waste for life

Making Composites at the CEP

efeinblatt — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:33:50 +0000

Carlos and his CEP group are getting a lot of airtime recently. The extract below is from a TVPublicaArgentina program entitled Recurso Natural.

Hot off the Press (the other kind of press)

efeinblatt — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:53:35 +0000

The online magazine, eGFI, a publication of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), has just published a story about our collaboration with RISD. Take a look.
http://students.egfi-k12.org/waste-for-life-making-trash-useful/

The Beat Waste Startup Challenge

efeinblatt — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 05:23:17 +0000

Myoo Create, one of David de Rothschild’s Adventure Ecology offshoots, has created a Beat Waste Startup Challenge that we have entered. For better or worse, it’s a popularity contest – though the judges do have final say. The prize fund is $25,000, and a first or second place in the contest would go a long way toward helping our project in BsAs. Your vote really counts, so please support us now. You will need to register, and then confirm your email address, then vote —- but if you do so you can push us over the top. It only takes a couple of minutes.
http://www.myoocreate.com/challenges/the-plastiki-beat-waste-startup-challenge/entries/103

Don’t delay because voting ends very soon, and we are very, very close.

Hotpress Innovation

efeinblatt — Thu, 13 May 2010 10:22:08 +0000

The UWA hotpress is not exactly in action yet – lacking the electrical work and some minor tweaking – but enough is there to see what changes Derek Goad has made to Darko’s original design. Take a look specifically at the counterweight that allows the press to open like a clamshell and, especially, the way Derek slides the bottom plate in and out (guides are not yet fitted). With two bottom plates – one on each side – this would be one way of streamlining operations. Derek is speaking with Ross Rynehart who has lived part-time for many years in a tiny village in eastern Bali. The village is suffering from a severe plastic waste problem that is killing off some of the animals who ingest the plastic bags and frustrating tourism. We are in the early stages of exploring a local Waste for Life project with Ross.

Survival Architecture

efeinblatt — Thu, 13 May 2010 06:32:18 +0000

Responding to emergency needs in the wake of recent disasters in Haiti and Chile, Carlos Levinton and his group at the CEP (Centro Experimental de la Produccion) have been developing architectural + social models that address the ecological and economic disruptions which disproportionately affect society’s poorest members. His Tire House is an example of CEP research into Soft System or ‘liquid’ architecture, which in their lexicon is survival architecture, and is part of a larger scheme predicated on social self-management methods as a means to promote environmental and social justice. According to CEP calculations, 200,000 Geo homes can be built within 1 month using 80 million tires (250 million are thrown away in the US alone every year) and plastic waste as core building blocks.

Below is an interview with Carlos on public television in Argentina. Below that is a tire house schematic.

Building Upon What’s Been Built

efeinblatt — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:05:47 +0000

In conjunction with a winter semester 2010 course being taught by Joshua Pearce at Queens University, MECH 425 – Engineering for Sustainable Development, senior Nate Preston is reviewing, evaluating, and illustrating the Kingston Hotpress design via a public Appropredia wiki. His astute insights can be found here.

Update from Smith: April 8th

Francesca@Smith — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:48:17 +0000

Brainstorming – What do we have? Where do we go?

Our homework from last class was to get together in groups and brainstorm products. The following ideas emerged: bags, toilet seat covers, guitar picks, plastic Armstrong bracelet, book covers, floor mats, pencil cases, baskets and totes, flippers, floor tiles.

However the PROBLEM is that all these products are cheap and relatively easy to make. We need something with a greater value added that does not reflect the item itself but how the product is made. So we went back to brainstorming and this time also took into account the product thickness and potential toxicity. It was recommended that we look at Bailey’s Green Composite book.

Now our next focus is expensive items but first we must find a market. Claire (who spent the previous year studying abroad in Argentina) is our resident expert. She suggested “craft fairs” or open-air markets that are a hotspot for tourists. It is apparently very easily to be a vendor and just requires a license from the city. We are now seeking a product idea that will have the following criteria: crafty design, value imbedded in product design not product use, luxury item, minimal thickness, and low regard for potential toxicity (i.e. not involved with foodstuffs). For advice, we look to ideas already in use by Waste for Life (chair, sunglasses, buttons, doll, wallets, rain boots, bag, wine holder (great idea!), clock.

After some more brainstorming, we come up with the following product ideas: jewelry, belts, buttons, aprons, sailboat sails, umbrellas, Frisbees, hammock, jump rope, headbands, beads, picture frame and suite case.

This is a great starting point but we want to come up with more ideas. This weekend’s goal is for each group to prepare five products. However, the clock is ticking and we have a presentation to the college this Saturday, April 17^th. We really need to have product ideas finalized and sketches by this Tuesday’s class.

As a side note, would the city of Buenos Aires be willing to provide a contract with the cartoneros to create picnic benches/ park furniture out of the recycled plastic?

As of now, we have the following questions and would love feedback:

- What is the toxicity of these plastics?

- How do you cut them? Can you use something resembling a cookie cutter?

3/30 Mission & Criteria

sbeck — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 05:06:58 +0000

[ hide ]

Today at Smith, looking at the Waste For Life book we gathered that the mission of WFL is to promote poverty reducing solutions to environmental problems. With that in mind, we decided that our mission for the Waste For Life project in Buenos Aires would be to brainstorm product ideas.

Our mission and the following criteria are a work in progress so please let us know if we are on the right track for what you would like from us.

The criteria we put together for these product ideas consists of their:

Usefulness: Can it be used frequently? Is it practical? Is there a need for it?
Success: Do customers like it? Does it sell easily? Will it be profitable? Is it technically feasible? Is it Safe?
Marketability: Who is your market? Cost? Are there potential untapped markets we could help reach?
Relevance: Who are we selling to???
Appropriateness: Value judgment (who decides)? Culturally congruent? Is there competition with other businesses? Dealings with market realities? Protection for locally manufactured products?
Uniqueness: Different from existing products? RISD? Innovative? Whats available in Buenos Aires?

For all of the criteria our biggest question is whom are we making the products for and selling to (i.e. the carteneros, their families, tourists etc.)?

For the near future we plan to begin brainstorming ideas and discuss “What are the limits of a product?”

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Some Magazine News about the RISD/Waste For Life Collaboration

efeinblatt — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:05:20 +0000

Here are links to two recent articles from treehugger and ecouterre about our collaboration with RISD:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/cool-and-easy-to-make-recycled-plastic-bags-rain-boots.php

http://www.ecouterre.com/14353/turn-used-plastic-bags-into-a-pair-of-upcycled-rain-boots/

Maseru Aloe Multi-Purpose Cooperative Union Receives UNDP Grant

efeinblatt — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:35:42 +0000

Thimothy, who returned to Lesotho in December to become a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the National University of Lesotho (NUL), coordinated the effort to bring a Waste for Life project back to the country where the idea originally germinated. Read his summary of the project, which will go into full swing beginning this summer: http://wasteforlife.org/?p=363