Ingenious upcycling turns discarded medical device into water filter
By Brian Blum for Israel21c
Israeli startup repurposes discarded kidney dialysis filters to make pure water in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Every year across the world, more than 250 million dialysis filters are thrown away after only a single use cleansing a kidney patient’s blood of toxins. What if those filters could be recycled for a new use, wondered Tel Aviv University Faculty of Medicine Prof. Yoram Lass.
Could a medical filter that can remove even the slightest unwanted particle from human blood also work for, say, water purification?
In this country, charging a small fee for plastic grocery bags is working
by Jaime Bender for FromtheGrapevine
Plastic bag use has dropped 80 percent as a result. Is this the model for the rest of the world?
On Jan. 1, 2017, Israel began requiring its supermarket chains to charge 3 cents for plastic bags. Since then, plastic bag use has dropped 80 percent, according to the country's Environmental Protection Ministry.
If that's not enough of a reason to cheer, consider this: That 80 percent reduction is equal to almost 8,000 tons of plastic. Know what else weighs 8,000 tons? About 400 buses.
Israeli salt company saves water fowl, opens birdwatching
By Brian Blum for Israel21c
Seagulls and little terns saved from extinction by ecological islands, and other feathered friends, can be observed from new birdwatching stations.
Salt extraction and sustainability don’t instinctively go together. But executives at the Israeli company Salt of the Earth, which has extracted salt from the Red Sea and Mediterranean since 1922, noticed that many migratory birds were using Israel’s salt ponds as nesting areas as they pass through the region every fall and spring.
Kids grow salad greens on an urban concrete schoolyard
By Abigail Klein Leichman for Israel21c
Hydroponic hothouse program introduces disadvantaged girls to organic, sustainable veggies and herbs for eating and selling.
Photos of smiling kids planting, picking and eating vegetables line the hallways of a school for girls in an impoverished Jerusalem neighborhood. The pictures were taken in the hydroponic hothouse the girls have tended for the past three years on their concrete playground.
Israeli submarine technology set to green the trucking industry
By Brian Blum for Israel21c
Game-changing technology developed by Tevva uses the generator to recharge the truck’s electric battery while the vehicle is in motion, extending the driving range by 440 kilometers.
Submarines and electric battery-powered trucks might seem as odd a mix as water and oil, but the connection runs deep and Israeli. British-Israeli firm Tevva has figured out how to use electric battery technology originally developed to power submarines in its eco-friendly trucks.