Project Help!

Penguin

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 27, 2003
Messages
688
Location
Diamond Bar, California
Hey Guys,

My class was recently assigned an Environmental Science Project. We're required to create a "company" to identify an environmental issue and bring about a change in the community to address the problem. I'm at a lost for ideas. Recycling, conserving water/electricity and all that is great, but it's played out. We're competing against another class, and our grades our based on how successful our "company" is. Past projects have been: Gas Conservation, Paper Recycling Etc. They all failed /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

-Josh
 

Eugene

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 29, 2003
Messages
1,190
I've always been a fan of telecommuting. Eliminate gas used driving back and forth
 

tylerdurden

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 11, 2003
Messages
2,083
Location
Roaming Around - Southern USA
Self-contained solar/hydrogen systems for residential use. Cheap solar cells on the roof (they're coming!), electrolysis equipment to use excess solar power to convert water to hydrogen, big underground tanks to store the hydrogen for cloudy days or for fueling your hydrogen car.

Think of how much money the typical household spends on energy each month (electricity, natural gas, gasoline, etc). That's a LOT of cash that could be freed up and put to better use - a huge boost to our economy. Say goodbye to OPEC. Never have to worry about "conserving" again.

I really get irritated when people suggest energy conservation is the answer to our problems. Energy *independence* is the answer. I don't want to conserve - I want to consume ten, twenty, maybe even 100 times as much energy as I do today. We might not be able to think of how to use that much power, but when the cost of it becomes near-zero, you can bet the applications will spring up.
 

Jack_Crow

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 9, 2004
Messages
417
Location
West Palm Beach FLA (for a while anyway)
P,
Ive had an idea for a long time. There are lots of former war zones in the third world. And wages here are cheap, benifits non existant. Raw materials nearly free.

Iraq is littered. Litterally.

All along the paths from two wars here is covered with old water bottles, brass, and spent batteries.

Un employment here is rampent.

Issue a few teams of Local National's trucks and give them eight dollars a day (that's very good wages for this country) and some amount per pound for empty plastic bottles.

Establish a plant that will strip the lables off the bottles and schread the clear plastic for remelt and recycling.

A second line can be established for caps or color plastic bits.

I remember a wood like product made from old soda bottles in the US. Iraq is a wood poor country. Benches, bus stop shelters. Most any kind of top cover is welcome in a place where yesterdays temp in the sun was 129F.

What if the LEGO idea was scaled up to make temporary buildings? Interlocking bricks made from recycled plastic. After construction it can be painted to be pleasing, or dyes can be added to the molten plastic. Right now we are bringing in lots of trailers for troop shelters, and office space.

Recovered brass (cartridge shells) can be collected, decapped and turned into any number of personal items.

It seems anyplace where wars are fought, bateries are left behind. Some military units are quite exotic, but im thinking of standard AA, aaa, d, c, and 9v. Recovering metals and such.

What would it take to recover old tanks and mil vehicles, decon the DU (depleted Uranium) and turn that steel into something useful? Or as a minimum establish a repository for contanimated items and keep it away from a population that has no idea what DU is and have that material away from the food and water chain.

Old military engines can be mounted on racks to feed generators. These generators can be the source of electric power for many of the small villages. Many military engines are multi fuel, an added benifit.

Lots of old barbed wire can be re spooled and taken away. Used in ranching or melted down for scrap.

Also from defused munitions, explosives can be extracted and the metal recovered. It could be the begining of a major industry here.

What are your thoughts?

Jack Crow in Iraq
 

Penguin

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 27, 2003
Messages
688
Location
Diamond Bar, California
Thanks guys for the suggestions, but remember, this is a school project, we need to raise our own funds to build this "company". We don't have the funds to do alot of the proposed ideas.
 

Jack_Crow

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 9, 2004
Messages
417
Location
West Palm Beach FLA (for a while anyway)
P,
Part of building a business is locating sources of financing.

In this case there are any number of save the environment crews that might toss some money. You don't actually have to send the letters, just create examples of how it might be done.

Also the new Iraqi government will be looking for employers and investors to come to Iraq and set up shop.

I can't imagine a school project that actualy requires seting up shop, but with a little creative writing you can synthsize a pitch letter to various people who might give loans and grants to such an organization. Generate a form letter and change the address and names a couple of times.

On a school project, start from the top and work down. Create one for the president, speaker of the house, leader of the senate, head of the provional authatory, the heads of the Saudi, Kuwaiti, and Syrian Governments. Get screen shots of various national and international web pages. You can get those addresses from the internet. If you know anybody that can translate your letter into arabic, so much the better. Perhaps an on line translation program. I kinda wish I had the internet in 77 when I got out of high school. I was luckey to have an electric typewriter. Personal computers were years away.

Create a flow chart for how the materials are processed and a second flow chart for how people are paid. Present your project as a business plan.

Collect up a bag full of plastic bottles as an example. I have always found that I can 'sell' people on projects if I have something physical in hand.

Send a letter off to a recycling plant that deals in plastics to see how it's done. A polite letter and a phone call will get you tours of these places. Be sure to ask if you can take photos. Be sure who ever grants you a tour, you follow up with how you did on the project in a thank you note.

Look up the guy that though up FedEx and search around. Someplace on the internet is his 'business plan'. In the mid 70's nobody thought an overnight package delivery service would sell. Now we send stuff to UPS via Fed Ex.

For the price of a few hours and 10% of a toner cartridge you can put togther a truly kick butt presentation.

Much luck
Jack Crow in Iraq
 
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