Value added - USG serves Georgia [Nov. 2009]

VALUE ADDED: USG Serves Georgia

November 2009

Kill-a-Watt Program Helping Georgians Save Money, Energy

Anew partnership between the Georgia Public Library Service (GPLS) a unit of the University System of Georgia and the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) enables library patrons to save money on their electric bills by "going green."
Public libraries around the state recently debuted the "Kill-a-Watt" loan program. Its goal is to help Georgia residents measure both their energy consumption and the efficiency of the electric appliances in their homes.
Citizens are able to check out a "Kill-a-Watt" Energy Detector Toolkit at any branch library. The "Kill-a-Watt" unit measures energy consumption by the kilowatt-hour -- the same unit of measurement that utilities use. It can estimate the electrical consumption and costs associated with each appliance by the hour, day, week, month or even an entire year. The toolkit includes instructions on how to use the meter, what the information means and tips about energy consumption.
Although libraries in Illinois, Maine and New Hampshire have implemented similar programs on a smaller scale, Georgia's "Kill-a-Watt" library loan program will be the first state-wide program in the United States. The program is funded through a grant awarded to GEFA by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The "Kill-a-Watt" program dovetails with the Governor's Energy Challenge, a voluntary program operated by GEFA challenging Georgians to reduce energy consumption by 15 percent.

"These detectors are a great way

for consumers to see how much it costs to leave on appliances,

Walker

computers and printers and to see

how much money devices such as phone chargers can

waste when they are left in an outlet after completing a

charge," said Deputy State Librarian Julie Walker. "We

are delighted for public libraries to partner with GEFA and

help people reduce unnecessary energy consumption."

Susan Cooley, director of the Sara Hightower Regional Library in Rome, is a strong advocate of the new program. "I think it is great that our patrons can now begin reducing their carbon footprints by visiting the local library to check out a `Kill-a-Watt' detector," she said.

Cooley spotlighted the detectors and their availability at libraries on a recent episode of "Be Green," an awardwinning environmental-awareness show that she co-hosts on her local cable television system's Public Education and Government Channel. Q

UGA Professor's Textbook Inspires Malawi Teen to `Harness the Wind'

Ascience textbook written by University of Georgia education professor Mary M. Atwater is being heralded as the inspiration and guide for a 14-year-old African boy's quest to build a windmill that provided electricity to his family and village for the first time.

Eight years ago, William Kamkwamba's native Malawi suffered through one of its worst droughts. Thousands died. His family and others were surviving on one meal a day. The arid soil in his hometown of Masitala left his father, a farmer, without any income.

Kamkwamba dropped out of school when his family couldn't pay the tuition, but he spent his days at the library, where a book with photographs of windmills caught his eye. That book, Using Energy, was Atwater's 8th grade science textbook, first published in 1993. It was one of dozens donated to his village in Malawi by the McGraw-Hill International Book Donation Program, the International Book Bank and the American Institute for Research.

Inspired by the diagrams in the book and the book cover's picture of windmills, Kamkwamba

decided that he would bring electricity to his family's home, a luxury only two percent of

Malawians are able to afford.

See "Malawi Teen," p. 2...

VALUE ADDED USG Serves Georgia

Malawi Teen Continued from p. 1
Over the next six months, using Atwater's book, he built a windmill out of a broken bicycle, a fan blade from a tractor, an old shock absorber, a pair of flip flops and the tower out of blue gum trees. The windmill generated enough electricity to power four light bulbs and two radios.
Subsequently, Kamkwamba moved on to work on projects to prevent malaria and provide clean water, solar power and lighting to his village.
In late 2006, a Malawian newspaper wrote about Kamkwamba and his windmills. In 2007, an award-winning, short documentary film titled, Moving Windmills, was produced (http://www. pangeaday.org/filmDetail.php?id=47).

Kamkwamba, now 22, is a student at the African Leadership Academy, an elite South African school for young leaders. Donors pay for his education.
In October, his autobiography, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, co-written with former Associated Press correspondent Bryan Mealer, was released in the United States. Mealer and Kamkwamba have made appearances on several national programs including CNN, ABC's Good Morning America and The Daily Show.
"I am proud that I played a part in providing Mr. Kamkwamba the opportunity to see and use the book Using Energy," said Atwater, noting that his autobiography and the vision and determination it illustrates are inspirational. Q

Smart Trash: Curbside Recycling with a Cash Incentive

Anew, more comprehensive approach to recycling developed by a Georgia Tech professor has caught the attention of major corporations and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
"Smart Trash," a system that would offer cash rewards for items put out at the curb each week, has the potential to redefine the relationship people have with their garbage, according to Dr. Valerie Thomas, Anderson Interface Associate Professor at Georgia Tech's School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
"Recycling and consumer waste are still managed with 1950s technology," said Thomas. "Of course it can't keep up. The flow of products out of the household needs to be managed with at least as much intelligence as the flow of products into the household. It's sort of obvious."
Consumer recycling is currently fairly simplistic, focusing mostly on paper, aluminum and steel cans and some plastic bottles. For the system to evolve and thrive, Thomas believes it must be expanded to a variety of different products while maintaining ease of use and adding incentives that encourage participation.
What if special "Smart Trash" containers equipped with scanners could scan your recyclables as you discard them, calculating their worth and giving you that extra incentive to recycle everything from batteries to keyboards in order to reap credit on your next garbage bill?
Thomas envisions a system in which a Wi-Fi connection would allow the Smart Trash can to relay information about its contents to the recycling service. Items with significant value such as consumer electronics would be forwarded to online auction services where the maximum value could be actualized. Consumer recycling credits could also be issued for something as insignificant as a frozen pizza box or a shampoo bottle. Any money garnered from this waste could be applied to the consumer's monthly sanitation bill or sent as a check.

Not everything can be resold for cash, of course. Some items in the trashcan a banana peel, a used paper towel clearly have no resale value.

Those items would be disposed of in a more traditional matter, composted or even potentially be used for fuel. Items with hazardous components could be shunted aside for appropriate management.

There are a number of manufacturers, retailers, recyclers and researchers now working to actualize the Smart Trash idea. Project PURE (Promoting Understanding of RFID* and the Environment) featuring representatives of companies such as Wal-Mart and HewlettPackard, as well as recyclers and developers of product codes is working to refine this concept and push it toward mainstream reality.

"There are advantages on

both sides to the consumer

and the recycler," said Angie

Leith, senior policy analyst at

the EPA Office of Solid Waste in

Washington, D.C.

Thomas with prototype

Leith recruited Thomas to

Smart Trash cans

take part in Project PURE, which is funded by the EPA, after

being impressed with her research and the promise of Smart

Trash.

"Valerie understands industrial ecology," she said. "If there's always going to be trash, when it gets to end of life, you should be able to do something with it. Let's try to do it in a smart way. It really makes sense." Q

* RFID Radio frequency identification, as in the UPC codes that identify most items made today, making them trackable.