Waste
waste

Trash, litter, rubbish. Disposing of materials we no longer want or can no longer use generates waste. Common kinds of waste include municipal solid waste, wastewater, and hazardous waste. This is a page dedicated towards the development and exploration of Public Lab tools and resources to help understand the world of waste. Ideas range from landfill monitoring and mapping landfills to developing a trash can with built-in scale and household composting bin. _Lead image: @a1ahna, CC BY SA_ ### Questions [questions:waste] ### Activities [activities:waste] ### Research notes [notes:waste] ### Projects and resources: - Tracking Boston's municipal solid waste (from Claire): https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=forums&srcid=MDg4NzcxNDk1MTQ0NzAzNDA0MjMBMDA1MDI1MTE0MjY5MzA5OTEyOTUBTXo5VHRzM2lTdnNKATQBAXYy - EPA Database of landfill locations. Includes a record of historical/current violations of environmental policy: http://echo.epa.gov/?redirect=echo - Landfill Club: Project from EcoHack 2014. has more data about landfills in MA. Note: This doesn't show historic landfills: http://landfill.club - Massachusetts' closed landfills. Page with info on Mass's closed landfills that might be helpful for you: http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/massdep/recycle/solid/landfills-transfer-stations-and-compost-sites.html - Basurama- A small study of waste places in Cambridge: http://meipi.org/cambridgewaste.categories.php It was part of the exhibition at MIT: http://basurama.org/transtrash/projects/ from Basurama. Map can be found here: http://meipi.org/cambridgewaste.map.php?id_entry=30 - Find a Landfill Near You http://landfills.herokuapp.com/ (in progress) This is something made by Nick Johnson with data from the EPA. It includes landfills as well as any facility licensed to handle msw. The idea here to was to find a landfill near you. - MIT's Senseable City Lab TrashTrack http://senseable.mit.edu/trashtrack/index.php?id=1 Their project tracks where trash actually goes using GPS-enabled tools. This seems related to but potentially separate from identifying where the landfills are. Might be an interesting peripheral study. Also, there are some interesting data visualizations of specific trash items here: http://senseable.mit.edu/trashtrack/visualizations.php?id=2 - Crowdcrafting project to identify landfills from satellite images, http://crowdcrafting.org/app/landfill/ - Open Trash Lab, http://www.opentrashlab.com/projects ### Challenges: Ideas for monitoring landfills: #### Wifi Enabled Trashcan Scale (concept) This trashcan has a builtin scale which automatically logs its daily weight online wirelessly. This joins the group 'internet of things' but could help keep track of exactly how much trash an individual or household produces. Could also be implemented into workplaces. Steps to build: 1) Hack digital scale to add wifi capabilities. 2) Design method in which a trash can is placed on top *tracking daily waste numbers across communities could be tremendously useful in understanding more precisely how much municipal solid waste is produced annually. #### Landfill Monitoring Kit This kit will include items needed to take a small soil sample in order to test for various toxins, metals, etc... A water monitoring kit - for nearby waterways to test for contaminates in the water. (These are just suggestions for monitoring landfills. I actually have no idea what would be useful) #### Landfill Methane Mapping Methane Balloons? - Landfills are a leading source in methane emissions across the country. Could we attach lowcost methane sensors to balloons and "Methane Map" landfills? #### Landfill Identification and Tracking The Environmental Protection Agency has a database containing data about all of the landfills in the country. It would enlightening to gather citizen stories and documentation of each of these landfills aside from the EPA database. This initial map was created to use the EPA database to locate all of the landfill in the country on one map. Users can then identify nearby landfills and see, via google maps, what the landfill is like from above. Expanding this map to include citizen gathered data on each landfill individually help formulate a better understanding of landfills around the country. Current [example](http://landfills.herokuapp.com/) #### Home Composting Kit I'm sure everybody and their brother has thought about this, but when I try and find something online, nothing exists. The home composting kit would be everything you need to easily compost at home. I imagine the kit to be similar to a trash can, but with many various levels to allow for the various steps in composting. - To be totally honest, I only have a basic understanding of how to compost but I fully believe there must be a simple way (via a product) to help people with in-house composting. - Maybe something like [this](http://www.naturemill.net/products.html). Useful [scientific research](http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dXNX4cOMqDUC&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=composting&ots=LrhIRSbR1Y&sig=jKlrJ9f23HtEqKXz9-Iso9Guc5w#v=onepage&q=composting&f=false) #### Wall-E Robot to collect waste This is all about making a Wall-e stye robot to collect and process waste. This is interesting in both bringing the character to life which represents the 'solution' to our increasingly growing waste stream as well as actually making a robot that could collect waste more efficiently. I also see potential for creating a mascot for waste as well as an opportunity to push the waste conversation forward. Next steps: Design a diagram of what this robot would do. Ideas: simple moving trash can, add environmental sensors, focus on one item (organics or aluminum can crusher), maybe it is a mini waste to energy robot to power your home? etc... ...


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taqiyaviiid "Hi sir!! I have read your experiment. I actually want to know how do you remove the cuticle with specific process (ingredients and dosages) on pro..." | Read more » 11 months ago
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sinomin_wang "Sure! I'll do a bit of research into this and report back :) Junhua is an expert in concrete mixer equipment and pump equipment, including all kind..." | Read more » over 3 years ago
denissebn_06 "@sarasage Hope this is helpful to you. " | Read more » over 3 years ago
fongvania "According to this article, Analysis and modeling of vadose zone gas transport : modeling methane emissions from landfills, their Landfill Methane E..." | Read more » over 3 years ago
scmkhargar "Nice information. " | Read more » over 3 years ago
scmkhargar "Nice information. " | Read more » over 3 years ago
fongvania "Sure! I'll do a bit of research into this and report back :) " | Read more » over 3 years ago
stevie "Great!! Thanks for posting this. @fongvania wondering if you can dig into this one a little bit? " | Read more » over 3 years ago
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Ujitha "Here Municipal Council is acting as a waste regulatory agency. Due to the very limited capacity in recycling factories, most of the waste is unload..." | Read more » over 3 years ago
sarasage "Do you have a waste regulatory agency in your area? Who permits landfills? " | Read more » over 3 years ago
abhinaychauhan1982 "Hi, I was doing a research on California waste management and stumbled upon this work. The issue is the link doesn't work. What i am working on is..." | Read more » almost 4 years ago
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amocorro "@deeptalaxmibharadwaj wow! Thanks for documenting your concerns and showing the Public Lab community your process. I love that you went outside you..." | Read more » about 4 years ago
bhamster "Sounds like a neat project! For the first part of your question, are there specific compounds in food waste that you're interested in detecting? I..." | Read more » about 4 years ago