Sundance Channel

Green tech finds, 9/8/11

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:21:05 +0000

Harvesting runner power, turning plastic back into oil and becoming a (virtual) upcycling magnate: your green tech finds for the week. Charge your phone with your shoes: If you run or walk regularly, you're creating mechanical energy that's going to waste. The Instep Nanopower concept offers a way to capture that power and transfer it to electronic devices via wi-fi. (via Inhabitat and @EcoverUS) Become a Trash Tycoon on Facebook: Tired of Farmville? Guerillaapps new Facebook-based social game Trash Tycoon (which is sponsored by upcycling company Terracycle) gives you the opportunity to build a virtual recycling empire. (via Crisp Green)

Public art to provide renewable power at Freshkills Park

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:00:50 +0000

Almost exactly two years ago, we took a look at the ambitious plans for turning Staten Island's closed Fresh Kills landfill into a massive recreational complex and park that rivals Central Park. Those plans have moved forward in the interim, and the Land Art Generator Initiative is contributing to the development of Freshkills Park with a design competition for "site-specific public artwork" that also generates energy from renewable sources.

The Fresh Kills landfill comes to film

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:51:38 +0000

A couple of year ago, I took a look at New York City's 20+ year plan to transform the closed Fresh Kills landfill into the city's largest park. That plan represents the end of the story: for years, residents and leaders on Staten Island worked to get the landfill closed... with some even threatening "secession" from the city over the health hazards and sensory displeasure created by the US' largest dump.

Sundance environmental films: materials, waste, and pollution

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:04:42 +0000

If you regularly recycle household materials, you're likely moved by a spirit of doing something good for the environment. For many residents of the developing world, though, "recycling" materials thrown out by others is an act of survival. There's likely no better place to witness this dynamic than Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, and photographer Vik Muniz made the landfill, and the catadores that reclaim materials from it, the subject of a series of photographs (shown as a part of his The Beautiful Earth exhibit).

Staten Island’s Fresh Kills landfill undergoing transformation into park

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:09:41 +0000

Turns out the High Line isn't the only green space reclamation project going on in New York City: on Staten Island, the Department of Parks and Recreation, along with a host of other city and state agencies, is getting started on transforming the Fresh Kills landfill into a park. When completed in 2036, Freshkills Park "will be almost three times the size of Central Park and the largest park developed in New York City in over 100 years."