Brilliant waste

(All images in this blog post have been borrowed with kind permission from www.logiwaste.se and www.envacgroup.com, where you can find many more. They are brilliant, like everything else on their sites!)

Anything that can help our cities run more smoothly, use less energy, create less pollution, leave more green space and be more pleasant to live in is also good as a response to climate change. Good responses to climate change are also good contributions to sustainability. That's why I got so excited this week when I heard about the work of two Swedish companies. What I read literally made me stop reading and start thinking (not too bad in our current age of information overload). The companies are Envac and Logiwaste. They build and install central vacuum waste collection systems for entire building and housing districts, among others. Yes, you read correctly, the word was "vacuum!" The main idea is that "the garbage truck" and everything that goes with that old-fashioned, but common, way of collecting garbage is eliminated from the first stage of a community waste collection system. That means that there's no need for an access road, and none of the noise, engine exhaust, fuel, labor and cost of running a vehicle-dependent system. You have to go to their excellent websites to learn more about them, since they have too many interesting aspects to report here. It's not just science fiction, either; many systems have already been installed. Believe me, I have no economic interest in these companies (but I wish I did!), but it would be great if they became extremely well-known and successful. Bravo!