WASHINGTON--As heaps of discarded televisions, computers, and other electronics grow ever more colossal, some members of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday said they're focusing new attention on how to manage the waste.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency's latest figures, less than 15 percent of unwanted electronics actually reached recycling or re-use programs in 2005, with nearly 2 million tons ending up in landfills or incinerators, many laced with toxins like mercury and cadmium. Some politicians suggested the need for a new governmental strategy to make recycling and reuse of electronics more efficient, pointing to regulations adopted … Read more

For most people, the goal of consumer electronics is to keep the cost down as much as possible without compromising performance or quality. The problem with progress is that once everyone can afford a massive flat TV the footballers, hedge-fund managers and rappers have nothing left to prove they're more worthwhile than the rest of us.

Enter the great fashion designers of the world, who encourage us to purchase fragrances that are mostly water mixed with some chemicals, and clothes made in the same third-world sweat shops as your local high-street brands, but at a massive premium. It wasn'… Read more

A growing body of scientific evidence makes plastics increasingly less attractive to "green" consumers. Hormone-altering substances seep from drinking bottles. Great plastic garbage patches swirl in the ocean. And plastic bits have been found to concentrate poisons at levels a million times higher than in the water. Many people don't even know that most plastic is made from petroleum.

But agriculture giants including Archer Daniels Midland and small companies such as Cereplast are baking plastic from corn, soy, potatoes, and tapioca. Start-ups are even exploring pig urine and carbon dioxide to make plastics. Bioplastics could make up … Read more