Recycling
Cell Phones for Charity
Run by The Canadian Association
of Food Banks, thINK FOOD/Phones-for-Food has begun
a very successful program for raising money and
all they need is your old cell phone and your used
ink printer cartridges.
The phones and cartridges are refurbished and resold for
money that is then used to buy food. The costs to The Canadian
Association of Food Banks is zero and consequently all profits
can be transformed directly into food for the hungry.
Additionally, the value of this service is two-fold. Not
only is it helping to feed hungry Canadians, but it is also
reducing harmful waste by recycling non-biodegradable products.
Taking advantage of the fact that Canadians on average,
replace their cell phones every 18 months, thINK FOOD/Phones-for-Food
has raised over $300,000 to date.
To find out more, including where your nearest drop box
is, visit: http://www.think-food.com/en/index.html.
The Carbon Cyclone
Dustin Hughes, a 17-year-old
from South Porcupine, Ontario, has developed
a prototype of a device that can draw carbon
from the atmosphere while storing electrical
energy.
The idea came to him after reading about NASA’s plans
for a mission to Mars in which NASA proposed a method of
generating energy on the planet by sucking carbon out of
the atmosphere. When he considered Earth’s problems
with excess carbon he decided to explore the possibilities
of a more terrestrial device.
Dustin started by studying wind columns, which are used
by factories to move CO2 into the atmosphere. He then researched
and found a way to reverse the process, drawing the carbon
out of the atmosphere.
Dustin’s remarkable prototype can remove 26 gig tonnes
of CO2 from the atmosphere per year and convert it into
two types of gaseous fuel. This would be enough to bring
the global carbon cycle back into balance with 50-100 years
and for Canada to meet it’s Kyoto Protocol requirements
within one year. It can also store 50 tonnes of radioactive
waste, and generate enough power to sustain the daily electrical
needs of a town of 50,000 people.
For a more detailed look at Dustin’s work, visit:
http://quark.physics.uwo.ca/teamcana/2005/dustin_hughes.pdf.
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