This eco infographic is great! Better yet, this idea is being implemented! Published on Wired, they reported that the Port of Portland has incorporated the “Living Machine”, which uses soil and bacteria to filter out pathogens and turning wastewater into nonpotable water. But the signature element of the system is the plant life that grows up and out of it—right into the lobby. It’s awesome!
This is how it works:
- toilet water goes into a septic/holding tank
- the overflow gets pumped into “wetland” cells where water, pathogens, and biological content are absorbed by the plants
- whatever that’s leftover is treated with UV light and sent to a storage tank
- water in the storage tank is used in the toilet…..
- repeat steps 1 to 4
I came across the green gift guide to father’s day on inhabitat.com, a blog with future designs/innovations including green products. I went through the guide and am most attracted to the Recycle Typewriter Cufflinks! I like them because they’re personal and practical yet with a small environmental impact. Do you like them?
If you were a student not living from home, you probably have moved several times during the duration that you’re a student. I was personally in Kingston Ontario for about 6 years, which I moved 5 times. When I move, there are two types of moving boxes: cardboard boxes and plastic totes. For cardboard boxes, we usually take some from grocery stores or collect used ones from the lab. We moved so much that we know which types of boxes are sturdier than others! Yes, those apple boxes =). For certain items that may contain liquid (shampoo, sauces, cleaning products, …etc), we use plastic totes. We reuse these cardboard boxes, give them away when other people need them, and we’ve recycled others when we don’t need them anymore. We keep all plastic totes.
We try as hard as we can to not buy any boxes, and we’ve done quite well. But wouldn’t it be nice to just rent some reusable boxes for the move? Well, if you live in Vancouver, you’re lucky! FROGBOX does exactly this! It’s an awesome idea and in an environmentally conscious and transient city like Vancouver, they could do quite well! The process is simple - they drop them off, you pack the boxes and move, and finally they pick up the boxes! I would consider using it in my next move if I need more boxes!
What do you think?
I am currently in Asia for work. My first stop is Shanghai. Although growing up in Taiwan, I’ve never had a chance to visit China, and I had been looking forward to this trip. I enjoyed my trip so far, very imprssed with the development, size, and entertianment of the city while noticing (but not unimpressed with) some really old/rundown buildings and really good deals co-existing. Overall, I am mostly not surprised at what Im seeing in Shanghai, except the number of electric bicycles and motorcycles! I wanted to dig up the number of electric-assisted motorocycles/mopeds/bicycles in Shanghai - I want to know the “environmental impact”. I’m sure such study exists, so when I get it I’ll share with you all.
For now, I found another article on CTV.ca which discusses Zero S, a new generation electric scooter coming to the US this year. Some basic specs:
- 1 charge lasts 60 miles
- mileage is equivalent to 60miles/gallon
- $9,950
The California based company Zero has had a sucessful product - Zero X, an offroad dirt bike. Zero X was sold out (not sure how many were produced) with a 6-months long wait list. They are not expecting the slow down of the economy would impact their sales. In fact, in US alone, 1.1 million motorcycles were sold last year. For Honda, 15.1 motorcycles were sold world wide in 2008. Therefore I think there will be a pretty significant market for electric motorcycles in the world. What do you think?
I came across this blog tonight and the first posting caught my eye right away - there was a logo like the one you’re seeing here “USELESS”. How brilliant! We should definitely use less! I went on and read the article, it discusses how “people” are not always “consumers”; in fact, we should try to be people and not consumers! I like the idea.. and I agree with the concept.
Some of the products are very interesting:
- the messenger bags are made of used billboards: 700,000 billboards are used annually (and discarded annually) in the US!
- the “USELSS earth” costs $25 and you can by it made of 100% nothing - all proceeds go into funding clean water projects
- all products “locally” made in US
- 10% of all sales go to funding clean water projects
Have a look at the website and this blog article, i enjoyed both!
Are you a consumer or a person?
Climate change gadget, Small Green Big Deal, eco Infographic | flo | 
June 11, 2009 7:00 am | 
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