No plastic bag ban for Toronto

In these last few days, Toronto has been hit with a whirlwind of events, from the victory of the grey cup for the Toronto Argonauts, to the boot of Rob Ford's position as mayor. But Toronto has been hit again.....the Toronto city council has decided against the ban of plastic bags as well as the removal of 5 cent fee for bags. Although it has nothing to do with Ford's situation (since he thought the whole boot of bags is "outright stupid") it has more to do with the lawsuits of groups such as the Canadian Plastic Bag Association ....yes you read right *insert hysterical laugh here* and the Toronto Convenience Store Association. Although this is more of a legal battle between the municipality and associations that live on plastic bags, from a environmental point of view the ban would of had a huge positive impact on Canadians as it would of reduced the bad effects that plastic bags affect us and the ecosystem. Below, I added a chart that shows some facts about the dangers of plastic bags: 

http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/directionless-and-mindless-toronto-city-council-rescinds-proposed-plastic-bag-ban.html

It's pretty obvious that plastic bags is something that needs to be extinct in the years to come, and it's not a complicated, non-existent solution in fact, solutions do exist such as bags made out of recyclable materials, eco-friendly totes etc... it's just a matter of adjusting to a lifestyle that that can impact positively not only our envirorment, but also humankind.

Info from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/in-surprise-move-toronto-kills-plastic-bag-ban/article5753431/

A New (very unusual) Way Of Attaining Electricity

I recently came across an article on treehugger about an innovative
invention made by a group of teenage girls in Africa that produces
energy that uses an unusual (kinda gross) ingredient that might somewhat
shock you.... *** drum roll please***.... human urine..... yea i know,
takes recycling to another level...
but it does work perfectly and in fact, a liter of urine can produce
six hours of electricity
Below, I have added a chart showing how their invention actually works:

• Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.


• The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.


• The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.


• This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.

This type of invention can really change the way we look at human waste.
and how it can be recycled to produce energy that we use on a daily basis
This could really be an invention that can become globally innovative and
useful in many households and commercial spaces.
Hopefully the world population will pee enough to meet electrical standards
and demand....

The girls behind the innovative invention

All info and images from: http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/teenage-girls-invent-pee-powered-generator.html

Mushrooms used for insulation?!

Combined with different other materials, mushrooms are the up & coming source for possible building insulation. Eben Bayer combined his knowledge of agriculture of mushrooms with Gavin Maintyre's knowledge in sustainability to make a "Greensulate" mix that is an organic, fire-retardant board made of flour, oyster mushroom spores & perlite (a mineral blend found in potting soil) and water. This type of insulation has been shown to meet the standards of other commercial insulation and it is also cheap to produce.

from:http://designercowboy.blogspot.ca/2008_03_01_archive.html

Eben Bayer & Gavin Maintyre along an example of the mushroom insulation.

In a few years time, this could be one of the products that changes the housing industry since many companies are introducing many sustainable finishes & materials in their projects, this product can also develop a new perspective in not only insulation, but also building materials in general because if we can use something so simple and organic such as mushrooms to make something important (especially for countries that have strong winters) we can develop and figure out ways to use other organic components to fabricate important materials. Although it sounds like a great idea, there is always a glitch in these awesome creations, will the product itself have any issues?, will it economically affect the insulation industry?, will it be cheaper and easier to produce globally? will it be as fast to produce as regular insulation? will this product even turn regular insulation a thing from the past? only time will tell.

All info from: http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/mushroom-spores-the-newest-green-insulation-material.html