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For recipes: Open Source Circular Fashion Catalogue https://oscircularfashion.com/ Fabricademy: https://textile-academy.org/ beGrounded: https://class.textile-academy.org/201... Felipe Fiallo: https://felipefiallo.com/ On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/grow...

 

biofabrication

What if we could "grow" clothes from microbes, furniture from living organisms and buildings with exteriors like tree bark? Suzanne Lee shares exciting developments from the field of biofabrication and shows how it could help us replace major sources of waste, like plastic and cement, with sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives.

***TED talk

 

mushrooms, future & vegan leather

#Closed-loop process uses abundant, natural fibers to create 100‰ biodegradable materials, making this an infinitely renewable technology.

#A new kind of leather grown rapidly from mycelium and agricultural byproducts in a carbon-negative process. 

#Custom-engineered material is sustainable, versatile, and animal–free. Best of all, it feels and performs like leather.

#Mycelium can be grown in almost any kind of agriculture waste, including sawdust and pistachio shells. 

#MycoWorks inoculates it with the live culture of the reishi mushroom, which will feed off of anything, unlike other pickier mushrooms. 

#The mushrooms grow together within the material, which can be configured into any shape, forming natural polymers that adhere like glue.

# The material is then baked to kill the organisms, so that if it ever got wet, mushrooms wouldn’t start sprouting again.

Engineered to Perform
Versatile
Sustainable
Cost Competitive

This material is strong, flexible, and durable, just like conventional leathers. 

It is also water-resistant.

 And since it's made from natural fibers, it breathes and feels like leather.

This leather is uniquely customizable. 

Any textures and other features can be grown right into the material.

 And unlike animal hides, these materials can be grown to nearly any size and shape.

More info @ mycoworks

disposability consciousness

Environmental & social justice activist Julia Butterfly Hilltalks about disposability consciousness.

link to video

PROTOTYPING FOR DEVELOPMENT // GHANA // JUNE&JULY 2016 // WORKSHOP // ADDITIONAL INFO

                                              # POSITIVE AGENDA 

                                              # WHY GHANA? 

                                              # SPECIFICITY 

                                              # DESCRIPTION

                                              # ORGANIZER

      [click on the images for full size view]

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https://www.facebook.com/events/1021526804574563/

http://ekuaziones.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/prototype-for-development-ghana-summer.html

ekuazion@gmail.com

water technology

RIVER RESTORATION

 

RESULTS:

Improves dissolved oxygen

Low energy, chemical free treatment

Odour filtration

Aesthetic cleantech

Reduced algae

Advanced tratment standards for BOD, COD, NH3.

 

Natural Treatment

The Biomatrix system is an engineered floating ecology designed to optimize powerful ecological treatment processes within an attractive feature of the aquatic landscape.  The Biomatrix combines the latest developments in ecological engineering with new biofilm research and traditional wastewater treatment processes.  Whole system engineered ecologies provide an energy efficient, low life cycle cost treatment solution.

The Form

The systems are designed in sections, which can be configured in attractive natural shapes.  The Biomatrix unit can be designed to blend with the existing waterscape in strategic locations where performance can be optimized.  The system can be configured along the edge of the waterway, or centrally as islands or archipelagos.

Floating Structures

The Biomatrix system can incorporate variable levels of buoyancy from 10kg/m2 to over 100 kg/m2. The use of different levels of buoyancy allow areas of walkways, floating bridges, pavilions, boat docking sites or public artworks to be integrated with the treatment system.

Biomatrix systems are ideally suited for contaminated canals, rivers, lakes and reservoirs; as well as providing effective treatment of high strength waste in purpose built lagoons and treatment cells.

The Biomatrix provides the foundation and the substrate to support a diversity of life forms from many different phylogenetic kingdoms. These include the bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa, annelids, mollusks, insects, vertebrates (including frogs and turtles), and higher plants. This multitude of life forms, in concert, have the capability to treat wastes, pathogens and toxins. The basic technological and scientific principles governing the design of natural treatment systems have been well articulated and subjected to scientific review.

 

TREATMENT PROCESSES WITHIN BIOMATRIX SYSTEMS CAN EFFECTIVELY:

• Improve water clarity

• Remove and stabilize nutrients

• Reduce algae

• Breakdown industrial chemicals

• Remove Biological and Chemical Oxygen Demand

• Filter out Suspended Solids and particulate

   

   

 WASTEWATER TREATMENT

ECOLOGICAL TOOLBOX

 + INFO

msunduza dry toilet

The project area:
Swaziland is a small kingdom with a population of 1.2 million people located in southern Africa by the Mozambiqian and South-African border. Swaziland is experiencing a rapid urbanisation as people are fleeing the rural poverty and end up living in the informal areas around the cities.

Diarrheal diseases and insecurity:
In Msunduza, which is the oldest and the largest community of 16 000 inhabitants in the capital, Mbabane, sanitation solutions are diverse. The majority use a traditional pit latrine, but also a bucket or a “flying toilet”, where faeces are thrown into the environment. With children playing in the polluted streets, diarrhoeal diseases and cholera prevail. Additionally, insufficient sanitation causes social problems and security issues, especially to women and girls.

The project objectives are: :
• Improved sanitation hygiene and knowledge on sanitation
• Increased and more efficient composting and home gardening
• Improved livelihood and participation in the project area
• Sustainable and healthy sanitation culture

Dry toilets and environmental education:
Project activities include building dry toilets to households and to public places, improving hand washing possibilities, giving sanitation and hygiene education and encouraging home gardening and composting.
Thus far, the Msunduza Dry Sanitation Project has funded the construction of 33 toilets, and the environmental and sanitation education provided by the project has reached the inhabitants of Msunduza. The Project has also acted as a supporter for a youth group of one of the communities. In 2013 the project funding will reach its end. Focus of the last phase is to sustain the attainments of the project and to create a responsible exit strategy. This is mainly done through capacity building and by bringing together participants from different levels and sectors of the society.

Working experience from practicals:
Students from the Department of Sustainable Development in the Turku University of Applied Sciences have contributed to the project as part of their obligatory practical training. Students also receive valuable international working experience from working in a development cooperation project. Apart from practical training, Msunduza Dry Sanitation Project has been a topic for several Bachelor Theses and offered possibilities to work as a student assistant.

 

 

Benefits of dry sanitation:
Dry sanitation offers a sustainable solution for the improvement of sanitation for the disadvantaged. Dry toilets function without water, which has become scarcity in the regions battling with sanitation problems. Additionally, dry toilets provide a lucrative fertiliser turning waste into a resource.

Project implementation:
The Department of Sustainable Development in the Turku University of Applied Sciences has worked in Msunduza since the year 2004.
The Project is being implemented in cooperation with the Global Dry Toilet Association of Finland, Turku University of Applied Sciences and the Salvation Army in Swaziland as a local partner. The Project was initiated in 2007 and it is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

The Msunduza Dry Sanitation Project 2007-2013

Msunduza is the oldest and partially informal township in Mbabane. The township of about 16 000 people is located close to the city centre on steep hills. The main features of the area are very steep topography, inadequate infrastructure and petty road network. The project is focusing on the poorest communities of Msunduza, where sanitation facilities are scarce and often in poor condition. The project implementation in Msunduza is done in collaboration with the Salvation Army of Swaziland and the Sanitation Experts, who are local volunteers trained to educate the communities of Msunduza. During the project, cooperation with the City Council of Mbabane, the local leaders of Msunduza and the University of Swaziland has been emphasized as well. In the unofficial areas of Msunduza, water and sewage systems are lacking and the waste management services are largely inadequate. Hence, the sanitation solutions are diverse as people use pit latrines, buckets or even plastic bags. In some areas wastewater from the water closets is piped into septic tanks, which flood in to the yards and streets, when emptying the tanks fails. With children playing in the polluted streets and due to the lacking awareness on environmental health, cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases prevail.

The aim of the project is to improve the poor sanitation and sanitation hygiene of the area. The project activities include e.g. building of dry toilets, disseminating information on safe sanitation and increasing awareness on the linkage between hygiene and health. In the long run, the aim is to increase composting, home gardening and, furthermore, to improve the food security of households through provision of composted material from the dry toilets as a fertilizer in home gardens. Improvement of hygiene and food security is essential in Swaziland, where 26 % of the people are HIV infected. The Swazi culture is also very traditional and male-dominated, thus the project also aims to improve the position of women and children in the community through environmental and hygiene education.

More Information:


MSUNDUZA DRY SANITATION PROJECT EVALUATION REPORT (2011)
Jonna Heikkilä
Turku University of Applied Sciences
jonna.heikkila@turkuamk.fi

The life cycle of a PET plastic bottle

Plastic bottles are used to package a wide variety of things, from juice to soft drinks, and they play a ubiquitous role in the lives of many consumers, along with other plastic products. With a growing awareness of the environmental issues which surround plastics, many people have become interested in the life cycles of plastic products, from manufacturing to eventual disposition in a landfill or recycling facility. Being aware of the process behind the production of plastics can encourage consumers to think more carefully about how they use and dispose of such plastics. Because plastic bottles are a very visible form of plastic use, plastic bottles make an easy target for activism and education.

The life cycle of a plastic bottle starts, obviously, with the creation of the plastic used to make it. The vast majority of plastic bottles are manufactured from petroleum, some of which comes from deposits as much as three billion years old. Some manufacturers use bioplastics made from plant materials to create their plastic bottles, out of concern for the environment.

In the case of a plastic bottle made from petroleum, the oil must be extracted before being shipped to a processing facility and then distilled to separate out the various hydrocarbons it contains. Oil extraction is performed all over the world in a variety of locations, and it has a number of environmental impacts. In areas where oil is drilled from the seafloor, for example, oil spills are common, and regions like the Middle East are famous for their heavily polluting oil fires, caused by intentional or accidental combustion of oil fields. In some nations, oil extraction is also bound up with a number of social issues. Nigeria, for instance, has an oil industry notoriously plagued with problems; oil workers are often poorly paid and exposed to very hazardous conditions, and periodic devastating fires along oil pipelines are not uncommon.

Once oil has been extracted, it is typically moved into container tankers for shipping to refinery facilities. At a refinery, the oil can be submitted to a variety of distillation processes, such as fractional distillation, where the crude oil is heated, causing its various components to separate so that the refinery can make gas, fuel oil, plastics, and a variety of other products. Crude oil can also be “cracked” with chemical catalysts to generate hydrocarbon chains of a desired length; this practice is common, because demand for various petroleum products constantly fluctuates, and cracking ensures that oil is used extremely efficiently and generates the maximum possible profit.

Most plastic bottles are made from polyethylene terephtalate (PET) plastic, and almost all water bottles come from virgin plastic; an estimated 30% of the world's PET goes into plastic bottles. The plastic used in plastic bottles is made by mixing hydrocarbons extracted from crude oil with chemical catalysts, triggering polymerization. Next, manufacturers produce plastic pellets, which are melted down into “preforms,” which look like small test tubes; the preforms, in turn, can be heated, causing them to expand and turn into conventional water bottles. Typically bottling companies order preforms, expanding the water bottles at their own facilities as needed.

Water bottles produced from bioplastics are made from plant materials which are processed to form polymers. Bioplastics are believed to be better for the environment, since they do not require the extraction and handling of crude oil, a non-renewable resource, and companies which manufacture them often try to use the best possible environmental practices. Furthermore, bioplastics decompose rapidly; the life cycle of a plastic bottle made from bioplastic is extremely short. In fact, some bottles made from bioplastics will even start to deform and leak if they are kept on the shelf too long.

However, bioplastics are not without environmental issues. The production of such plastics requires dedicating large areas of farmland to the production of crops for plastics, rather than food, and these crops eat up a great deal of water, fuel, and other resources. Bioplastics must also be manufactured with the assistance of a variety of chemicals, and, like regular plastics, they require shipping to an end destination, consuming more fuel along the way. Because they are designed to be disposable while still being relatively environmentally friendly, some activists fear that they may also distract consumers from more environmentally friendly choices, like reusable glass and metal containers.

Depending on the size of a bottling plant, a company will either order preforms and use them as needed, or it will order plastic bottles which are ready for use. The plastic bottles must be sterilized so that they are safe for beverages, and then they are filled, capped, labeled, packed into cases, and prepared for shipping. 

At this stage in the life cycle of a plastic bottle, the bottle could end up in any number of places, from a relief camp for refugees to the shelf at a high-end supermarket.

One distinct advantage to plastic bottles, in the eyes of manufacturers, is that they are extremely sturdy, making it much easier to ship beverages in plastics than glass, cardboard, metal, and other containers. Plastic bottles are also extremely lightweight, with manufacturers constantly coming up with new ways to use less plastic in their containers to cut down on the cost of production and shipping. Shipping materials in lightweight materials is also good for the environment, as it cuts down on fuel costs.

Once a PET plastic bottle ends up in the hands of an end-consumer, it has three possible fates after its contents have been consumed: it may be reused, recycled, or thrown away.

 PET bottles recycling process

recycling of PET bottles requires large amounts of water and energy

Despite the fact that most plastic bottles are made from PET plastic and this plastic is very easy to recycle, recycling rates for plastic bottles are actually very low, globally. Anywhere between 15-35% of plastic bottles make their way into recycling facilities, depending on the region, with the rest ending up in landfills or as litter. Some countries have attempted to address the low recycling rate with incentives, but because plastic bottles are cheap and easily accessible, many of these programs have not worked.

Many people believe that re-use, followed by recycling, is the best use for a plastic bottle. PET plastic can be reused, although people should avoid using it to contain hot or corrosive materials, and they should take care to wash such bottles out carefully. Plastic bottles can be very hospitable for bacteria, thereby potentially causing a health risk for people who drink from them. After a plastic bottle has been reused as many times as possible, it should ideally be recycled.

In recycling, plastic bottles are shredded into chips which are then sterilized and sold to companies which produce products made from recycled plastic. This stage in the life cycle of a plastic bottle can get quite interesting, as these plastic chips can be used for everything from fleece blankets to artificial lumber. Many products which are made from recycled plastic clearly indicate this, for consumers who would prefer to promote the use of recycled, rather than virgin, plastics.

When a plastic bottle enters a landfill, it can take hundreds of years to decay, and it can have a profound environmental impact. The route to the landfill is often quite long, as plastic bottles are a very common form of litter around the world, requiring volunteers or government agencies to collect such bottles and bring them to a facility for recycling or other forms of disposal. As plastic bottles decay, they take up precious landfill space, and some leach harmful chemicals into the ground, potentially polluting the soil and water.

 plastic codes

ekuazion recommend avoiding the use of these two types of plastics: PVC and PS (polystyrene)

Because landfills are so tightly packed, some scientists are concerned that the rate of decay in landfills could be even slower than previously surmised, as the conditions are not optimal for breakdown. Landfills in general pose a serious problem in many parts of the world, as they contain a broad mixture of items which could potentially be recycled, including precious metals, along with potentially dangerous and toxic products. Plastic bottles take up an alarming amount of landfill space, especially when one considers that they shouldn't be in landfills at all.

Not all discarded plastic bottles make their way into landfills, either. The world's oceans host a steadily growing collection of plastics, most notably in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. These plastics come from litter, poorly secured landfills, spilled shipping containers, and a variety of other sources, and they take centuries to break down, even assisted by corrosive saltwater and UV radiation. The proliferation of plastics in the world's oceans poses a serious threat to many marine organisms, and some scientists are concerned that, rather than breaking down entirely, plastics actually break down into very small segments which could potentially be consumed by microscopic organisms.

This could have serious environmental repercussions, as such organisms are not equipped to digest plastics. Therefore they could die in mass numbers, or be consumed by animals higher up the food chain. This could potentially cause such predator organisms to accumulate a variety of the hazardous substances used in plastic production, leading to a breakdown in the health of the world's oceans as well as impacting the health of animals (including humans) which use these organisms as a source of food.

In the case of plastic bottles manufactured from bioplastics, the life cycle of a plastic bottle is quite a bit different. Many such bottles are designed to be disposable, and they will quickly compost under the right conditions, typically those found in a municipal composting facility, rather than a home compost heap. When composted, bioplastics simply return to the Earth; when such plastics end up in landfills, they will also break down, although the decay process may take longer, due to the lack of aeration in landfills.

The stages in the life cycle of a plastic bottle are largely determined by the type of plastic it is made from and the people who interact with the bottle over its lifetime. Because consumers have a powerful role in the end fate of the plastics they use, many environmental organizations have focused heavily consumers, asking them to reduce their use of plastics, reuse them when possible, and ultimately recycle them, in the hopes of reducing the environmental impact of plastics.

The next time you see something in a plastic bottle at the store, you can think about the fact that it contains substances which are billions of years old, and that it may have traveled across great distances to reach the shelf. 

 

 

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