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Up to now, nappies, adult incontinence and feminine hygiene products (AHPS) have been one of the few remaining household items that got straight to landfill or incineration facilitites. AHPs do not belong in landfills. They take 500 years to decompose, they contain human waste and we can salvage the raw materials.
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Paving stones which generate electricity simply by being stepped on could soon be powering their way on the the high street. The green slabs, which contain a light that gets brighter according to how much energy is stored, are designed to ‘flex’ less that 5mm when walked over. Although this movement cannot be detected by pedestrians, it is enough to generate electricity.
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Wind turbine conjures up the image of three-rotor design on hill-tops and, increasingly, out to sea. These machines work well in high wind speeds and relatively smooth airflows: the technology matches the conditions where they are sited. The remoteness of these locations has allowed ever larger turbines to be built, generating significant amounts of electricity.
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Heating hot water can be 40% of your energy use. Your A/C unit makes excess heat in the process of cooling your home. Why use energy twice, if you can reuse it? Now there's an environmentally friendly way to generate hot water by capturing the wasted heat from a central air conditioning or refrigeration system.
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Hundreds of thousands of tons of watermelons are lost every year. They are grown and then left in the ground because of superficial imperfections. About 20% of each annual crop is left in the field because of surface blemishes or because they are misshapen; currently these are lost to growers as a source of revenue. Due to imperfections, bad spots, or weird shapes, these watermelons are left in the field and then ploughed right back into the ground.
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What happens to the millions of tons of discarded materials from obsolete infrastructures like Boston’s Big Dig? Destroying it costs millions to tax payers as well as wastes the embodied energy already stored in the materials. Dismantled and relocated, concrete and steel sections can become structural building modules adaptable to a variety of sites and programs.
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Two million of tourists visit the U.S. Virgin Islands every year leaving up to 146,000 tons of garbage behind. The territory has faced EPA fines for excess solid waste and has almost run out of places to put all that stuff. But the energy potential of all those leftovers might be even greater. And here’s a company that wants to use it.
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A company based in Los Angeles, announced a potential breakthrough in getting oil from pond scum. One big difference from the spate of recent announcements in the algae-sphere: Origin’s new technology promises a better way to “milk” algae to extract their natural oils. Other approaches involve genetically-engineering algae to excrete hydrocarbon-like liquids' and cost is still a huge issue for algae-to-oil operations.
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There are initiatives that reward consumers for reducing household energy use. Taking a different approach is US-based Positive Energy, which compares households' energy consumption, adding a social twist to being green. The company works with local utility companies, which use its software to add persuasive information to customer bills.
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McDonald's is one of several chains exploring green store design. Wal-Mart and Target are revamping their stores to conserve energy. Subway has opened its first stand-alone LEED-certified restaurant in the state in Chapel Hill. A brand-new McDonald's restaurant about to open in North Carolina will be the chain's first in the nation to offer free car charging in its parking garage.
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