Energy Independence

"Zabaleen" is the Arabic term for those visionary and enterprising people whose culture revolves around recycling. The Zabaleen are experts at "transforming one man's garbage into another man's gold" and aspire toward a net zero-waste economy. Applied and supported this could lead to true energy independence, not only by radically reducing our demand for "raw materials" and hard to extract natural resources but by recycling other less obvious phenomena and materials that are now wasted.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Methane Digester Day 106

Harborside Pizza Digester / Lake Eyak Mud Day 106

Mathane Digester Day 106

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This is the flame from a burn on day 106 of our Lake Eyak mud methane digester.

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The Zabaleen ethic

There is no such thing as "garbage". Nothing should be wasted. A Zabaleen looks around him or her and asks, "what new use or value can I find in this object, this environment, this moment." The Zabaleen ethic, if properly applied and supported, could lead to true energy independence by making use not only of what we traditionally call "trash" but of other wasted commodities: embedded solar radiation found in light, heat, wind, hydrological cycles, geothermal mass and biomass and from the synergistic behavior of microbes, plants, fungi and non-human animals. We can all be Zabaleen...