Shower by Orbital Systems conserves 90% of the water by recycling it
Orbital systems, a Swedish company has come up with an innovative idea of conserving water in your home. Now, you can take as long as you want in the shower without worrying about water getting wasted. The new household shower made by Orbital Systems will recycle 90% of the water and will retain 80% of the energy consumed by an ordinary shower. The water recycling system used in the shower is very similar to the ones used by the astronauts on space shuttles. Orbital Systems have made the shower in collaboration with Johnson Space Center at NASA. The technology is not as simple as you might think it to be, a very sophisticated water filter system located under the shower drain in the floor takes the soapy, used water in the drain, purifies it and pumps it back into the shower to be used again and again. What is you pee in the shower? Don’t worry the shower sensors can distinguish the pee and throw that away. There are two types of capsules which filter the water, a micro capsule and a nano capsule. The nano capsule filters germs, emulsified oils and metals, and the micro capsule eliminates larger particles like skin flakes, sand and hair particles.
If you are in UK, returning home after a night out drinking with friends will not be a problem anymore. No hassles fading a taxi, Lutz pathfinder, UK’s first driverless car will drop you home safely. Lutz Pathfinder commonly called as Lutz Pod is being tested on UK roads currently so that the Government can make any required changes to the Highway Code to allow them to be used by public. Little autonomous Lutz Pod will be gallivanting the streets of Milton Keynes and Coventry for a few days. The self-driving car has been primarily designed for working on pavements and pedestrian friendly zones. Lutz Pod looks small but it has enough space for two people and a small luggage. Talking about power, it can travel up to 40 miles and attain a top speed of 15 mph. It can run for eight hours when fully charged.
If you are a mom who likes a little bit of adventure, then the newly invented, very cool Longboard stroller by Quinny is the product you will love. Talk to any parent, and he/she will tell you that strollers are a great place for toddlers to be in, but carrying them around is such a pain. Quinny’s Longboard stroller is a wonderful combination of very light and compact stroller and a skateboard, the seat section of the child’s stroller is attached to the front of it. So, you can zoom around faster and have fun, and the kids will also enjoy the ride. And if you cross the speed limits in excitement, there are brakes at the back and handlebars for steering near the seat section. So much convenient for going long distances and also it is an eco-friendly option to get round. Children between 9 months to four and a half years of age can comfortably sit in Longboard stroller.
What do you do once the alkaline batteries run out of juice? You throw them in the garbage bin, and contribute to the environmental pollution caused by the toxic substances they are made of. Energizer is one company that is making good use of old batteries. They are recycling the old batteries to make new ones. About 4% weight of Energizer EcoAdvanced batteries come from old recycled batteries. Energizer says that about 45% weight of the batteries will come from recycled cells by 2025. To increase the processing capacity of the batteries, Energizer is working with recycling companies in North America and Europe to make these high performance batteries. EcoAdvanced batteries have been reported to last longer than any other battery by Energizer, but they also cost 25% to 30% more than the standard ones.
Solarpuff invented by designer Alice Min Soo Chin is a foldable paper lantern that gets its power from the sun. The thought of making something like this came into Alices’s mind, when Haiti was hit by earthquake in 2010. Something so portable and lightweight like the Solarpuff can be very useful for relief in the areas hit by a disaster. Solarpuff folds flat into quarter an inch thin and weighs just 2.3 ounces, when opened it emits light through a ring of LEDs, which is soothing and pleasant to look at. Solarpuff is also environment friendly as it is made up of a non-toxic recyclable material. It takes about 4 hours to charge Solarpuff, once charged fully it can last for about 8 to 10 hours.
Spain will be one of the first countries in the world to have public streetlights that are powered by wind and the sun. It took four years for the Spanish researcher Ramon Bargalló to design this independent street light system for the company Eolgreen. The street light will be 10 metre in height and will be fitted with wind turbine and a solar panel. A wind velocity as low as 2.5 m/s will be required for the wind turbine to work. The turbine will do 10 and 200 rotations per minute; its maximum output will be 400 watts. The streetlights also have batteries and a smart electronic control system which can manage the flow of energy between the solar panel, the battery, the wind turbine and the light. Researchers are designing a second prototype which will have a better turbine speed, wattage output and lesser energy wastage.
Leaos solar electric bike is a black beauty; it looks gorgeous from every angle. But, it does not have only the looks, but great on functionality too. It can go up to 2.5 hours on a single charge! ya, you read right, and it can attain speeds of up to 45 km/h on a battery driven plug in power. Leaos has a set of fully integrated solar panels placed very aesthetically which provide the bike the power for running up to 30 kilometres in a single day. When the bike is low on battery, it can recharge itself by making a connection with conventional sources. Leaos is designed and handmade in Italy, what makes it lightweight, unique and pretty is the usage of carbon fibre in making the body unlike using the more conventional tubes.
A one of its kind recycling project is happening in NYC in which hundreds of subway cars are being dumped deep inside the Atlantic Ocean. It may seem like the ocean is being polluted but actually the exact opposite is happening here. The massive dumped cars turn into reefs and become home for millions of fish on the eastern seabed. The fish are attracted to the reef because it gives them protection from the predators and also provides them food like shrimps, mussels and crabs. Over 2,500 subway cars have retired into the Atlantic Ocean in the past decade and turned into underwater reefs. Photographer Stephen Malloon has captured the enthralling process of transformation of the NYC Subway Cars into coral reefs.
There are restaurants that serve you everything you’ve been dreaming about on an empty stomach, and then there are restaurants that do the environment a huge favor too. One of the latter, is the yet-to-open restaurant, The Perennial, located in San Francisco. What sets this one apart from the rest of the eateries you’ve been spending considerable amounts of time at, is the fact that The Perennial is a restaurant and environmental lab combined. 
Depending completely on fossil fuels to power up the earth isn’t such a great idea anymore, not in the current circumstances of extreme pollution and a degrading environment. Instead, the only way out of this big muddle we’ve all got ourselves into, is renewable energy. Albatern, Scotland’s wave energy company, is looking at better ways to powering up, using a new system called the WaveNET. This one uses an array of floating generators, nicknamed Squids, which harvest energy from rising and falling waves.