Self-Sustaining Households by Waste Alone

Our huge dependency on the centralized waste treatment structures along with the increasing demand in energy is driving the need for decentralized, alternative structures at a small scale. How far can these technologies and systems go to sustaining the households? Australia has the answer for it. 

The households are responsible for consuming almost twenty-six percent of the energy in Australia and produce about thirty percent of the total solid waste that’s generated. Energy, which is used in Victoria’s households and throughout the world comes primarily from the centralized thermal plants where 2/3^rd electrical energy generated are lost in the distribution.

As for waste water production in the households, the human excreta is taken out with inconsistent amount of water and treated in costly, centralized, large plants to be discharged into the water bodies later. Simultaneously, the solid waste is even collected as well as transported to long distances to the big landfilled and centralized plants. 

Wastewater and waste often pose an environmental and health hazard, especially where the right treatment infrastructure doesn’t exist. But they are an important resource in an inappropriate place that may be used for obtaining energy as well as valuable products by a wide range of well established and emerging technologies like anaerobic digestion.

Because of the low population in the urban areas and presence of the isolated regions and aboriginal communities without any connection to sewer or grid, the potency for a small scale alternative decentralized system is huge in Australia especially in Victoria.

The SSAD (Small Scale Anaerobic Digestion) is a promising decentralized technology where various feedstocks are degraded in absence of O2 to generate digestate & biogas in Victoria (methane and CO2). Energy balance in such systems is helpful because biogas may be used as a renewable energy source whereas digestate may be used as an important fertilizer.  Presently, several small digesters are installed in many rural areas of India, China and several other countries. The biogas is used for cooking with use of adapted cooking stoves however several other applications like biogas mantle lamps, generators and refrigerators are becoming very common.

One more emerging technology for the small scale applications is MCHP or micro-combined heat and power device where the turbine, fuel cell or engine is used for generating heat as well as electricity. While big-scale CHP systems were used for several years, MCHP have just started to become popular but have the potency for extensive usage. This new technology usually generates between 5-20 kW. But because of the cost, they are often used in the developing nations for replacing the conventional boilers.

The combination of the above mentioned two technologies can contribute significantly to sustainable production of thermal and electrical energy in Australian households.

Never Say These Things to Your Wedding Florist in Morwell

Your wedding may be a very special occasion in your life and for that you may be very excited for it. But in the excitement, you should never ask your florist a few impossible things, which he or she won’t be able to do. However, there have been many who have requested such things but you don’t repeat it.

You may be fond of some expensive flowers and you may want them for your wedding but due to having a small budget, you drop the idea of having it. In that case, never tell your wedding florist in Morwell that you love expensive flowers like X,Y,Z  but you don’t have that high budget. It is like saying an automobile salesperson that you love Mercedes but since you have to use KIA budget, will it possible for that person to arrange for you a Mercedes in that limited fund.  

Don’t say like your gown is not really white, but diamond like white or like an eggshell with creamy white to it and so you don’t want snow-white flowers but a flower with a creamy-white touch to it and so on…. Don’t confuse your florist. If you have a wedding gown that’s white and you need a white flower-say that it’s the white color that you are looking for. But if it’s a creamy one that matches with your gown’s shade, then you can tell the person that you are actually looking for cream flowers. There are only two shades available when it comes to white color wedding flowers -white and cream. So, just pick one.

You know that your florist in on the way to your wedding destination with all the wedding flowersin Morwell you ordered for. But since you feel like changing your plan or theme of wedding, you call up and say that if it’s too late and that it would be great if those white flowers are made a bit soft green and if there are some pink and yellow shades. May be you are even eager to pay for the changes that you are making but it would simply be a situation like where the florist would be banging his or head on the steering wheel of the car.