{"id":18584,"date":"2015-04-16T13:21:34","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T17:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=18584"},"modified":"2015-04-16T13:21:34","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T17:21:34","slug":"new-paris-eco-district-uses-pneumatic-waste-collection-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-paris-eco-district-uses-pneumatic-waste-collection-system\/","title":{"rendered":"New Paris Eco-District Uses Pneumatic Waste Collection System"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n Back in college, I spent a semester working as a hospital pharmacy tech. While we made regular trips on foot to deliver prescriptions, IV bags, and other items, we also made use of a pneumatic tube system to send single items, or multiple light-weight things, immediately to a patient wing. At that point, this was kind of an old-school technology, but one that worked remarkably well: within seconds, the nurses would have the drugs or materials they needed.<\/p>\n I’m not sure I’ve seen such a system since – well, maybe in a movie portraying mid-20th century business operations – but they are still around. This week I learned that they’re still being installed<\/a>, and that a pneumatic waste collection system may be the cutting edge for garbage and recycling disposal<\/a> in urban environments. A new “eco-district” in Paris,\u00a0Clichy-Batignolles<\/a>, started using such a system at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n Why would a new neighborhood based on ecological principles want to make use of such a system? Take a minute to think about how your trash and recycling is normally collected: trucks making rounds picking up either trash cans or dumpsters. Our regular system automatically involves fossil fuel consumption, and the emissions that go with it (except for a few places trying out electric trucks<\/a>).<\/p>\n The pneumatic waste collection system eliminates much of the oil-powered collection: rather, residents of apartment buildings in the district deliver bags of waste to a central collection point in their buildings, and the materials are fed into the system. Different materials – organic waste, recyclables, mixed waste – each have separate inlets. The system moves the waste to a collection point in the city – a kilometer and a half, or just under a mile, away – where it’s compacted, and loaded onto trucks for its eventual destination. According to the eco-district’s site, “Pneumatic waste collection can reduce by 42% the emissions of greenhouse gases, 98% reduction in carbon monoxide, 86% of nitrogen oxide emissions and 90% particulate emissions.” Global Site Plans notes that such a system also costs less to operate after installation.<\/p>\n Apparently, such systems are in operation in other parts of Europe, and in Asia. While such systems don’t discourage creating trash, it doesn’t strike me that they encourage it, either – they’re no more convenient than the traditional system.<\/p>\n Have you used a pneumatic waste collection system? What did you think? No doubt you didn’t miss trash trucks banging cans around at godawful hours…<\/p>\n via Sustainable Cities Collective<\/a> (disclaimer: I’m a member of their Board of Advisers)<\/p>\n