Gleanage, resources formerly known as garbage.
What one sentence best describes your idea? (maximum 150 characters)
Create a networked knowledge base supporting communities seeking to become stewards of their waste stream, claiming the value and opportunity therein.
Describe your idea in more depth. (maximum 300 words)
The Gleanage Project is a mashup bringing collaborative knowledge management to bear on the problem of dealing with all the stuff we throw away.
The term "Resource Recovery Park" describes a site which involves the co-location of reuse, recycling, compost processing, manufacturing, artistic, educational and retail concerns in a central location. As the waste stream flows through this facility, highest best use of it's contents is sought. The RRP concept is currently being implemented by a few visionaries.
A key difference between this and other sustainability initiatives is that waste handling is already well funded by tax dollars. The challenge is not in identifying funding, but in redirecting existing funds.
We need to gather, organize and distribute the expertise which currently exists, providing support which will empower any community to realize the vision of becoming stewards of their waste stream, claiming the value and opportunity therein.
Those choosing to take this path will benefit from convenient access to crucial legal, economic, political and logistic information. They should have the ear of the global community with experience in solving the problems they face. As they proceed, their experience is folded back into the the knowledge base, easing the journey for those to follow.
As organizational competence and hands-on ingenuity of this community grow, fewer wheels will need to be reinvented.
Issues of scale are pervasive, and dictate a collaborative approach. One floppy drive taken from a computer is trash. 100 are scrap. 100,000 is a resource worth the investment of engineering, marketing expertise This principle applies to virtually any discarded item. A network of Gleanage participants can successfully leverage this concept. Cooperation can result in boxcars full of the same plastic instead of bales of mixed materials. This increases value realized all along the chain.
What problem or issue does your idea address? (maximum 150 words)
The problem is that we live in a finite closed system. Our current waste stream management policies systematically destroy material, energy and engineering resources. Tax dollars are required to fund this process. This is an unsustainable situation. As long as discarded items remain within the purview of transport and disposal, their value will not be realized.
Awareness of this dynamic is increasing, but implementation of positive alternatives is hampered by many factors.
The problem is daunting in scope, scale and complexity. There are major challenges in the legal, logistic, political, economic and social realms. The solutions require visionary engineering efforts from virtually every discipline.
Compounding all these challenges is the scarcity of accurate, detailed knowledge regarding the municipal waste stream handling. There are no roadmaps, howtos or templates for those seeking to become stewards of their waste stream, repurposing the money currently being spent on disposal.
If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and how? (maximum 150 words)
Benefits include:
Reduced landfilling and incineration will bring future generations cleaner water, air and soil.
The reuse, repair and repair of goods will benefit those providing the ingenuity, and those making use of the goods.
The composting of food and other organics will benefit growers and others concerned with the health of our soil.
Communities with involved in this project will benefit from the education and opportunity provided, the financial advantage of claiming their resources instead of destroying them.
A widely applicable benefit is from the 'metaproject' component of this project, the process of refining techniques to collaboratively solve difficult problems.
What are the initial steps required to get this idea off the ground? (maximum 150 words)
Experience has shown that large collaborative efforts such as this are most efficient under a Benevolent Dictator, a Linus Gleanage, or Guido Von Gleanage.
BDOG (Benevolent Dictator Of Gleanage) task list:
Establish the required collaborative infrastructure: website with CMS, mailing lists, wiki, blog. Leverage a tool such as launchpad.net.
Establish relationships with:
- Applied ingenuity communities such as Makers, Craftzine, Instructables, HackADay, AfriGadget
- The sustainability blogosphere such as WorldChanging, The Long Tail, Beyond The Beyond
- Engineering departments with sustainability emphasis.
- Current implementers of these principles.
Roadtrip! visit locations of implementers, videotape tours and interviews. Core library material.
Grow the library with reference material on all facets of the issue.
As sites show interest in participation, welcome them and offer the help of the project. Designate road crew to visit sites, advise and interview.
Host Gleanage conferences.
As sites achieve success, celebrate globally.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Describe the optimal outcome should your idea be selected and successfully implemented. How would you measure it? (maximum 150 words)
The optimal outcome would be that the Gleanage Project would enable all communities so inclined to become stewards of their waste stream, achieving highest best use for every component therein.
This project operates on many levels, each with it's own metrics.
- How many sites around the globe are participating?
- How much success have these sites had in reducing landfill and incineration?
- How complete is the knowledge repository?
- How much traffic does the Gleanage web presence receive?
- How many implementers are registered?
- How many experts, with how many years of experience are registered?
- How responsive is the support network to requests for help?
- What are the relationships with other projects like?
- How much innovation in resource recovery has resulted from this project?
- To what extent has the methodology of this project been applied to other problem domains?
Thank you for submitting your idea. Come back on January 27th to check out what others have submitted and support your favorite ideas.
