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13 January 2011

The Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts is turning over a new leaf this year, and using technology to offer more environmentally friendly programmes.

Festival-goers in 2011 will be able to read the full performance programmes on their phones. This move to electronic programmes saves printing over 12,000 multi-page programmes.

Click here to read full article.

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11 January 2011

A Greenrock supporter drew this video about a plastic-to-oil converting machine to our attention.

The topic has generated much interest and debate amongst commenters.

Click here for more on this story from the United Nations University.

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2012 Update - The Future Scope

According to a 2012 study prepared for the American Chemistry Council, by the research organization RTI International, these Pyrolysis conversion technologies that turn plastic waste into fuel have developed to the point where they are likely to be commercially viable in just 5-10 years.

The study also points that although there’s plenty of plastic waste available to convert into fuel, plastics-to-oil technology alone is not likely to be an energy cure-all. This is because the extent of oil consumption around the world is massive, and this plastic conversion into oil cannot cater all those needs. The RTI study says:

“Given the developmental stage and the current capacities of technologies, our preliminary estimates suggest that conversion technologies would offset significantly less than 1% percent of annual North American oil consumption. The average size of a plastics-to-oil facility is in the range of 10-30 tons per day. If there were 100 plastics-to-oil facilities in North America by 2015, conversion production could offset approximately 6,000 -18,000 barrels of oil per day, assuming 1 ton of plastic yields 6 barrels of oil. In contrast, total consumption of crude oil in North America is forecast to be 21.57 million barrels per day in 2015.”

Regarding the future of this plastic to oil conversion, the RTI study concludes saying:

"The future of these technologies will depend heavily on the success of first-generation facilities, but some successes are already coming to fruition. Two facilities have off-take agreements, and almost all of the surveyed vendors have recently received awards for innovation and/or clean energy solutions. Conversion technologies should be considered an emerging, viable option for managing non-recycled plastics and MSW (municipal solid waste) in the near future."

So only time and development in these technologies will tell us how efficient, safe and profitable these conversion processes can be.

Source: http://www.hoaxorfact.com/Technology/man-invented-a-machine-to-convert-waste-plastic-into-oil-and-fuel-facts.html

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10 January 2011

A businessman’s plans to build a bar and restaurant at Warwick Long Bay have been turned down by the Development Applications Board again.

Environmental group BEST released a statement this morning [Jan. 9] saying “BEST has received formal notice that the application from Belcario Thomas to construct a beach bar at Warwick Long Bay has been refused.”

This proposed development has been a subject of controversy since the plans were announced in 2008.

Read more ...

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10 January 2011

About 250,000 people pass through Stockholm's Central Station each day

Body heat is not an energy source that normally springs to mind when companies want to keep down soaring energy costs.

But it did spring to the mind of one Swedish company, which decided the warmth that everybody generates naturally was in fact a resource that was going to waste.

Click here to read full article.

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09 January 2011

Think of them as passport photos for Bermuda’s greatest repeat visitors.

With the first humpback whales of the season already spotted off Bermuda, the Humpback Whale Research Project is asking for the public’s help compiling a photographic catalogue of these migratory animals’ unique fluke markings — allowing for individual identification.

Read more ...