waste free era: bringing sustainability to alegria through ... · during the 2016 summer olympics,...
TRANSCRIPT
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
1 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
Waste Free ERA: Bringing Sustainability to Alegria
Through a Complex System of Systems
Alegria, meaning “joy” in Portuguese, is located on the eastern shores of South
America. In the year 2166, Alegria’s population of 8.6 million enjoys a mildly tropical
climate, a coastal location and year-round urban farming. This beautiful Brazilian resort
city, formerly known as Rio de Janeiro, is famous for its fabulous Copacabana Beach
and dazzling Carnival celebration. The University of Alegria offers world-class
education, research, cultural museums and hospitals.
Alegria won the prestigious Living City Certification®, recognizing it for excellence in
each sustainability category (Petals). Unique features of Living Cities include beauty,
water conservation, renewable energy and environmentally safe construction materials.
Alegrian buildings feature on-site energy production, hydroponic rooftop gardens,
rainwater capture and natural beauty. Buildings are constructed without red-list
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
2 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
materials. Underwater Ocean Turbines provide Alegria’s renewable tidal energy. Point-
to-point maglev sky pods provide efficient commute times. Residents bike share or walk
among urban green spaces and edible parks. Interactive, holographic lessons provide
Alegrians with personalized, life-long education. The economy is driven by tourism and
high-tech industry, including the renowned NanoApp Inc. and the Materials Genome
Headquarters. Alegria is a beautiful, equitable and waste-free city.
History
During the 2016 Summer Olympics, all the world was watching Rio de Janeiro.
However, Brazil was the fifth largest global producer of trash, and Rio’s overflowing
dumps polluted Guanabara Bay. An inadequate, costly waste management system
harmed the environment with fossil fuel emissions and sent 27 billion tons of trash per
year to unsafe destinations. The only recycling system was the catadores, citizens who
hand-picked the recyclable goods from the dumps. Everyone realized drastic change
was necessary.
Finding a Solution
Trash disposal was a difficult problem. Waste consisted of organics, single-use
packaging, biomedical products, electronics, durable goods, paper, plastic, glass and
aluminum. Since waste is a misplaced resource, engineers collaborated to create a
closed-loop, complex system of systems which outlines the flow of all goods in a waste-
free city: The Waste Free Eleven Rs Approach (ERA). All types of waste are redesigned
and reused for new products. Organic waste is converted into energy and digestate
through anaerobic digestion. No waste is incinerated, keeping the environment free of
dioxins, and ERA leaves no carbon footprint.
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
3 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
The Waste Free Eleven Rs Approach (ERA)
Government, manufacturers, and the public took the
Responsibility to Reduce and Recognize the value of all resources.
Resources are identified and sent to:
A. Rot: Decentralized anaerobic digestion creates compost and energy.
B. Repair: Custom 3D printing files are accessed from the CAD database.
C. Reuse: Packaging with embedded deposit/tracking chips is redistributed.
D. Recycle: Materials are scanned, shredded and organized for resale.
E. Recovery: Resources are converted into their chemical constituents.
ReImagine and ReEngineer: Completes the product life cycle.
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
4 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
Technology and Infrastructure Changes
Complex infrastructure changes were needed to make the Waste Free ERA viable.
Rezoning and repurposing buildings.
Installing pneumatic underground piping and disposal chutes.
Developing a Bitcoin deposit and tracking system for packaging and waste.
Reinventing food distribution.
Engineers recognized that over 65% of waste was organics and packaging. They
decided to reinvent the food distribution and disposal system, in which multi-use
buildings were key. Buildings feature rooftop gardens, restaurants, condos, grocery
stores and anaerobic digestion. Dumbwaiters deliver food to residents and restaurants
from onsite, bulk packaging grocery stores or rooftop gardens in reusable cotton bags,
glass containers or transparent aluminum packaging.
Easy Disposal: the SLIPS Chute
The Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surface (SLIPS) Chutes transport all waste
from the residential and commercial areas to the basement. These omniphobic, Teflon
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
5 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
tubes are designed to reduce friction and repel bacteria. As waste enters the basement,
it is categorized by a hyperspectral optical scanner that determines its destination.
Packaging: If the disposed item is packaging, it is sanitized in the basement and
returned to the grocery store. Packaging has Bitcoin value and can circulate locally and
globally. ID chips enable tracking and distribution to grocery stores or manufacturers.
Anaerobic Digestion: Organic waste is converted into digestate through
anaerobic digestion and used as fertilizer in the rooftop garden’s customized
hydroponics. Resulting biogases provide the building with energy.
Materials Recovery Facility: All remaining waste is directed to the Materials
Recovery Facility (MRF) via underground pneumatic tubes.
Designed with Repair in Mind:
When electronic and durable goods are broken, the owner brings them to the local 3D
Printing Repair Shop for diagnostics. Glass, metal and plastic replacement parts are
printed or laser cut, using the Worldwide CAD Database to obtain the product’s file. In
several hours, the item is repaired. If it cannot be repaired, the owner is paid in Bitcoins,
and the item is sent through the pneumatic tubes for material or chemical recovery.
At the Materials Recovery Facility:
All products beyond repair are sent to the Materials Recovery Facility, located in
Industrial Park. After they are put into a shredder and separated, optical scanners
identify each material. Robots remove usable materials, which are sent to the reverse
logistics department and sold globally. Types of waste include:
1. E-Waste: Electronic waste is shredded then separated by overband magnets
and eddy currents. Valuable metals and semiconductor materials are recovered.
2. Cardboard, Paper and Textiles: Scanners determine whether they will be
reused, recycled or composted.
3. Plastics: Manufacturers unanimously decided not to use any virgin plastics.
Broken plastic components are scanned at the MRF with a Fourier Transform
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
6 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
Infrared Spectrometer to identify the material. Then Alegria’s Materials Science
Engineers use the Materials Genome Project to make new plastic composites.
4. Biomedical: Hazardous biomedical waste is collected in rubber tubs, then sent
through the SLIPS Chute and pneumatic tubes to the MRF. Reusable medical
products are sterilized by gamma irradiation. Non-reusable products are sent to
chemical recovery.
5. Chemical Recovery: Items that cannot be repaired, recycled or decomposed go
through an end-of-life process called supercritical water oxidation. Items, mixed
with water, are sent two miles into the earth in a gravity pressure vessel. The
natural geologic forces of heat and pressure drive the water medium to a
supercritical state. This ecological and efficient system utilizes natural energy
sources to break down the waste materials into their chemical constituents.
Resulting end products are salts, gases and biosolids, which are ReImagined
and ReEngineered into new items.
Energy and Environmental Impacts
The Waste Free ERA is energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Building-
integrated, vertical, maglev wind turbines provide clean energy for pneumatic collection,
optical separation and robotic processing. Biogas is recovered from anaerobic digestion
and contributes to the self-sustaining multi-use buildings. Lack of incinerators and
landfills ensure health and safety through continual containment of waste and
elimination of leachate.
Benefits, Tradeoffs and Risks
Alegria’s Waste Free ERA achieved environmental and economic sustainability. Long-
term benefits include: a clean city with zero waste, energy efficiency, a circular system
of resources and reduced food and packaging transportation. The financial tradeoffs for
the necessary infrastructure and maintenance costs were deemed worthwhile by the
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
7 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
government, public and manufacturers. Revenue generated from material and chemical
recovery provided a long-term return on investment.
ERA was designed to overcome its few risk factors:
To guarantee that waste streams were not cross-contaminated, the population
would have to dispose of used items properly. This was achieved by a
convenient system and an educated population.
Ensuring public responsibility of reusable items was addressed. Tracking and
deposit chips were embedded into all standardized packaging containers.
The reuse of containers and biomedical products could transfer pathogens.
Activated and electrolyzed water is used to clean packaging, while gamma
irradiation sanitizes biomedical products.
Engineers Made It Happen
The Waste Free ERA was designed by many engineers, who each played an important
role in the design process.
1. Civil and Environmental Engineers designed the overall infrastructure for the system
of systems.
2. Information Technology Engineers created the database for the tracking devices in
the Bitcoin packaging reuse system.
3. Materials Engineers created composite plastics, eliminating new and single-use
plastics.
4. Agricultural Engineers designed urban farming towers and rooftop gardens, which
use staggered agricultural cycles for constant crop production.
5. Biological Engineers designed the anaerobic digestion system that uses customized
bacteria blends to break down organic matter.
6. Chemical Engineers implemented supercritical water oxidation to allow chemical
recovery for end-of-life products.
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
8 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
7. Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineers designed the Underwater Ocean Turbines,
the 3D Printers and CAD files.
8. Nuclear Engineers incorporated gamma irradiation to sterilize biomedical waste.
Alegria’s residents enjoy natural beauty, Living City features and a symbiotic
relationship with their restored environment. The Waste Free Eleven Rs Approach
transformed a city with overflowing dumps into a self-sustaining new era.
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
9 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
Works Cited
Ahmed, Mahaa, Jonathan Cotler, and Kaitlyn Mullin. "Development of Recycled Plastic
Composites from Consumer Electronic Appliances." (n.d.): n. pag. Developing
Plastic Composites Final Paper.pdf. Web.
Basantani, Mahesh. "THE MAGLEV: The Super-powered Magnetic Wind Turbine."
Inhabitat. N.p., 26 Nov. 2007. Web.
Bazely, Oliver. "Garbage Outgrowing Rio's Landfill | The Rio Times | Brazil News." The
Rio Times. N.p., 26 Oct. 2010. Web.
Bragatti, Milton. "Recycling Food for Brazil's High Rollers | Environment | DW.COM |
28.12.2012." DW.COM. N.p., 28 Dec. 2012. Web.
"Brazil's Biggest Rubbish Dump Closes in Rio De Janeiro - BBC News." BBC News.
N.p., 3 June 2012. Web.
Carlsson, Gunilla. "Waste Management In Brazil." (n.d.): n. pag. ISWA. Web.
Ceder, G. "The Materials Genome Project." (n.d.): n. pag. 26 July 2010. Web.
Chamberlain, Elizabeth. "See Inside a Canadian E-Waste Recycling Facility." Ifixitorg.
N.p., n.d. Web.
Chen, Brian X. "Where Gadgets Go to Die: Facility Strips, Rips and Recycles." WIRED.
N.p., 2 Apr. 2009. Web.
Connett, P. H. The Zero Waste Solution: Untrashing the Planet One Community at a
Time. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2013. Print.
Dickinson, Norm. "How to Extract Precious Metals From Computers." EHow. Demand
Media, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
Ehrmann, Eric. "Brazil's Garbage Becomes an Olympic Challenge." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 9 Aug. 2011. Web.
"GPV Technology." GeneSyst International, Inc. : Technology. GeneSyst International,
Inc, 13 June 2009. Web.
Heater, Brian. "SLIPS Liquid Repeller Is Inspired by Carnivorous Plants, Enemy to
Insects and Graffiti Artists Alike." Engadget. N.p., 3 Aug. 2012. Web.
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
10 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
Hopewell, Jefferson, Robert Dvorak, and Edward Kosior. "Plastics Recycling:
Challenges and Opportunities." The Royal Society Publishing. N.p., 15 June
2009. Web.
"HORSE AD25." Impact Bioenergy. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
"How Electronics and Computers Are Recycled." Sims Recycling Solutions. N.p., n.d.
Web.
Just Eat It. Dir. Grant Baldwin. 2014. Film.
Kane, Sean. "Video: One of the Most Slippery Materials Ever." Popular Science. N.p.,
14 Nov. 2011. Web.
Kaxiras, Efthimios. "Exploring the Possibilities of the Infinitesimal." MIT Enterprise
Forum. Scottsdale. 11 June 2015. Possibilities of Nanotechnology. Web.
Lewis, Tanya. "Underwater Ocean Turbines: A New Spin on Clean Energy?"
LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 05 Aug. 2014. Web.
"Living Building Challenge 3.0." LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE (n.d.): n. pag. Living-
future. 2014. Web.
Look, Marie. "Trash Planet: Brazil." Earth911. N.p., 17 Aug. 2009. Web.
Martin, Jerold. "Understanding Gamma Sterilization." BioPharm International. N.p., 01
Feb. 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Mohanty, A. K., M. Misra, and L. T. Drzal. "Sustainable Bio-Composites from
Renewable Resources: Opportunities and." Springer Link. N.p., Apr. 2002. Web.
"New Waste Disposal System: Pressure Cookers." Ann Arbor News [Ann Arbor] 3 Sept.
1991: n. pag. Print.
"Overview of Supercritical Water Oxidation Technology." Turbo Synthesis. N.p., 2002.
Web.
Plastic Paradise. Dir. Angela Sun. 2014. Streamed.
"Pneumatic Tube System Basics." YouTube. YouTube, 6 Dec. 2010. Web. 02 Dec.
2015.
Pneumatic Tubes I Science in the City I Exploratorium. YouTube. N.p., 6 June 2012.
Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
11 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)
Powitz, Robert W. "Activated and Electrolyzed Water: A Brief Review of a New
Generation of Cleaners and Sanitizing Agents." Food Safety Magazine. N.p.,
Aug.-Sept. 2010. Web.
Ragan, Sean Michael. "The Wonders of Transparent Aluminum." Make: We Are All
Makers. N.p., 17 Jan. 2012. Web.
Shahan, Zachary. "Growing E-Waste Epidemic (Infographic)." PlanetSave. N.p., 08
Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
Terry, Beth. Plastic-free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and You Can Too. New York:
Skyhorse Pub., 2012. Print.
Thomas, Justin. "The World's First "Magnetic Levitation" Wind Turbines Unveiled in
China." TreeHugger. N.p., 5 July 2006. Web.
Trashed. Dir. Candida Brady. 2012. DVD.
"Understanding the Living Building Challenge and Its "Petals"" Hourigan Construction.
N.p., 11 Apr. 2014. Web.
"Waste Conversion Technology." GeneSyst International, Inc. N.p., 18 Mar. 2010. Web.
Watts, Jonathan. "Life Amid the Trash of a Rio Dump." The Guardian. N.p., 19 Jan.
2015. Web.
"What Is AD?" ADBA: Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association. N.p., n.d.
Web. 20 Nov. 2015.
"Where Is Rio De Janeiro Located." Whereig.com. N.p., n.d. Web.
Wong, Tak-Sing, Sung Hoon Kang, Sindy K. Y. Tang, Elizabeth J. Smythe, Benjamin D.
Hatton, Alison Grinthal, and Joanna Aizenberg. "Repellency of Complex Fluids,
Ice and Insects by SLIPS." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 22 Sept. 2011.
Web.
"What Is Anaerobic Digestion?" American Biogas Council. American Biogas Council,
n.d. Web.
"WtE: The Redeemer of Brazil's Waste Legacy?" Waste Management World. N.p., 6
Jan. 2011. Web.
Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria
Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke
Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke
12 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)