The Gothenburg Award is awarded each year by the city of Gothenberg, Sweden.
The award goes to an international figure making significant progress to achieve that Holy Grail of civilization in the age of climate change, sustainable development.
This year, that prize — which has been bestowed on Kofi Annan and Al Gore in the past — has gone to Dr. Mike Biddle, the garbage man.
Biddle isn’t the guy who comes to pick up your undesirables at the curb — he’s the guy who has figured out how to get the stuff we do want out of the stuff we don’t, via a process known as garbage mining. ??Garbage mining has been noted as a significant economic opportunity in the years to come [PDF], especially as the metals currently found in cell phones and other communications technology becomes harder to obtain.
But recycling the metals found in e-waste is just the tip of the iceberg. Unlike metals, the kind of plastics found in coffee makers and vacuum cleaners can’t be separated from garbage via magnets, and unlike metals, they don’t always have telltale colors or densities — a key reason most recycling operations won’t even touch them, despite the fact that such plastics are generally quite valuable. ??Biddle took on that environmental and economic challenge, and two decades ago, he founded MBA Polymers, a company dedicated to taking one man’s trash, so to speak, and turning it into another man’s treasure.
Source: TGdaily.com
By Susan DeFreitas