Innovations Around the World
Words by Abigail Tapp
Caught up in the minutiae of day-to-day life it’s easy to forget that there are people and projects out there creating waves of change on every scale. As Markus Zusak says in I Am the Messenger, “Big things are often just small things that are noticed.” Here are some up-and-coming innovations around the world that we think are pretty rad.
Transport for Recycling in Surabaya, Indonesia
Bandung River in Indonesia was so choked with plastic waste early in 2018 that you could hardly see the water. The government had to call in the army to clean it out, but that was a short-term solution at best. With Indonesia having one of the world’s largest waste problems, much of it ended up flowing into the ocean.
A global study conducted in 2015 found that Indonesia was second only to China in the volume of plastic it dumped into the ocean. In these dire circumstances, Surabaya– the country’s second largest city – instigated a new approach. By recycling plastic bottles, residents are able to claim free rides on city buses. Five plastic bottles – or ten plastic cups – can be exchanged for a two-hour bus ticket. Passengers are able to drop off their ‘fare’ at terminals or pay directly on the bus. This has also proven to be a great initiative to encourage the use of public transport in a city where traditionally 75% of trips happen in private vehicles.
KAALINK and AIR-INK
Over the last three years the team at Graviky Labs has been working on a revolutionary device that turns air pollution into ink. AIR-INK is a sharp, black matte ink, which is made by recycling fine particulate matter (PM 2.5/soot) produced by the burning of fossil fuels. The size of this particulate matter is so small that it is able to penetrate the lungs, thereby creating health complications. When disposed of improperly in streams, this matter also pollutes soil, crops, and negatively impacts the health of aquatic organisms. By capturing, confining and binding fine particulate matter to high-grade ink, pollution is greatly reduced in tandem with the creation of a useful commodity in an eco-friendly manner.
Creating Water Foundation
Lima is one of the driest regions of Peru. The people there face major difficulties in finding water that is safe for consumption. About two million people live without access to safe, drinkable water and the readily available water is disease-ridden. Safe drinking water is brought in by trucks which create a huge carbon footprint; in addition, it is very expensive and the drinking water is still not sufficient.
Creating Water is a foundation which sets up ‘fogfarming’ in such regions. Fogfarming is a sustainable, passive technique that captures safe and sufficient water for reasonable prices. It depends almost entirely on the presence of frequent fog and wind.
In fogfarming, nets are set up in such a way that the wind and fog pass through them. The density of the fog, wind speed and direction, and the material of the mesh nets are the most important factors for successful fogfarming. Wind pushes the fog through the mesh and the water condenses on the surface in small droplets. Gravity comes into play and pulls the droplets into a tube which guides the water to a tank. It is a fairly simple process which is passive and doesn’t require any other energy aside from the filtering process.
The collected water can be used for drinking or growing crops. One fogfarming unit can harvest up to 400 litres of water per day. This water is usually safe to drink and is free from bacteria. Creating Water works with small communities all over the world,training and educating people in the process of fogfarming.
Plastic Roads in India
Anybody who has travelled to India will tell you that driving there is a different experience altogether. The motorists have very little regard for basic road rules, no intention of staying in their lane – EVER – and the traffic police seem to create more trouble than they reduce. However, the biggest problem with the Indian roads are the roads themselves. It seems like the roads need resurfacing every few months. After just the first few rains of the monsoon, huge potholes – a major hazard to motorists and pedestrians – start to form.
In 2001 when the Indian government started making noise about enforcing a plastic ban, one man – Dr Rajagopalan Vasudevan the Dean and Professor of Chemistry at the Thiagarajar College of Engineering in Madurai, Tamil Nadu – started experimenting with plastic waste and developed a way to use it to pave roads. He paved an 18 metre road within the campus with plastic-modified bitumen that is still intact today. He received a patent for the process in 2006, and since then more than 33,000 kilometres of road have been paved with plastic. Roughly half of these roads are in the state of Tamil Nadu and some have been built in cities like Chennai and Mumbai.
These plastic roads are highly durable and are able to withstand major floods, heatwaves and a steady stream of vehicles without showing signs of the usual wear and tear. Jambulingam Street in Chennai is one such road. Built in 2002, this was one of the first roads to be paved with this totally remarkable, yet unremarkable material – a cheap, polymer glue made from shredded plastic waste – that still hasn’t developed the collection of cracks, potholes and craters that usually make their appearance during the monsoon.