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Lifehacker
60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley went to Guiyi, China to document the lives of Chinese e-waste workers there. He was able to get footage of what these pits, which process much of the toxic electronic scrap we in the West throw away, look like--despite being jumped by angry e-waste lot owners and nearly having his camera confiscated.
Generally speaking, the idea of eco-friendliness doesn't conjure up images of badass looking vehicles. However, one look at these Blade exhaust filters might change all that. According to the manufacturer's lab testing, Blade can reduce vehicle air pollution up to 57 percent and CO2 emissions up to 34 percent while increasing fuel economy up to 500ml per km. It seems a little far-fetched (and it probably is), but Blade does have support from both the California Air Resources Board and the EPA. If those claims are anywhere near true, the $US200 up front cost of the system plus the $US20 a year for filters should pay for itself rather quickly. [Blade via Treehugger via Wired Gadget Lab]
The small Dutch town of Hengelo is about to test out a new kind of concrete paving slab that actually grabs onto the car-exhaust pollutant nitrogen oxide (a key smog and acid rain ingredient) sucking it out of the air and rendering it harmless. The special bricks contain a component based on titanium dioxide that acts to "fix" the pollutant with the aid of sunlight. The best bit is that the resulting nitrates just wash away with the next rain. Clever stuff: and if the trial results next summer show improved air quality, I'm sure we'll see environmentalists dancing along singing "Follow the green concrete road!" Or something. [Physorg]
Congratulations, Sony Ericsson, for winning what was ultimately a barely challenging competition to become the greenest electronics company around. Our favourite Swedish-Japanese conglomerate rose to the top of Greenpeace's Greener Electronics Guide by exceeding Energy Star requirements, making all its models PVC-free and banning the most harmful chemicals from phones launched since January 2008. Unfortunately, it was valedictorian in a class whose scores have plummeted all around.
Those nano-silver socks you've been using to soak up the rank of your athlete's foot—not only are they leaching poisons into fish habitats every time you wash them, their effects on your own blood stream could be just as bad but the EPA's not doing anything about it. Fed up by government inaction, a consumer safety group is now suing the EPA for failing to regulate nanomaterials.
Since the 1980s, cities like Guiyu, China, have been taking in electronic waste from other countries for dismantlement and processing. It's great for other countries, but takes a huge toll on the people managing the effort because of the "metal extraction of circuit boards" and "open dumping of waste and ash residue into open water". It's made the well water and ground water of Guiyu undrinkable, and has to be trucked in from other villages. The lead poisoning level in children is 69%. [China-Pix via Crunchgear]
The IonFlow 50 is an air purifier that doesn't look or sound like an air purifier. Designed by Michael Malmborg for LightAir, the IonStyle is ozone- and filter-free and works completely silently.
Tests in Sweden proved that the IonFlow 50 eliminated 99.94 per cent of all harmful pollutants - dust, smoke, pollen, bacteria and viruses all get the boot in rooms as large as 540 sq ft. The floor version is $395, while the ceiling version will set you back $280.
