Waste Free ERA: Bringing Sustainability to Alegria Through ... · During the 2016 Summer Olympics, all the world was watching Rio de Janeiro. However, Brazil was the fifth largest

Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria

Teacher: Kathryn Graunke Mentor: Matthew Graunke

Presenters: Madyison Nichols, Adriana Baniecki, Jeremy Graunke

1 School: Veritas Homeschoolers City Name: Alegria Word Count: 1497 (essay: 1412 graphics: 85)

Waste Free ERA: Bringing Sustainability to Alegria

Through a Complex System of Systems

Alegria, meaning “joy” in Portuguese, is located on the eastern shores of South

America. In the year 2166, Alegria’s population of 8.6 million enjoys a mildly tropical

climate, a coastal location and year-round urban farming. This beautiful Brazilian resort

city, formerly known as Rio de Janeiro, is famous for its fabulous Copacabana Beach

and dazzling Carnival celebration. The University of Alegria offers world-class

education, research, cultural museums and hospitals.

Alegria won the prestigious Living City Certification®, recognizing it for excellence in

each sustainability category (Petals). Unique features of Living Cities include beauty,

water conservation, renewable energy and environmentally safe construction materials.

Alegrian buildings feature on-site energy production, hydroponic rooftop gardens,

rainwater capture and natural beauty. Buildings are constructed without red-list





materials. Underwater Ocean Turbines provide Alegria’s renewable tidal energy. Point-

to-point maglev sky pods provide efficient commute times. Residents bike share or walk

among urban green spaces and edible parks. Interactive, holographic lessons provide

Alegrians with personalized, life-long education. The economy is driven by tourism and

high-tech industry, including the renowned NanoApp Inc. and the Materials Genome

Headquarters. Alegria is a beautiful, equitable and waste-free city.

History

During the 2016 Summer Olympics, all the world was watching Rio de Janeiro.

However, Brazil was the fifth largest global producer of trash, and Rio’s overflowing

dumps polluted Guanabara Bay. An inadequate, costly waste management system

harmed the environment with fossil fuel emissions and sent 27 billion tons of trash per

year to unsafe destinations. The only recycling system was the catadores, citizens who

hand-picked the recyclable goods from the dumps. Everyone realized drastic change

was necessary.

Finding a Solution

Trash disposal was a difficult problem. Waste consisted of organics, single-use

packaging, biomedical products, electronics, durable goods, paper, plastic, glass and

aluminum. Since waste is a misplaced resource, engineers collaborated to create a

closed-loop, complex system of systems which outlines the flow of all goods in a waste-

free city: The Waste Free Eleven Rs Approach (ERA). All types of waste are redesigned

and reused for new products. Organic waste is converted into energy and digestate

through anaerobic digestion. No waste is incinerated, keeping the environment free of

dioxins, and ERA leaves no carbon footprint.





The Waste Free Eleven Rs Approach (ERA)

Government, manufacturers, and the public took the

Responsibility to Reduce and Recognize the value of all resources.

Resources are identified and sent to:

A. Rot: Decentralized anaerobic digestion creates compost and energy.

B. Repair: Custom 3D printing files are accessed from the CAD database.

C. Reuse: Packaging with embedded deposit/tracking chips is redistributed.

D. Recycle: Materials are scanned, shredded and organized for resale.

E. Recovery: Resources are converted into their chemical constituents.

ReImagine and ReEngineer: Completes the product life cycle.





Technology and Infrastructure Changes

Complex infrastructure changes were needed to make the Waste Free ERA viable.

Rezoning and repurposing buildings.

Installing pneumatic underground piping and disposal chutes.

Developing a Bitcoin deposit and tracking system for packaging and waste.

Reinventing food distribution.

Engineers recognized that over 65% of waste was organics and packaging. They

decided to reinvent the food distribution and disposal system, in which multi-use

buildings were key. Buildings feature rooftop gardens, restaurants, condos, grocery

stores and anaerobic digestion. Dumbwaiters deliver food to residents and restaurants

from onsite, bulk packaging grocery stores or rooftop gardens in reusable cotton bags,

glass containers or transparent aluminum packaging.

Easy Disposal: the SLIPS Chute

The Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surface (SLIPS) Chutes transport all waste

from the residential and commercial areas to the basement. These omniphobic, Teflon





tubes are designed to reduce friction and repel bacteria. As waste enters the basement,

it is categorized by a hyperspectral optical scanner that determines its destination.

Packaging: If the disposed item is packaging, it is sanitized in the basement and

returned to the grocery store. Packaging has Bitcoin value and can circulate locally and

globally. ID chips enable tracking and distribution to grocery stores or manufacturers.

Anaerobic Digestion: Organic waste is converted into digestate through

anaerobic digestion and used as fertilizer in the rooftop garden’s customized

hydroponics. Resulting biogases provide the building with energy.

Materials Recovery Facility: All remaining waste is directed to the Materials

Recovery Facility (MRF) via underground pneumatic tubes.

Designed with Repair in Mind:

When electronic and durable goods are broken, the owner brings them to the local 3D

Printing Repair Shop for diagnostics. Glass, metal and plastic replacement parts are

printed or laser cut, using the Worldwide CAD Database to obtain the product’s file. In

several hours, the item is repaired. If it cannot be repaired, the owner is paid in Bitcoins,

and the item is sent through the pneumatic tubes for material or chemical recovery.

At the Materials Recovery Facility:

All products beyond repair are sent to the Materials Recovery Facility, located in

Industrial Park. After they are put into a shredder and separated, optical scanners

identify each material. Robots remove usable materials, which are sent to the reverse

logistics department and sold globally. Types of waste include:

1. E-Waste: Electronic waste is shredded then separated by overband magnets

and eddy currents. Valuable metals and semiconductor materials are recovered.

2. Cardboard, Paper and Textiles: Scanners determine whether they will be

reused, recycled or composted.

3. Plastics: Manufacturers unanimously decided not to use any virgin plastics.

Broken plastic components are scanned at the MRF with a Fourier Transform





Infrared Spectrometer to identify the material. Then Alegria’s Materials Science

Engineers use the Materials Genome Project to make new plastic composites.

4. Biomedical: Hazardous biomedical waste is collected in rubber tubs, then sent

through the SLIPS Chute and pneumatic tubes to the MRF. Reusable medical

products are sterilized by gamma irradiation. Non-reusable products are sent to

chemical recovery.

5. Chemical Recovery: Items that cannot be repaired, recycled or decomposed go

through an end-of-life process called supercritical water oxidation. Items, mixed

with water, are sent two miles into the earth in a gravity pressure vessel. The

natural geologic forces of heat and pressure drive the water medium to a

supercritical state. This ecological and efficient system utilizes natural energy

sources to break down the waste materials into their chemical constituents.

Resulting end products are salts, gases and biosolids, which are ReImagined

and ReEngineered into new items.

Energy and Environmental Impacts

The Waste Free ERA is energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Building-

integrated, vertical, maglev wind turbines provide clean energy for pneumatic collection,

optical separation and robotic processing. Biogas is recovered from anaerobic digestion

and contributes to the self-sustaining multi-use buildings. Lack of incinerators and

landfills ensure health and safety through continual containment of waste and

elimination of leachate.

Benefits, Tradeoffs and Risks

Alegria’s Waste Free ERA achieved environmental and economic sustainability. Long-

term benefits include: a clean city with zero waste, energy efficiency, a circular system

of resources and reduced food and packaging transportation. The financial tradeoffs for

the necessary infrastructure and maintenance costs were deemed worthwhile by the





government, public and manufacturers. Revenue generated from material and chemical

recovery provided a long-term return on investment.

ERA was designed to overcome its few risk factors:

To guarantee that waste streams were not cross-contaminated, the population

would have to dispose of used items properly. This was achieved by a

convenient system and an educated population.

Ensuring public responsibility of reusable items was addressed. Tracking and

deposit chips were embedded into all standardized packaging containers.

The reuse of containers and biomedical products could transfer pathogens.

Activated and electrolyzed water is used to clean packaging, while gamma

irradiation sanitizes biomedical products.

Engineers Made It Happen

The Waste Free ERA was designed by many engineers, who each played an important

role in the design process.

1. Civil and Environmental Engineers designed the overall infrastructure for the system

of systems.

2. Information Technology Engineers created the database for the tracking devices in

the Bitcoin packaging reuse system.

3. Materials Engineers created composite plastics, eliminating new and single-use

plastics.

4. Agricultural Engineers designed urban farming towers and rooftop gardens, which

use staggered agricultural cycles for constant crop production.

5. Biological Engineers designed the anaerobic digestion system that uses customized

bacteria blends to break down organic matter.

6. Chemical Engineers implemented supercritical water oxidation to allow chemical

recovery for end-of-life products.





7. Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineers designed the Underwater Ocean Turbines,

the 3D Printers and CAD files.

8. Nuclear Engineers incorporated gamma irradiation to sterilize biomedical waste.

Alegria’s residents enjoy natural beauty, Living City features and a symbiotic

relationship with their restored environment. The Waste Free Eleven Rs Approach

transformed a city with overflowing dumps into a self-sustaining new era.





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Waste Free ERA: Bringing Sustainability to Alegria Through ... · During the 2016 Summer Olympics, all the world was watching Rio de Janeiro. However, Brazil was the fifth largest