Category: Environment

A Japanese engineer has invented a portable machine about the size of a dorm refrigerator that will turn waste plastic back into oil.

I’m not sure how it will reduce carbon emissions, as is his claim. It would seem that once the oil is burned, the carbon will go back into the air.

However, this is still an incredible innovation. Such machines can be powered with electricity from windmills so no new fossil fuel energy will be needed for the conversion.

The greatest boon, in my opinion is that it will provide an incentive to clean up millions of tons of trash on the planet, as that trash will now be seen as money to be mined out of waste dumps.

I remember reading that one of the men who writes about the island of plastic trash in the pacific, the one the size of Texas, planned on building a boat that would use the trash for oil/fuel.

Interestingly enough, I just found out about a larger scale, more serious operation like this around the corner from me in Derwood, Maryland:

Are you concerned about the food you eat? ecology? Being happier? You might enjoy this friendly semi-animated, free documentary made as a lecture aide by Annie Leonard. It has been shown by Economics professors to their students at a number of universities. What is most interesting about this documentary is that it draws intriguing connections between happiness, consumerism and ecology that most people might not otherwise notice. The animation makes it fun to watch.

If you found the above documentary interesting you will enjoy this interview with Annie Leonard where she expands on those topics. Leonard helped create the animation “The Meatrix” and now works on “The Story Of Stuff” project, a series of free, animated web documentaries. The interview has an upbeat, inspirational vibe and interesting information you might not have heard before.

I read this article at ABC news stating that the bottled waters Aquafina and Dasani are really just municipal tap water, filtered one more time. One of the sources of Aquafina is the Detroit River. ABC had various bottled waters and various municipal tap waters sent to a lab. All were equally safe. ABC then did a blind taste test using avowed bottled water fans. Among the unscientific results were tap water being the winner some of the time and the most expensive brands of bottled water not winning at all.

Since I had some shopping to do today I decided to write down the price of various fluids as I visited my local gas station and my local supermarket. This is part of what I found:

Fluid	Price Per Gallon	Commentsnbsp;
Aquafina	$5.68	owned by Pepsi
Dasani	$4.76	owned by Coke
Gasoline	$2.64	cheapest gas at Shell
Tap Water	$0.003	$2.71 per 1000 gallons

I got the price for my tap water off of my water bill. My municipality has an impressive water treatment facility. When I called them to ask them about the quality of the water I got to talk to an engineer, very proud, who gave me a very long lecture. My only problem with my tap water is that during the winter time it is contaminated by the run off from snow melting. Their solution is to put enough chlorine in the water that I can smell it when I draw a bath. My solution was to buy a Brita water pitcher for about $20. Very cheap, very convenient. Problem solved.