Smog-eaters, water-suckers, and other cool, green innovations by Scott Nyquist

 News flash! Climate change is not the only environmental issue. It is important, of course, but so is air and water quality, recycling, and many other things. There is one commonality among all these topics. It is going to take human intelligence to address them: whatever the problem, innovation is the answer. In my last post, I looked at some innovations that applied mostly to developing countries. In this post, I am going to describe things directed at more general (but not climate-related) issues.

Let’s start with water. The United Nations estimates that 1.2 billion people live in areas of water scarcity. Lack of water, or the inability to share it, can also be a testing and sometimes violent political issue. There is a lot of salt water, thanks to the oceans that cover three-quarters of the planet’s surface. But desalinating it is both expensive and energy intensive. Graphene filters may offer a better, cheaper, cleaner way. Made of a carbon-based material invented in 2004, can help filter out the sodium chloride faster and more cheaply than current technologies, and several companies are working on this.

Another place to get water is out of the air, but current technologies require high humidity and a lot of energy. Majik Water is an effort to harvest water at lower humidity and at reasonable cost. It has created a solar-powered device that can produce 10 liters a day, including in arid and semi-arid areas. This technology is still being piloted, starting in Kenya, but the idea of pulling water from the air is obviously full of potential—air doesn’t run out.

The oceans are a critical resource—and are being dumped on. McKinsey estimates that 8 million tons of plastic waste make it into the ocean every year; National Geographic says there are 5.2 trillion pieces of plastic debris afloat. What can be done? Clearly, it would be great if people stopped fouling the ocean. But even if that happened tomorrow, getting the junk out is still important: it kills sealife and can affect the quality of water. There are several intriguing efforts along these lines. Earlier this month, on September 8, the Ocean Cleanup set sail; it will arrive at the Great Pacific Plastic Patch (between California and Hawaii) in October, and then get to work. The Ocean Cleanup is essentially two free-floating booms, almost 2,000 feet long, with a skirt about 10 feet deep. This comprises an artificial coastline that collects and concentrates the plastic. Ocean-going garbage boats then pick it up and bring it back to land before it breaks down into microplastics. If the system works as intended—and that is a very big if—its founders believe half the patch could be cleaned up by 2024.

The Seabin operates on a much smaller scale. This is a garbage bin that moves with the tide to collect rubbish; it can scoop up about 3 pounds of stuff per day (lots of food wrappers, water bottles, and cigarette butts). It is intended for shore businesses such as docks and marinas. The company, founded by two Australian surfers, has as its motto: If we can have rubbish bins on land, why not have them in the ocean?” Good question. 

And watch this hydro- and solar-powered water wheel move trash onto a conveyor belt that empties it into an on-board dumpster. Since the Mr. Trash Wheel got to work in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in 2014, “We’ve made a noticeable dent,” says inventor John Kellett. He stimates that more than 1.5 million pounds of trash—including almost 3,500 sports balls, 600,000 foam containers, and one python—has been collected. Mr. Trash Wheel has become a local icon, with a beer named after it, a stuffed toy, and its own social media presence. 

Air pollution kills. Smog—haze caused by the interaction of sun and pollution and/or smoke, often that associated with car exhaust—accounts for about 20,000 premature deaths a year in the United States, and 4.2 million worldwide. So it would be great, then, if smog could be sucked out of the sky. Well, the 23-foot-high aluminum Smog-Free Tower (picture at top of article) does just that. It releases positively charged ions that catch dirty air, draws them back into the tower, and then releases clean air; the compressed smog is collected and turned into jewelry, which helps fund further efforts. The Tower can clean about 30,000 cubic meters per hour, enough to scrub a small park, and has been tested successfully in the Netherlands, Poland, and China.

Here’s an environmental issue that doesn’t get a ton of attention: recycling electronics that use liquid crystal display (LCD) technologies. LCD panels contain many different elements, a fact that make them difficult to recycle; and they use heavy metals, which can seep into underground water systems. Taiwan’s  Industrial Technology Research Institute devised a process that smashes the panel, then sorts, cleans, and transforms the different pieces. Almost all of the liquid crystals can be recovered and about 90 percent of the indium. 

I could go on. I find the idea of trees that grow out of buildings sideways (better for shade) refreshingly bizarre, and the use of algorithms and biometrics for sustainable forestry really smart. The larger point is that while there are all kinds of troubling environmental issues, there is also considerable reason to be optimistic that they can be solved.

In my next post, I will explore some climate-change related innovations taking place in unexpected places.

All views are mine and not those of McKinsey & Company.

Photo credits: Seabin Project, PBS, Studio Roosegaarde, Viseoverdis