USA: plastic Microspheres can be banned from personal care products until 2018

Last month, Congressman Frank Pallone proposed a new legislation in the House of representatives of the United States that could end the sale and products containing plastic microspheres in the country until 2018. The microspheres are small plastic pieces used as exfoliants on a wide range of beauty products and toiletries, including SOAP, toothpaste and facial creams.

The microspheres are too small to be properly separated from the wastewater treatment stations. As such, these little pieces of plastic ends up in rivers, lakes and oceans. Additionally, this form of pollution through the plastic is extremely difficult to remove and can be ingested by fish and other animals.

"We have a responsibility to put an end to this unnecessary plastic pollution," Pallone said in a statement, quoted by the Tree Hugger. "The fasearmos the extinction of these plastic microspheres and use no synthetic alternatives can protect the waters of the United States before it's too late".

Most are plastic microspheres of petroleum origin, such as polyethylene and polypropylene. However, there are many biodegradable alternatives already used by producers of cosmetics, including sea salts or almonds.

Photo: Markus Eriksen/Tree hugger

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The solution for a cheaper energy

New discoveries within the silicon solar cell design allowed the three companies break the record for energy efficiency, established 20 years ago. During the Conference, IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists in Denver, Panasonic, Sharp and SunPower presented new photovoltaic cells that exceeded the old barriers to efficiency. It is expected that this increase will enable the solar energy efficiency compete commercially with fossil fuels.

Traditional silicon solar cells have the positive poles in contact with the surface of the Panel, which actually creates shadows on the surface, reducing the efficiency of the unit as a whole. When transferring the poles for the reverse side of the Panel, where are the negative poles, the efficiency is increased. The discovery was fair by SunPower.

Another improvement was introduced by Panasonic. Most of the Silicon cells, the electrons become trapped by the superficial imperfections of joints of crystalline silicon cells. To avoid this the Panasonic added thin film of silicon to the verses of the cells. This new improvement allows to achieve an efficiency rate of 25.6%, as the new design of SunPower untrapassou the barrier of 25%, referred to Inhabitat. Despite the theoretical level advances don't look sizable, at a practical level the amount of energy produced is much better.

New advances are not yet ready to be produced commercially, but open doors for new advances in this field, horizon reduce the ultimate cost to the consumer.

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Hotel de Londres has an Apiary for 300 thousand special guests

The St Ermin's Hotel, in James Park, London, created his own Apiary, which houses more than 300 thousand bees. Located on the third floor balcony, space is the first of its kind in the city and the hotel already has an entire wall devoted to insects.

Designed by expert and bee Wrangler Camilla Goddard, the hotel offers accommodation in the form of suites purple hex, a wide variety of species of bees visitors. The Apiary is still a colony of buckfast bees â€" a species created by humans in the early 20th century, at Buckfast Abbey, England, to combat a disease that was decimating bee colonies locations.

The hotel also offers special spaces for other beneficial insects, like the terrestrial isopods, ladybugs, spiders and Earwigs.

"The bees are facing a massive decline and facing great challenges today, including the reduction of natural forage, as wildflower meadows. I want to encourage people to help create more forage for bees, "said Camilla Goddard to the British press.

Additionally, the beekeeper hotel guests still teaches how to collect honey and take care of bees and will guide future workshops on the treatment of bees at St Ermin's Hotel. The honey produced by bees visitors is collected and marketed under the brand name of the hotel.

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Smile delivery mission 60 thousand toys to social institutions

The campaign to collect toys from Smile Mission led to the donation of 60 thousand toys to needy children, 30 thousand of these delivered by customers and other 30 thousand across the continent.

In recent times, the Portuguese were invited to donate used toys, since they were in perfect conditions of use, and for every toy delivered, the Mainland would donate a new toy to a Bank of donated goods.

The toys were handed out in stores a continent, online shop and Zippy around the country and are to be distributed to children of needy families.

"Once again, the Portuguese joined with enthusiasm to a campaign of social solidarity, this time designed to encourage sharing of children who donated their toys to disadvantaged children, supported by social institutions in your area. Foster the participation of solidarity was the proposal that the mission Smile and the Bank of donated goods have launched and the result shows the generosity of children when they are asked to contribute. "said Isabel Jonet, Bank of donated goods.

Foto: mac_filko / Creative Commons

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New platform for research and help promote cycling in Portugal

Aveiro is the headquarters of a body that is intended to help the economic actors and the public administration to develop innovative projects around the bike and sustainable mobility. The bike technologic platform and Smooth mobility has the seal of the University of Aveiro (UA).

The new platform involves 30 researchers at the UA-related to diverse areas of study â€" and intends to be much more than "a new body to do applied research", underlines José Carlos Mota, one of the researchers who coordinates the platform.

According to the public, the new platform has a number of partners outside the Academy, such as the National Association of industries of two wheels, hardware, furniture and the like (ABIMOTA) and Federação Portuguesa de Ciclismo.

"The objective [of this platform] also help the economic actors and the public administration to develop innovative projects in this area, and to create conditions so that the bike is used increasingly in the movements of citizens," adds the Aveiro University faculty member. And, equally or more important than all of this, "it is intended to help economic operators to create new products and services, which also create jobs", underlines José Carlos Mota.

At birth in a region which also gives conspicuous by the fact that host a large number of national sector industries of two wheels, this body also wants to solve the "difficulty of dialogue that often exists between the actors in the public sector and the private agents". "It is necessary to coordinate efforts among the various actors", highlights the investigator of the AU.

More than 3.9 percent of the city's inhabitants are regularly bike, when the national average is 0.5 percent. The data compiled by the National Institute of statistics (INE) indicate that more than half of the population of this region has a bike at home (bycicles 535 per thousand inhabitants).

It is recalled that the topic of bicycle and bicycle mobility is taking a growing interest in the national policy agenda â€" the Government published the Bicycle promotion plan and Other Soft Modes 2013-2020-, beside that there are encouraging data that arise.

"In 2012, sold in Portugal more bicycles than cars", José Carlos Mota, reveals the purpose of numbers that leave no room for doubt: that year, 350,000 were marketed bicycles, against the 113,408 automobiles sold. More still: "the Portuguese industry is in the ' top ' of the European production of bicycles and accessories", vinca the investigator.

Foto:  quinnums / Creative Commons

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Students transform electrical Tower in colorful stained glass window

German art students converted a nearby electrical Tower Hattigen in a colorful stained-glass Windows. The work, Letchtturm (lighthouse, in German), is a species of Lighthouse, whose glasses reflect sunlight and make the Tower sparkle, spreading a variety of colors for the green landscape.

In this way, the project of Ail Hwang, Hae-Jeong and Ryan Ching-Ki Park became an austere structure into a work of art with usefulness, referred to Inhabitat.

The towers of electricity are the family structures around the globe, dotting the landscape with endless rows connected by wires that bring electricity to villages and cities. These metal structures are neglected or ignored, merging with the background landscape.

However, this Hattigen electric Tower is located in a idyllic portion of land in a forest Glade with a meadow on the edge of a small lake, where a cycling trail.

Equipped with colorful glass triangles now that make up the stained glass, the Tower attracts the attention of who passes through the site.

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Paperboy: wine in cartons saves 67% in energy

The glass has many advantages, not the least of which is how it can recycle without losing quality, but an American company, the Paperboy, is trying to enter the market of packaging of wine with an innovation: wine stored per card.

According to Business Week, these bottles are 80% lighter than glass bottles and thus save fuel in transportation and avoid unnecessary CO2 emissions.

The Paperboy asserts that the wine is placed in a package of bottle-shaped card and that is compostable. Innovation is here: this is a real bottle and a box, which should leave happy every wine merchants who cherish the aesthetics â€" and the value of your product.

The Business Week claims that the packaging is primarily made from waste paper, which in addition to being lighter than glass, as already admitted, it does have other positive impacts. This package, for example, it is difficult to leave-Unlike so many other of glass that, day after day, spread the nectar on the floor of the supermarkets, by stores or distribution trucks.

Follow Paperboy not Facebook.

According to the manufacturer of wine Truett Hurst, cited by Business Week, a single truck of wine with the innovation of the Paperboy can save 230 liters of diesel and avoid sending 619 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Paper bottles need less energy to be made â€" 67% less energy, to be accurate. And this is an excellent news for everyone â€" the wine industry, environment and consumers.

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