Friday, June 25, 2010

Wildly Creative Mind at Electrolux

Electrolux has some seriously crazy minds. I've talked before of their concept cooktop, something so far out there that they admits themselves that it will take 40+ years to develop.

The newest report (courtesy of Plastic News) is that they want to vacuum up all the plastic in the Great Garbage Patches and recycle it all into products. Look at the challenges involved: the dilution of the feedstock [1], contamination with nonplastic matter, the mixed polymers in the feedstream, the distance of the feedstock to a processing plant [2]...

It certainly will be great PR to be doing something about the problem, and as long as human behavior doesn't change (not going to hold my breath on that one), it will be an endless feedstock stream.

As I led in with, this company has one overactive creative mindset, so rare in this day.

[1] Ever notice that no one has produced a picture showing you how concentrated the plastic is? If such a picture existed, the environmentalists would be sure that it is seen everywhere (such as with pictures of oil-soaked pelicans). The Garbage Patches exist only on a relative basis - it's not a giant raft of material all globbed together.

[2] Granted, some processing equipment could be installed on a large boat, but I think it would mainly be limited to separation steps, possibly granulation, but all that would require a good sized generator powered by fossil fuels.

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