Difference between revisions of "Sustainability Efforts"

From Disorient wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 32: Line 32:
Plastic shredder at the Museum of Space Available, Bali, Indonesia:<BR>
Plastic shredder at the Museum of Space Available, Bali, Indonesia:<BR>
[[File:20221003PlasticRecyclingSolution1.jpg|260px]] [[File:20221003PlasticRecyclingSolution2.jpg|260px]] [[File:20221003PlasticRecyclingSolution3.jpg|260px]]<BR>
[[File:20221003PlasticRecyclingSolution1.jpg|260px]] [[File:20221003PlasticRecyclingSolution2.jpg|260px]] [[File:20221003PlasticRecyclingSolution3.jpg|260px]]<BR>
Examples of brick compressor and molds<BR>
[[File:BrickCompressor.jpg|150px]] [[File:BrickMold1.jpg|300px]] [[File:BrickMold2.jpg|300px]]<BR>


Plastic shredder and brick compressor at Monsieur Spoon in Pererenan, Bali, Indonesia:<BR>
Plastic shredder and brick compressor at Monsieur Spoon in Pererenan, Bali, Indonesia:<BR>

Revision as of 06:25, 30 October 2022

Energy

Goal

Disorient camp at Burning Man is aiming to use 95% renewable energy by 2027.

Solar

We have been working on solar solutions for Geodesic Temple with our friends at Black Rock Labs since 2017.

BM17TheEyeAndDavidS.jpg IMG 9669.JPG

CoSign "D", part of D22's frontage, 100% powered by solar array provided by Black Rock Labs.

D22CoSignSolarArray.1.jpg 20220930CoSignDwithSolarArray.jpg

Wind

(Info to be provided by Proto)

On-Site Mixed Plastics Recycling

After all these years and all these words, we are still in what feels like the Stone Age of plastic recycling. A long-term solution demands that we break the table-to-landfill cycle and weave plastic recycling deep into our lives by turning it into a habit, a ritual.

Here's our plan

1. Keep it simple.
1.1. Use what's readily available. The chosen recycling process should not require water, chemicals, additives, adhesives, or fillers. Ultimately, it should not require electricity either but we will probably use some electricity at the beginning to jumpstart the process.
1.2. Minimal pre-processing. We need to find ways to make recycling entertaining and intellectually rewarding, in other words, we need to amplify its feel-good factor and make it viral. Developing a recycling habit should be as easy as possible and therefore should involve only minimal sorting, cleaning or pre-processing. There are arguments for pre-processing but at our stage of recycling (remember, we're in the Stone Age) we just need to keep it as simple as possible to get started. We can get fancy later.
2. On-site, on-scale and self-reliant. Moving discarded plastics is a big part of the pollution problem. Ironically, current recycling strategies involve polluting the air further by shipping huge amounts of trash around the planet. Following our DIY ethos, plastics recycled by Disorient is not moved to another facility across the playa or across the planet. It is reconfigured on site with a solution tailored to our problem.
3. Distributed. To have a better chance to reduce our contribution to the landfill, plastic recycling needs to become easy, hyper-local and sexy. Based on point #2 above, the solution should be open-source and easily replicable by other individuals/camps/communities. The centralized industrial solutions in place need to be supported by decentralized individual solutions. We need to address the problem where it happens: everyone's backyard. Small solutions, distribute widely.

Technical solutions

We use a plastic shredder to turn mixed plastics into little chips and a brick compressor which compresses the plastic chips into bricks similar to this one or that one to create bricks following this example.

Plastic shredder at the Museum of Space Available, Bali, Indonesia:
20221003PlasticRecyclingSolution1.jpg 20221003PlasticRecyclingSolution2.jpg 20221003PlasticRecyclingSolution3.jpg

Examples of brick compressor and molds
BrickCompressor.jpg BrickMold1.jpg BrickMold2.jpg

Plastic shredder and brick compressor at Monsieur Spoon in Pererenan, Bali, Indonesia:
2021PlasticRecyclingSolution1.jpg 2021PlasticRecyclingSolution2.jpg

In hot climates there is an opportunity to use solar heat to melt or at least soften the plastic chips to help the brick-making compressing process.

What new plastic objects do we need?

Making objects out of plastic refuse is neat but the question waiting for us at the end of the recycling line is also challenging. What kind of new plastic objects do we want/need and what do we do with those new objects? Our goal is not only to become self-reliant when it comes to plastic recycling by doing this recycling on-site (immediacy) but also to start using the resulting plastic bricks (and possibly other objects depending on the molds used during compression) as a component of our art installations. The good news is if/when those new objects become obsolete, we can throw them back into the shredder.

None of this is new. What's new is to actually make it happen.

Disorient Unplugged

Further exploring sustainable options, Disorient Unplugged is a new type of Disorient event that requires no electricity. Removing electricity from Disorient is a challenge that forces us to re-interpret fundamental aspects of Disorient.
Our first Disorient Unplugged event was Disorient presents: BURNING MANTAP in Bali in 2021.