Here’s news about a plastic recycling centre and devices which power themselves. Next month the international conference for the Green Purchasing Network is on in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 18-20 September and we will be there to speak and report. We will also be reporting even more about eco-products, green purchasing, sustainable supply chains and all the other impacts of the greening of the world of goods and services as we come on board the Green Purchasing Network for Singapore. Read More

Environmental Leader (21 August 2013):

Command Packaging to Open Agricultural Plastic Recycling Center

Command Packaging is planning to tun part of the former Firestone plant outside of Salinas, Calif., into a 124,500-square-foot recycling facility for plastics from the agricultural industry.

Encore Recycling, as the new operation will be known, will eventually turn 100 million pounds of agricultural plastic each year into reusable plastic bags.

The plant will immediately provide 40 manufacturing jobs in October and up to 100 by 2014. CEO Pete Grande said if the company is successful he foresees hiring 500 people.

Grande said his company will invest $8 million to get the facility off the ground and, if his plan to sell reusable plastic bags works out, up to $40 million.

Although there are recycling facilities in the area, Command general manager Aviv Halimi said none of them could handle the scale of plastic needed to be recycled by the agricultural industry. He also said many products used by growers are not accepted by recyclers, such as strawberry mulch, the massive plastic sheets which cover strawberry fields.

Dole’s Thomas Flewell says the operation will recycle 135 tons of his company’s plastic each year, resulting in ‘”significant cost savings.”

In a further nod to sustainability, water used at the facility will be in a 100 percent “closed loop,” meaning all water used in the wash will be reused.

In July, UK specialty paper company James Cropper opened what it says is the world’s first facility that will recycle disposable coffee cups and reuse the pulp to make paper.

Until now, the plastic content of cups has made them unsuitable for use in papermaking, James Cropper says. In the UK alone, the company estimates about 2.5 billion paper cups go to landfill.

Source: www.environmentalleader.com

Green Purchasing EXPO 2013

18 – 20 September 2013,

Sunway Resort Hotel and Spa,

MAXIMISING GREEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR ORGANISATIONS

The three day conference will bring together world renowned experts and practitioners with more than a decade of green purchasing and green productivity experiences. Experts will share the critical factors & conditions for the successful implementation of green purchasing and green productivity; and how to formulate a strategic approach to resource productivity in industry, agriculture, retail and service sectors.

Day 1 and 2: will examine how the roadmap for government green procurement (GGP) has been successfully implemented in advanced green purchasing countries. Japan has successfully implemented 100% Green Procurement in 22 local governments and is working to achieve 100% implementation for all other local government in Japan.Strategies, techniques and mechanism such as resource productivity, eco design and materials, eco-labels, biomass and green supply chain to achieve successful green purchasing in governments, private enterprises and the retail sectors will be shared.

Day 3: will discuss how to build Safe and Green Commercial complexes and high rise buildings. Case studies will be taken from Kuala Lumpur City. Techniques for keeping complexes safe and green through the mobilization of safety strategies and the efficient use of waste resources will ensure better bottom lines for all owners.

DRIVING SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PROCUREMENT PRACTICES

Buying and selling ‘green’ is no longer a trend but an essential part of building and driving sustainable business practices. Now more than ever supply chain practitioners have to heed the clarion call to adopt more efficient spending and investment processes in order to achieve environmental, social, and economic objectives (UNEP 2012).

Green buyers have the opportunity to adopt a myriad of green and ethical purchasing options. This passive solution allows for new markets to be created with emphasis on innovations in green technology, green productivity practices, and eco-friendly business operation.

CONFERENCE COVERAGE :

• Rationale for green purchasing and how to tap on this opportunity

• Ethical, social and Government Green Procurement policies internationally and by local government

• The best way of implementing Green Purchasing and Green Productivity and the resulting benefits

• How to measure GP processes?

• Strategic Green Productivity through Green Purchasing

• Best practises and case studies on Green Purchasing and Green Productivity process

• Update on the latest Fire Hazards Abatement strategies and Effective control on waste resource recovery to maximize profits for owners

• To enhance safety in work place and create fire safety awareness through the efficient management of fire risks, waste recycling and fire certification.

Source: www.gpnm.org

New wireless devices need no power supply, can harvest energy from TV towers

By Derek Markham in Treehugger (19 August 2013):

Wireless devices and sensors capable of sending and receiving data may soon be able to also harvest the power they need, right from the air, thanks to the radio waves that already emanate from cellphone and TV towers.

To really take advantage of the coming “Internet of Things”, a whole lot of sensors and microcomputers will be needed, all of which will require some method of being powered, preferably without needing any cords or wires. And while putting a battery onboard the device is one solution, it also creates another issue, which is the need to replace or recharge all of those batteries at certain points in their life. But a new breakthrough from engineers at the University of Washington could help to do away with the need for a battery for some wireless devices altogether.

The team at UW has developed a technique they call “ambient backscatter”, which can let devices use the cellular and TV transmissions already being broadcast around us, reflecting those signals to send and receive their own data to similar devices, without the need for a battery or other power source.

“We can repurpose wireless signals that are already around us into both a source of power and a communication medium. It’s hopefully going to have applications in a number of areas including wearable computing, smart homes and self-sustaining sensor networks.” – Shyam Gollakota, lead researcher and UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering

“Our devices form a network out of thin air. You can reflect these signals slightly to create a Morse code of communication between battery-free devices.” – Joshua Smith, co-author and a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering and of electrical engineering

To test the ambient backscatter technology, the researchers set up a small testing network in Seattle, and the devices were able to communicate with each other, as sensors would in a real-world application, even up to 6.5 miles away from a TV tower.

The future of the Internet of Things might get a jumpstart with the ability to use wireless power transmission for its sensors and microcomputers, because removing the need for a power source will greatly increase the possibilities for connected devices.

“Our devices form a network out of thin air. You can reflect these signals slightly to create a Morse code of communication between battery-free devices.” – Joshua Smith, co-author and a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering and of electrical engineering

To test the ambient backscatter technology, the researchers set up a small testing network in Seattle, and the devices were able to communicate with each other, as sensors would in a real-world application, even up to 6.5 miles away from a TV tower.

The future of the Internet of Things might get a jumpstart with the ability to use wireless power transmission for its sensors and microcomputers, because removing the need for a power source will greatly increase the possibilities for connected devices.

It’s possible that small sensors could be built right into any device or structure, without the need for later access to replace the batteries, or built with a very tiny physical footprint to be placed in hard to reach places. For example, building these into some of our urban infrastructure, such as bridges, tunnels, subways, etc., could allow for real-time monitoring of the conditions or integrity of the structures, without requiring a remote power source.

Researchers also noted that the technology could be built into devices that also have an onboard battery, such as cellphones, so that even if that battery were to die, text messages could still be sent using ambient backscatter, powered by a TV tower.

Source: www.treehugger.com