What are the Solutions?: Technology

Introduction:

     

"Innovative bottom up methods will solve problems that now seem intractable- from energy to poverty to disease. Science and technology, powered by the fuel of entrepreneurial energy, are the largest multipliers of resources we have to solve our many social problems."        

-Vinod Khosla-

 

         In order to stop the harm that is being done to our earth, we must think of solutions.  These solutions can be found and accomplished when groups of people work together.  This section will showcase how the various parts can come together to reach the goal.  Partnerships between companies with a common goal can help ideas become realities.  Entrepreneurs who are willing to work hard can make their dreams come true.  Technology, Foundations, and even Individuals are all part of the solution.  As we teach the world about Sustainability and Stewardship we hope that more people will be willing to become Stewards of our Earth.  This is a global effort.

 

 

Vaporizing Garbage :

 

         St. Lucie County, located in Florida, USA, is having a new facility built that will vaporize their garbage at temperatures that will be hotter than some areas of the sun.  This plant will cost $425 million and will virtually eliminate the county's need for a dump.  In addition, it is estimated that this facility will be able to vaporize all of the garbage that had been sitting in St. Lucie's dump since 1978 in only 18 years.  That's 4.3 million tons of garbage.  Everything that is vaporized will be used, according to a Geoplasma spokesperson, the company that is constructing and funding this project.  Burnable gases produced during the vaporizing process will run turbines which will create electricity.  The plant will actually use less energy that it will generate.  The facility will sell 80,000 pounds steam to a nearby Tropicana Facility every day to help power their juice turbines.  The waste from the St. Lucie's County land fill will be vaporized into a hard substance called slag and sold to companies for construction work.

 

         “This is Sustainability in its truest and finest form," said Hilburn Hillestad, the president of Geoplasma.  “The facility will vaporize garbage nonstop, 24/7.  The only emissions will be from the gas from the turbines and even that will be safer than burning natural gas or coal”. If this facility in St. Lucie works well, other cities may consider vaporization too. There are already two similar facilities in Japan that vaporize garbage, but they are smaller and cannot incinerate nearly as much trash.

 

         This garbage vaporizing plant is a good example of how technology can be used to solve some of our ecological problems.  It not only gets rid of the garbage, but generates electricity from the gasses produced.  It is this type of forward thinking that will be part of the solution.

 

 

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Sources:

 

Carter, Rebecca. “St. Lucie Will Vaporize Trash”.  Greener Miami. 12 September 2007. Accessed 12 January 2008. <http://www.greenermiami.com/greenermiami/2006/09/st_lucie_will_v.html?cid=96641762#comment-96641762>

 

“County to Vaporize Trash – Poof!” Associated Press. 9 September 2006. Wired. Accessed 12 January 2008.  <http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/09/71757>

 

Kunii, Irene M. “Turning Trash into Cash”. Business Week.  27 October 2003.Mc Graw Hill Companies. Accessed 12 January 2008.   <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_43/b3855017.htm>

 

Zazaian, Mike. “Florida County to Vaporize 30 years of trash..For Energy”. Daily Tech News and Free Press. 10 September 2006. Accessed 12 January 2008. <http://techfreep.com/florida-county-to-vaporize-30-years-of-trash-for-energy.htm>  

 

Photograph: D’Arcy Norma. “Calgary NW Landfill – 3”. Flickr.com. Accessed 12 January 2008. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnorman/251646154/>

Used in accordance with the Creative Commons License. <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en>