Ny hjemmeside om bæredygtig byudvikling

10. marts gik den danske hjemmeside www.bæredygtigebyer.dk i luften. Bæredygtige Byer formidler viden om bæredygtig planlægning og udvikling af danske og internationale byer til inspiration for danske politikere, planlæggere og interesserede borgere.

Liberalisering af affaldsforbrænding og deponering

Liberalisering af affaldsforbrænding og deponering
Artikel fra AKF med overvejelser om evt fordele ved liberalisering af hhv affaldsforbrænding og deponering (lossepladser).
Ikke overraskende kommer de frem til at der kun er mindre gevinster ved liberalisering af affaldsforbrænding, mere ved deponering.

Best practice referencer

De amerikanske miljømyndigheder har et fint lille site med referencer til best-practices, div organisationer og andre ressourcer

Innovation for achieving sustainable waste management

Alborg Universitet, Institut for Kemi, Miljø og Bioteknologi, Sektion for Miljøteknologi
Jens Aage Hansen og Niels Jørn Hahn har skrevet artiklen: Innovation for achieving sustainable waste management

"Økonomisk vækst og dermed grundlaget for velfærd er baseret på evnen i et samfund til at skabe og udnytte viden. Den nødvendige innovationsproces er afhængig af et stærkt uddannelses- og forskningsmiljø, hvori indgår ikke mindst virksomheder og universiteter. Internationale foreninger som ISWA (International Solid Waste Association) kan medvirke til at fremme dette samspil i de enkelte lande og globalt, hvilket i for eksempel fattige lande vil være til stor gavn for miljø og udvikling."

Center for waste innovation

DTU and RISØ having merged could be a key partner for VF in establishin an ongoing reserach-based partnership/center, VF providing the problems and market access, RISØ providing solutions. For each project a production and sales partner is then needed to commercialize the proofed concepts.
The business model for this would be a combination of
- Public reseach funds (EUDP, PSO, EU money, etc.)
- Private venture capital (for startups when proof-of-concept has been established)
- Private investments from bigger industrial players (Vølund, etc.).

User driven innovation

VF could be the ultimate lead-user: This is where stuff goes when it dies, and all the problems and needs of waste are visible here – and intense efforts to find solutions to the problems and needs of waste is omnipresent.
By opening up and facilitating VFs experienced problems, and entering into R&D collaborations with researchers and entrepreneuars VF can motivate and illuminate solution finders - AND provide prof-of-concept and showcases.

Sustainable entrepreneurship

Key concept: Turn VF into a driver not only of reserach based innovation, but actual entrepreneurship in cleantech.

Residence-programmes

Specific residence ideas for VF:

Artist-in-residence programme
Entrepreneur-in-residence
Reseracher-in-resindence

Norcal's Pier 96

Norcal Waste Systems handles most of San Francisco's household waste. Driven by SFs regulative pressure the company invests in new techs:

Quote The Economist:

"In another cathedral-like warehouse by municipal Pier 96, Norcal sorts the stuff local residents put into their recycling bins. An impossibly complicated network of conveyor belts, chutes and tubes whizzes the trash this way and that. Machines separate out different materials, in much the same way as Mrs Hiyale and her fellow rag-pickers do back in Mumbai. A magnet lifts up any iron and steel. A gadget called an “eddy-current separator” causes other metals, such as aluminium and copper, to jump, literally, off the line into different bins. A series of whirling discs arranged into a steep slope carries the lighter goods—mainly paper—upwards but allows heavier ones to fall. Workers pick off phone books, glass and plastic bottles."

Waste and revenues

Rich countries spend some $120 billion a year disposing of their municipal waste alone and another $150 billion on industrial waste, according to CyclOpe, a French research institute. The amount of waste that countries produce tends to grow in tandem with their economies, and especially with the rate of urbanisation. So waste firms see a rich future in places such as China, India and Brazil, which at present spend only about $5 billion a year collecting and treating their municipal waste.
Source: The Economist