ECONOMY

Electricity, under the pavements

Electricity under the pavement thanks to a clever system based on piezo-electric systems: the idea may seem far-fetched, but it is completely workable. It was devised by Elisabeth Redmond, a researcher who was rewarded in 2009 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The principle of Elisabeth Redmond’s system is very simple: by walking on large 50-centimetre-thick floor tiles, pedestrians exert a pressure which activates a piezo-electric system. Once activated, the POWERLeap system generates electricity. The next step for the researcher is to put in place a structure to market the POWERLeap system by presenting it as the ideal way of producing cheap electricity in busy pedestrian areas, such as shopping malls, station concourses, subway corridors, etc.
For the time being, the researcher has generated a lot of interest in her work on the Internet and in the international business press, but contacts with the first prospects augur well for new forms of pavement and shopping mall walkways in the not too distant future.

http://www.powerleap.net

Recycled Olympic medals

The handful of Belgian athletes selected for the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver unfortunately may not have realised it, but the medals awarded were made from recycled gold, silver and copper. For the occasion, Canadian company Teck Resources melted down gold, silver and bronze parts from obsolete computers. Obviously, however, the story may appear trivial because the precious metal content of the medals is only a drop in the ocean compared with the waste of these metals at world level.
Thus, the 600 medals awarded at the Games contained at the end of the day only a relatively small percentage of recycled metals. The gold medals contained only 1.5% of recycled gold, i.e. approximately 1 gram of the precious metal per medal, while the silver and bronze medals contained even less recycled materials.
However, the true value of this story of recycled medals lies in its exemplary nature.
This event, which was watched by millions of people worldwide, will help to remind us that we live in a finite world where the importance of recycling must be recognised.

http://www.teck.com/Generic.aspx?PAGE=About%20Us%20Pages/Vancouver%202010&portalName=tc