NASA to Share Technology on Waste Management

First Posted: Jul 21, 2012 05:23 AM EDT
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NASA along with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the State Department and Nike Inc. opened the fourth instalment of the Launch initiative Friday.

The forum that will be held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is titled as "Launch: Beyond Waste". This year's forum will be held in order to indentify and accelerate solutions in waste management, an immediate issue for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station, as well as people around the world. The forum runs through Sunday, 22 July.

The program identifies innovations poised to create transformational change in critical sustainability issues, connects Launch innovators to leaders and advisors, and provides resources and guidance to accelerate the implementation of the technologies, businesses and programs.

The innovators were chosen for this forum because of their technologies and programs that address a range of issues like waste-to-energy; eWaste, upcycling, the process of using waste to create new materials; recycling; agricultural waste and conservation; medical waste; sustainable chemicals and materials; and better sanitation.

Launch offers NASA's problem-solving expertise to crucial conversations on sustainability-related topics with innovative problem solvers from around the world. It enables the agency to promote emerging, transformative technology to sustain and enrich the quality of life on Earth.

Based on the technologies and programs, the Launch innovator organizations includes, Attero Recycling (India): Nitin Gupta - India's leading provider of end-to-end electronic and electrical goods e-Waste management services;  Goonj (India): Anshu Goonj - A grassroots Indian non-governmental organization focused on transforming and revaluing clothing and textiles waste by working on these issues directly at the community level; Kiverdi (US): Lisa Dyson - Provider of a bioprocess that recycles waste carbon into sustainable oils and chemicals for a wide variety of applications such as biomaterials, detergents, and fuel additives; Pylantis (US/Japan) Jeff Toolan - An advanced biomaterials manufacturing company whose non-toxic, biomass-based materials replace traditional plastics in a variety of applications; re:char (US/Kenya); Jason Aramburu - A leading developer and provider of biochar, a carbon-negative charcoal that can be used as a charcoal substitute and as a powerful soil amendment which boosts crop yields; Recyclematch (US): Brooke Farrell - An online global marketplace for recyclables and waste byproducts for the more than $500 billion market in materials trading; Sanergy (US/Kenya); Joseph Atnafu - A provider of sanitation infrastructure in Nairobi, Kenya, and of fertilizer and electricity from its byproducts; SeAB (United Kingdom): Sandra Sassow - A renewable energy and waste-to-energy company that provides compact, easy to install anaerobic digesters, a scalable solution for addressing food waste and other bio wastes directly at the site; SIRUM (US): Kiah Williams - Provider of a technology platform that manages donations of surplus medicines, with the ultimate goal of zero medical waste.

At the three-day forum, Launch innovators will address to business and program issues with Launch Council members. The sessions are designed to identify key challenges and opportunities for the entrepreneurs' innovations in an effort to accelerate more rapidly their solutions toward even greater real world impact.

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