#reculture

Firstly, the researchers removed the phones’ batteries and replaced them with external power sources to reduce the risk of chemical leakage into the environment, a ScienceDaily report explains. 

Then, four phones were connected together, fitted with 3D-printed casings and holders, and turned into a working prototype ready to be reused.

“Innovation often begins not with something new, but with a new way of thinking about the old, re-imagining its role in shaping the future,” says Huber Flores, Associate Professor of Pervasive Computing at the University of Tartu in Estonia.  

The prototype created by researchers was put to use underwater, where it participated in the monitoring of marine life by helping to count different sea species. 

Normally, these kinds of tasks require a scuba diver to record video and bring it to the surface for analysis. The prototype meant the whole process could be done automatically underwater.

And there are many other ways that a phone’s capacity to efficiently process and store data can be put to good use after its WhatsApping days are done.

These mini data centres could also be used at bus stops, for example, to collect real-time data on the number of passengers. This could help to optimise public transportation networks.

Restoring Indigenous aquaculture heals both ecosystems and communities in Hawai‘i

For generations, native Hawaiians have understood that their aquaculture systems, fishponds known as loko i‘a, serve as nurseries that seed fish populations in surrounding waters. For the first time, a team of scientists from the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) have modeled this feat of Indigenous science in a study.

“We are using science to translate ‘ike kupuna, or Indigenous knowledge, into policy,” said study co-author Kawika Winter, an ecologist at HIMB and He‘eia National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR).

“The value of this paper is that it’s one of the first, if not the first, to really show that there are ways to do aquaculture in ways that benefit the system around it.”

In partnership with He‘eia NERR and Paepae o He‘eia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to stewarding the He‘eia loko i‘a, an ancient Hawaiian fishpond enclosing 36 hectares (88 acres) of brackish water, the team simulated different restoration scenarios in Kāne‘ohe Bay on O‘ahu Island based on a simplified food web. The study found that restoring more of the bay into fully functional loko iʻa would grow fish populations not just within the ponds, but across the bay.

“Aquaculture has a really bad reputation for basically destroying areas around it, but those are commercial approaches to aquaculture that aren’t holistic in their thinking or values-based like Indigenous management,” Winter said. “Rather than ensuring the health of the system, commercial aquaculture is concerned with maximizing profits.”

Winter attributed the success of the loko i’a design to Indigenous thought processes: “Indigenous thinking is operating within the opportunities and constraints of this system and figuring out a way to make things abundant within that context, sometimes even increasing abundance beyond natural levels.

Restoring ecosystems and relationships

Since co-founding Paepae o He‘eia in 2001, study co-author Hi‘ilei Kawelo, a sixth-generation Hawaiian from Kāne‘ohe Bay, has witnessed thousands of volunteers transform the He‘eia loko i‘a.

With the ongoing restoration, Paepae o He‘eia has seen both the aquatic environment and participants’ well-being improve with increased access to traditional foods, strengthening their relationship to place, and fortifying their family and community relationships. “For me and for a lot of our employees, this is one of our outlets, if not our primary outlet for exercising aloha ‘āina [love of the land],” Kawelo said.

“‘Āina is so important, because it is a term for a system that has the nature and its people in an inseparable reciprocal relationship,” Winter said. “The concept is core to this work because it’s about getting back into a way of thinking where there is no separation between the lands, the waters and us.”

While the overarching goal of Paepae o He‘eia and other fishponds is to revitalize Hawai‘i’s extensive Indigenous aquaculture system, Kotubetey said he knows the work may take generations.

A $375M landmark partnership is backing Indigenous-led conservation and development across the Northwest Territories

In an unprecedented partnership, 21 Indigenous governments, the Government of Canada, the Government of the Northwest Territories and private donors are investing $375 million in Indigenous-led conservation, stewardship and economic development across the Northwest Territories.

The Northwest Territories, a region of significant ecological value, hosts one of the largest and most intact forest ecosystems around the globe, along with two of the world’s largest freshwater lakes and the eighth largest river. These lands and waters support an abundance of animals, including migratory birds and arctic mammals, including caribou (Rangifer tarandus), grizzly bears (Ursus arctos), polar bears (Ursus maritimus), wolves (Canis lupus), lynx (Lynx canadensis) and wolverines (Gulo gulo).

Through the “Our Land for the Future” initiative, the partners involved aim to build community capacity by supporting the Indigenous Guardians program, which is a stewardship program that includes trained experts who manage lands and waters on behalf of their Nations. The funding will support training and career development of Indigenous people that will then monitor the ecosystems and cultural sites as part of the program. The money that the “Our Land for the Future” initiative receives will also advance climate action, support new and existing protected areas and promote sustainable, conservation-based Indigenous economies, which is key in the Arctic region.

“We belong to the land, and the land belongs to us,” said Grand Chief Herb Norwegian, Dehcho First Nations. “The investment announced today will help us steward our sacred responsibilities.”

'ensure we can unmake everything we make'

New Zealand ensures maturanga Maori, the indigneous knowledge system of their lands, is incorporated into their circular economy transitions

Why transition to the circular economy?

Growing international research and evidence shows numerous benefits over the traditional linear economy.

These include:

long-term cost savings

increased local job opportunities

encouragement of technical innovation

reducing the amount of harmful waste produced

reversing our impacts on climate change.

Researchers have concluded that recycling lithium-ion batteries helps recover critical metals. The process is claimed to have lower environmental impacts than mining virgin metals.

Stanford University researchers underlined that on a large scale, recycling could also help relieve the long-term supply insecurity – physically and geopolitically – of critical battery minerals.

In a quiet corner of southern Nepal, a small women-run factory is driving a growing movement to replace conventional menstrual pads with biodegradable alternatives – part of grass roots efforts to protect women’s health and the environment while dismantling entrenched taboos around menstruation.

The Miteri Jaibik Pad Udhyog (Miteri eco-friendly pad factory) in Chitwan district’s Gunjanagar has been manufacturing single-use biodegradable pads and reusable cloth pads since 2017, dispelling perceptions that such products are either costly or unhygienic.

When we think of sustainable materials, bamboo, cork, recycled stone and reclaimed teak often come to mind. These building and surface materials are used extensively in both residential and commercial projects, enough to solidify them as the eco-friendly future of established architectural practices.

But what if we went even further? Creative and experimental designers worldwide are embracing much more unusual sustainable materials in a wide range of projects, be these sturdy floorboards and insulating panels, or small-scale decorative elements such as lamps, trays, vases and other furnishings. With designs hailing from Singapore and Indonesia, as well as distant studios in Italy and Palestine, here are the materials of tomorrow.

Mogu’s mycelium floor tiles

Mushroom filaments may not seem like the sturdiest base for hardwearing floors, but the Italian designers behind Mogu would argue otherwise. Transformed into resilient tiles appropriate for luxury residences and even commercial spaces, the mycelium structure is topped with a layer of bio-based resin, granting it resistance to scratches and abrasions rivalling traditional flooring materials.

Orange peel and pine needles make up the sustainable lampshades by Caracara Collective

Turning orange peel into useable furnishings and décor pieces is no small feat, yet the people behind the circularity-focused Caracara Collective in Finland have mastered this singular art. Inspired by the abundance of the natural, inherently sustainable materials around them, the designers created a series of lampshades made of orange peel, as well as pine needles from discarded Christmas trees.

As the collective puts it: “It takes around 20 squeezed oranges to create one lampshade. In other words, each lampshade is the by-product of someone drinking two litres of orange juice.”

Markos Design’s Ostra lamp, made of discarded oyster shells

Since the 1980s, Spain has abandoned more than 2,800 miles of conventional railway tracks, due to their unprofitability or the need for expensive expansion. Nearly 1,250 miles of railway have been dismantled to become greenways (trails), while the rest remains unmaintained, as is the case in other European countries.

But two pioneering projects believe that they could be used again.

These initiatives are seeking to build autonomous, small-seat electric mini-trains, prototypes that in the future could connect low-demand destinations, at a very low cost… and without drivers. 

But this isn’t the only potential use for them. In Germany, the REAKT initiative, promoted by the Kiel University of Applied Sciences, seeks to reactivate disused railway lines through on-demand autonomous transport. According to its website, “the line and its vehicles will be interconnected and equipped with sensors. Additionally, an operational concept will be developed, [with the use of] data-driven artificial intelligence tools.” The German Ministry of Transport is funding the initiative with €5 million ($5.9 million) and has made an abandoned 10.5-mile line available between Malente and Lütjenburg, near Kiel, so that engineers can test the prototypes.

Rainer Uphoff — now a resident of Andalusia — has launched RuRail, a project that’s researching how this model could be implemented on conventional railways in Spain. He intends to collaborate with REAKT. “Autonomous rail service is simpler than [self-driving] cars: the Madrid Airport Terminal 4 shuttle train already operates without a driver, as do some metro lines in several countries. But this has always been done in sterile environments: that is, completely closing the route, with fences and gates, so that no one can enter,” he explains.