Longtime Nurse Turns Hospital’s Trash into Treasure

Treehugger.com

Ever wonder what happens to the many plastic parts used to maintain hospital tools when they’re no longer needed? For one healthcare employee, they become a work of art.

Tilda Shalof was an ICU nurse at Toronto General Hospital for nearly three decades, and in that time, she collected hundreds of lids, levers, screws, and connectors of various colours. Why? Because none of them were true biomedical waste.

Having been removed from their tools before use and otherwise untouched, Shalof decided to bring the pieces home and put them to use again. With the help of two experienced artists, she created a thirty-six square foot mosaic of reds, blues, greens, yellows, purples, and oranges. The finished product has been mounted on the wall of Shalof’s old workplace.

The nurse-turned-radiologist even took the time to describe what the parts were all for. Everything from blood culture case lids to adrenaline injection tops make up the mosaic, all colour coded differently. The artwork, according to Shalof, is a sort of farewell to the many patients she tended to at Toronto General Hospital.

Shalof’s new radiology career is at a different hospital, and though she keeps on collecting pieces, she writes books in her spare time, too. In more ways than one, she has managed to turn waste into wonder and keep her creativity flowing. 

Source: http://www.garbagebinrentals.ca/waste-collection-removal-disposal-blog/393-longtime-nurse-turns-hospital-s-trash-into-treasure.html

Ohio Inmates Construct Computers out of Trash to Obtain Internet Connection

Hacker News

A 2015 incident has been released to the public about two prisoners in an Ohio jail who created personal computers from discarded electronic parts. The inmates were able to conceal the computers in the training room ceiling and hook the devices up to the internet through the prison network.

This occurrence came to light after a year of collecting evidence in a recent fifty page report, written by the state’s Office of the Inspector. The parts recovered by inmates were part of a program in the correctional facility to reuse pieces of old electronics, reducing the building’s waste.

The two prisoners quickly secured a network connection to their devices and began looking through the digital files of their peers. Furthering their legal offence, they found ways to create imitation passes for restricted areas, fraudulent credit cards, and fatal weaponry. It was also determined that pornography sites, online chat rooms, forged signature certificates, and other related media were accessed.

Although only two inmates executed the entirety of the plan, they were aided by three others along the way, all of whom had some kind of involvement with the correctional facility’s rehabilitation programs. Each of the five prisoners is now in a new building.

Ohio’s prison staff will put preventative measures into place for the future, being sure to maintain programs that will allow behaved inmates to grow.

Source: http://www.garbagebinrentals.ca/waste-collection-removal-disposal-blog/395-ohio-inmates-construct-computers-out-of-trash-to-obtain-internet-connection.html

How One NGO is Using Recycled ‘Mata Ki Chunni’ to Make Wedding Dresses for the Under-Privileged

An Indian wedding is a big event in just about all possible ways. But it’s also expensive for many family, especially those with less money to spend on the event.

That’s why an NGO called Goonj, based in Delhi, has made it their mission to make sure people with limited financial resources to have all they desire out of their wedding. Goonj goes about this by obtaining wedding dresses that have been worn from people in wealthier cities, redesigning them and then distributing them through local panchayats to people in rural areas.

How? By reusing and recycling ‘mata ki chunni’ (which is often used in large amounts in religious ceremonies) to manufacture lehengas for women getting married. Since many dispose of their chunnis into the river or simply give them away to others, Goonj is asking for people to donate these items to make wedding kits.

With a touch of innovation and skill, this shimmery cloth makes can be used to make stunning apparel. Then there are the kits, which come with an assortment of items like purses, footwear, clothing, cosmetics and other makeup. Because of this, much of the expense for the bride’s and bridegroom’s kin is gone and now the wedding can be had for much less.

Since being founded, Goonj has been able to send 100s of kits to people in various regions, making so many lives better. Those who receive these kits talk about how they exceed their expectations and allow them to experience a bit of luxury that they would otherwise never have.

A standard Wedding Kit comes with wedding dresses for both the bridegroom and the bride, footwear, a purse, jewelry, general clothing, bed sheets, a set of utensils etc.

Source: http://www.garbagebinrentals.ca/waste-collection-removal-disposal-blog/392-how-one-ngo-is-using-recycled-mata-ki-chunni-to-make-wedding-dresses-for-the-under-privileged.html

The First Ever Thrift Mall has Opened in Sweden

If you enjoy hunting for good deals and being eco-friendly, you’ll love the new mall in Eskilstuna, Sweden, that exclusively houses secondhand products in both original and repaired condition.

The shopping center, dubbed ReTuna Återbruksgalleria, allows shoppers to recycle their old items and take home new ones in a single trip. Donated items are cleaned and repaired as needed before being set up into smaller individual shops that each cater to a theme, including textiles, electronics, and outdoor equipment.

For hungry customers, ReTuna Återbruksgalleria offers an organic restaurant, and for those wanting to learn more about being kinder to the earth, there exists a specialized education program for recycling studies within the walls of the center.

Not only has this revolutionary new mall prevented garbage buildup by more than a margin, it has also provided fifty stable jobs for Swedish entrepreneurs and repair workers. These employment and waste reduction benefits are nothing to scoff at, and in fact set an example for other developed countries.

This new facility has produced nothing but positive results. The nation’s people can participate proudly, knowing they have contributed to the preservation of the planet and saved money while doing it. 

Source: http://www.garbagebinrentals.ca/waste-collection-removal-disposal-blog/391-the-first-ever-thrift-mall-has-opened-in-sweden.html

Got Garbage? Get a Fire-Breathing Drone

There could be no need for dumps or days dedicated to street cleaning in the future thanks to a utility company located in the Chinese city of Xiangyang. Their newest and perhaps most useful creation is a remote controlled fire-breathing drone that incinerates waste with just a few powerful blasts.

It was the constant garbage pileup on local power lines that prompted the development of this unconventional product. Currently, a cherry picker equipped with several technicians travels to the pileup points and manually cleans the lines. It’s a fine fix for the time being, but it’s too dangerous and time-consuming to continue indefinitely.

By bringing fire-breathing drones into the picture, the job becomes effortless, and technicians can focus on more important tasks. The clean-up team is swapped out with one drone managed by a pair of workers, who control the drone to set the garbage aflame from the safety of the ground below.

A project as specific as this one will need time before it’s perfect and readily available. The firestarter drone isn’t, however, the first of its kind. Last year, the US formally tested flame-equipped drones approved by the FAA and NASA to spark fires that remained tame. Additionally, university researchers at the Homestead National Monument of America, located in Nebraska, experimented with a different drone that serves the same purpose. This drone releases flammable pellets that ignite upon impact, and it managed to spread fire across twenty-six acres of long grass.

Even more bizarre is the possibility of drone-cooking, which uses a firestarter drone to torch raw food into a hot meal. So far, only a turkey has been tested on. As long as they serve a good purpose, drones are sure to be part of our future.

Source: http://www.garbagebinrentals.ca/waste-collection-removal-disposal-blog/390-got-garbage-get-a-fire-breathing-drone.html

Bottle Deposits to End Plastic Ocean Pollution

How? By introducing a small and refundable deposit on all cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles to help promote recycling for the 16 million plastic bottles that are thrown in the trash every day.
 

Why does this matter?
 

In the United Kingdom for example, over 38.5 million single-use plastic bottles and 58 million cans are used by consumers every day. Worse, only half of these wind up recycle, so it’s not surprising that so many wind up in our oceans and our beaches.
 

Plastic bottles also take about 450 years to fully break down, which can kill ocean life, harm ecosystems and harm our beaches.
 

By putting a small deposit on all cans and plastic bottles, we could hugely increase the amount recycled, thereby reducing marine plastic pollution.

Source: http://www.garbagebinrentals.ca/waste-collection-removal-disposal-blog/389-bottle-deposits-to-end-plastic-ocean-pollution.html

Volvo’s First Electric Car is Coming Fast

The company’s first electric car is expected by 2019 and costs $40,000. More details have been revealed by Volvo about the car it plans to bring to market in 2019.

The company told automotive news that the car’s range will be 250 miles and it will cost between $35,000-$40,000 for a starter model.
 

This is the latest development in a market battle among the automotive giants. They want to compete with companies like GM by producing long-range electric vehicles that can be mass marketed and outdo previous versions.
 

The Chevy Bolt by GM starts at $36,620 and comes with a 238-mile range. Tesla is also upping its game with a new Model 3 Sedan, expected to cost $35,000 and come with a range of 215, by the end of the year.
 

However, Volvo has yet to provide details on the specific kind of electric vehicle it will bring to market in 2019. The Swedish car giant entered the electric vehicle space in August 2015 by releasing a plug-in hybrid version of its XC90 SUV. By 2025, the company is hoping to put one million electric vehicles on the road worldwide.

Source: http://www.garbagebinrentals.ca/waste-collection-removal-disposal-blog/388-volvo-s-first-electric-car-is-coming-fast.html