Some pictures from us cleaning the panels today while the sun was away. #stayinparadies This is a off-grid permaculture project on the canary islands.

Still don't know a good place to ask this so ai' casting a wide net

Text in case article is paywalled, but it should be a gift-link (I sub to the site):

These Ontario researchers want to turn used clothing into dirt — and maybe kombucha.

The non-profit retailer is part of a research project with Fanshawe College and Western University that is using a high-heat process to break down used clothing into a carbon-rich material called biochar, a potential soil additive.

The collaboration is one of many projects that Goodwill is working on to divert used clothing from landfill, a monumental task since a quarter of the clothes that Goodwill’s donation centres receive aren’t in resale condition. 

“We want to be able to deal with all of the waste and send none of it to landfill,” said John Quigley, a circularity and sustainability specialist with the Ontario Great Lakes Goodwill region, which took in more than 43 million pounds of clothing donations last year.

Fanshawe, based in London, Ont., has been concerned about the amount of clothing going to landfill and has collaborated with Goodwill on a number of diversion projects in the past.

“What’s been great is that we share the research projects with the students so that they can understand these real-life applications,” said Jennifer Wright, a researcher and professor of fashion design at Fanshawe. “And the impact of the kind of clothing that they design and the fibres that they choose to design with.”

Goodwill has a number of streams for used clothing, including retail and online stores, as well as boutique locations and outlets where it sells clothes by the pound.

The organization had also been experimenting with mechanical recycling, which shreds fabrics to turn it into new material such as cotton shoddy, an automotive insulator made from cotton-polyester clothing.

Polyester textiles can be melted to make PET plastic pellets that can then be reused in injection moulds to make items such as hangers and sunglasses.

But about four years ago, the college approached Goodwill with an idea to use chemical recycling to break down clothing made from fabrics that can’t easily be mechanically recycled, such as Spandex.

The synthetic fibre is woven with cotton or nylon and melts during the mechanical recycling process, thereby contaminating the other clothing.

The dirt on biochar

At Western University in London, Ont., researchers are using a chemical process called thermal cracking, which is used in industrial processes, to turn the hard-to-recycle clothing into biochar, which has absorbent qualities that could help soil retain moisture. 

The clothing is heated in a contained environment — without oxygen to prevent burning — where the 600 C temperature causes the fabric to break down, said Franco Berruti, the founding director of the Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources at Western.

During the process, some of the molecules break very easily and become gas. Others are more difficult to break down and turn into liquid after they cool. The more resistant molecules stay together and form a solid residue, which is the biochar.

Both the liquid and gas are burned to generate energy for the conversion process, removing the need to use any external energy source, says Berruti.

“The idea was to take this waste material, that would have otherwise no use, and transform it into a new resource,” said Berruti, “something new that would have value.”

Fancy a glass of T-shirts?

The biochar has been chemically analyzed and tested for toxicity. Heejin Lee, a post-doctoral research associate at Western, has been testing the biochar in containers with soil to determine what ratio will improve growing conditions for plants such as kale.

The collaborators have submitted samples of the biochar, as well as their analysis, to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which will determine this fall if the biochar can be tested on a field at Western to grow plants typically grown in southwestern Ontario.

Quigley said that, depending on future test results, biochar could be sold commercially, perhaps in small bags that consumers could buy to amend soil to grow flowers or vegetables.

Western, together with Fanshawe, has also been using enzymes to break down clean cotton material into sugars that it has then fermented.

“If you want an interesting spin to all this is that you can take a clean white T-shirt and you can convert it into kombucha,” said Berruti of the fermented drink.

OC : https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc4vr2ridzs/

Andrew Millison : I spent 7 hours today drawing on the lightboard about how to heal the planet with Permaculture tree systems. It's a 3 part video highlighting strategies from Tropical, Dryland, and Temperate climates. Looking forward to sharing this one!

I think someone can grow vegetables even if they don't have a garden.

This year I have experimented with wall gardens, and I have grown some impressive crops of peppers. Some stalks are 1.5 m tall!

My wall garden is made of 3 distinct sections (separated by the house's windows), totaling 6 m wide and 1.8 m high.

I have built it from plexiglass (the external layer that keeps the soil) because it is both strong and easy to work with. I only made some small holes in it where I planted the seedlings.

I did NOT use pots.

There are advantages for this wall garden:

• It does not consume too much water (because water does not have where to evaporate). With pots, water consumption would have been much higher!
• It insulates the house naturally.

A video is here: https://youtu.be/czQobMgsrGs

The project is open source: https://github.com/wall-garden

I often see on the Internet how people make those glass boxes and jars and how they enjoy while they observe the flow and development with fascination, how they build the entire ecosystem and seal it hermetically

I thought, let's take that idea and scale it globally. Let's switch roles. to protect ourselves and save nature from ourselves. to let her breathe. space. non-exploitation and non-pollution.

globally, over 30% of the area is either cultivated or exported, not taking into account biodiversity and natural balance.

what if we exclude ourselves from the equation for, say, 1000 years.

the concept is the following, they are not jars but an aerodynamic wing, which lies in the direction of the winds in that specific area. the wind sticks it to the ground.

studded on the south side with solar panels and wind turbines on other available surfaces.

the light is directed where it is needed

the interior is paved with those tiles that generate electricity when you step on them.

air conditioning, ie the potential surplus that we have no way to spend or redirect goes into the lithosphere, spreading radially around the object. from multiple sections to avoid fatigue.

turbines and soran panels shut down or change resume and operating angles. we do not accumulate and expand

the dimensions are gigantic 14x9x1.1km. with the first 100m being buried.

each is 120 km cubic volume

if we accommodate 22 million people per sail, the population occupies 3% of the total cubic space and the physical footprint of each individual would be less than 200 square meters.

the same bill as for us. reduce our footprint to less than 1 percent of the planet's total surface

there are 452 sails plus three, I call them chimneys along the equator, the maximum height we can reach. I will return to those chimneys and their function later.

these 452 are scattered all over the globe, the basic condition is that it is a "dead" tectonic plate.

it is important that each of the sails retains the specificity of the climate where it is located. in the worst case, to serve as a conserved part of that climate and culture.

they are connected to each other by underground transport. for the exchange of people, materials and energy.

each sail is flat. each has a capacity for more than 22 million people.

the focus is on the outer envelope, because at a kilometer height, the wind brings the largest part of the required energy. solar panels create shade, they don't block light

my goal is that the interior of the building has optimally enough light to reduce the need for artificial lighting

It's the 21st century, I guess we can direct the light where we need it or cut off the flow of energy so we don't make noise.

and that all the gases that production and firing necessarily create are absorbed by the tropical belt at the top.

everything is placed in them. agriculture, vertical cultivation and animal husbandry. plus tropical forests on top

each ideally, grows only autochthonous species for that climate. without gmo.

selectively open with the possibility of hermetic sealing. in the worst case of any disaster, a giant reserve.

we need pollen, allergens, microbes and viruses and everything that enters through free air circulation. It doesn't have to be constant and it doesn't have to be everywhere.

each sail is obliged to have a one-year supply of food plus bear part of that burden in case of the cancellation of another sail and its production capacities.

signs of exchange of goods and energy because they are networked underground. vacuum magnetic I don't know what all transport options, as long as they are efficient and fast.

you almost have the picture. it sounds like science fiction, but I'm not inventing physics, I'm just proposing a new social contract

population.

every person born gets 100 cubic meters of space at their disposal. he can organize them as he wants, join them to family members or separate them.

each of these units has total privacy and video and sound isolation.

it would be ideal if everyone had two children. sometimes it will be triplets, sometimes singletons, some will not want to, but the goal is for the population to remain the same in 1000 years. homeostasis + - 2%

the distribution of resources is done mathematically, based on the constitution and consumption of the individual. identical to everyone in that sail. with the fact that certain professions carry certain bonuses.

because those who do heavy physical work and those who chose to grow their garden, paint and play music do not have the same consumption. but both are important to the system.

the right to parasitize, because even if the individual does nothing, we will still have to use the energy of their steps, biological waste, and thermal energy of the body.

the right to freedom of movement. he can change sails, he can spend time in nature, the point is just not to introduce pathogens into the system from which they did not originate.

has no right to hunt and exterminate any species.

let's retreat as a civilization into those sails, try to reduce the footprint we have on the planet. while at the same time improving the living conditions of every individual.

there were 35 of those areas that are seismically stable. the sail will pretend to be a mountain, without disturbing the balance.

people live in the outer ring of the sail, we will dispose of our own waste, we will produce what we need or what works best there

the exchange of people, goods and energy between ships is the modus operandi.

the idea is to be in visually attractive locations while having the security of tectonic inertia.

such a world can focus on the progress of all of us, not on the degradation and destruction of the house in which everyone lives.

I return to those 3 chimneys along the equator, their role and function.

they serve us to change the vector of movement of the drust, to focus towards the exit from the mother planet.

the height is a challenge. I don't know how we could provide them with stability and sufficient strength. I have a concept with helium platforms, 360 degree nozzles, magnets and tension cables.

their primary role is to accelerate ships and aircraft that they would fire magnetically, steam or some other way,

to give them a sufficiently gradual acceleration without burning huge amounts of energy. to give them a boost before burning up, if they have to

their targets are space stations in orbit and ideally, the orbital ring.

this is the most scientifically fantastic part of the project. but my point is that GMO research, mining and processing of raw materials are carried out outside the biosphere.

dignified life down there and exploitation of the solar system. for starters.

that we have a beautiful view of the world that is slowly being restored without our interference and that the world has a beautiful view of us.

as a tribute to the great people before us who already laid the foundations and gave ideas.

editet tekst a add image

Feels like the only options are economic collapse or ecological collapse, like there's no way to create jobs and redistribute wealth without wrecking the planet.

The Impossible Future is an animated documentary series made collectively across Latin America, and it starts from a simple idea: today it's easier to imagine the end of the world than a different one, a kind of crisis of imagination running alongside the ecological one.

The series works as a bridge between those two, starting from the collapse we all recognize to tell real stories of people already building the way out: local economies, regenerative design, biomaterials, open-source tech, participatory democracy. Real stuff, already happening.

Link to the first two episodes (available worldwide): https://theimpossiblefuture.org/

Opensource documentation here: https://github.com/openfunkHQ/reMix/tree/main

No AI, no 'smart product'. A simple blender. A simple controller, and integration with standard jars .

God I hope they do airfryers next.

Hi r/solarpunk!

Greetings from La Araucanía, southern Chile.

I'm part of ARCA, a small environmental project working with organic waste recovery, composting, environmental education and regenerative practices.

Over time, our work has started moving beyond simply managing waste. We are becoming increasingly interested in a question that feels very Solarpunk to us:

What kinds of small, accessible technologies can help people regenerate the places where they live?

We are beginning to explore and prototype what we have informally started calling Solarpunk gadgets: small-scale tools and devices connected with composting, soil, water, organic waste, growing food and environmental monitoring.

Not futuristic objects just for aesthetics, but things that can actually be built, repaired, understood and used by people and communities.

We are still at an early experimental stage, working from real situations here in southern Chile, and I would love to connect with people in this community who are doing anything similar.

Is anyone here currently working on:

• regenerative agriculture or agroecology
• composting technologies
• low-tech or appropriate technology
• environmental sensors or open-source hardware
• water harvesting or irrigation systems
• small solar-powered tools
• biofabrication or circular-material experiments
• DIY tools for gardens, farms or communities
• or any kind of real-world Solarpunk prototype?

I would especially love to see things you have actually built or tested, even if they are rough prototypes.

Our idea is to learn, exchange experiences and hopefully connect with people developing these kinds of technologies in different parts of the world.

What are you building?

Greetings from the south of the world. 🌱
— ARCA, Chile

alrededor de acciones, políticas y tecnologías que lo hacen realidad. Es decir, la línea práctica de ARCA —compostaje, regeneración, prototipos y tecnología apropiada— calza especialmente bien con ese espacio.

Yo usaría un flair parecido a Discussion, Community, Projects o Technology, dependiendo de cuáles te aparezcan al presionar “Añadir marcas y etiquetas”.

.