Residents at the Wembley City development empty waste into three chutes at the base of their building
Recycling could soon be a far easier and quicker task thanks to a high-tech waste disposal system that shoots rubbish through an underground tunnel at 50mph.
Residents at a new housing development in London have three small recycling bins built into their kitchen cupboard. These are for non-recycling waste, dry recyclables (glass, plastic, paper), and organic waste.
They empty these bins into three corresponding chutes at the base of the building and once the chutes are full, the rubbish is dropped into a tunnel below.
How the Envac System works
Giant fans then create a vacuum effect, sending the rubbish bags through underground tunnels up to 1 km long to a central collection building where the waste is removed by Wembley council.
If trials are successful, the tunnels could be used across the capital to allow housing estates to recycle easily, without having to employ staff to collect rubbish.
It could also provide a solution to the problem of encouraging recycling in tower blocks where collecting waste is a problem.
Currently 286 apartments in one block use the system, with plans to expand it to all 10,000 apartments in the development when they are completed.
The Envac system, which was designed in Sweden and is already used in Disneyland, transports the rubbish through a series of underground pipes before collecting the entire development's waste at a central collection building.
From there, it can be sent for recycling as normal by the local authority.
Residents at the Wembley City development empty waste into three chutes at the base of their building
'This is a very novel approach, but it has been working very well,' said James Saunders, managing director of commercial ventures at Quintain, which is building the development.
'This system cuts the number of vehicles we need by 90 per cent, as they simply visit the central waste building every few days, rather than having to drive around the development.
'At the moment the rubbish doesn't travel very far, but as we add new buildings to the scheme, we think it will work at distances of up to 1km.'
Joakim Karlsson, managing director of Envac's UK operations, said: 'The Envac system will help Quintain reduce pollution, including unpleasant odours, noise and traffic-related problems and also encourage the sorting and recycling of waste.
'Like the other areas in which this system has been installed, Wembley should become a cleaner, tidier and healthier place to live.'
Residents will also have access to the fastest internet connections in a British home.
The 100Mb connections allow residents to download films or TV shows in a few minutes, and are also used to provide TV channels and phone services.
Users can choose to sign up when they move in, and pay a monthly charge for standard speeds of up to 32Mb per second. However, by pressing a 'boost' button, they can access super-fast 100Mb speeds at a cost of £1 per half hour.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1141560/A-load-rubbish-The-recycling-shoots-trash-home-50MPH.html
