Ensuring access to electricity to the entire world population is one of the biggest challenges, and not coincidentally the year 2012 has been declared by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "the year of sustainable energy for all."
Even today, over 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity, while 2.7 billion can cook or simply heat with wood, charcoal and animal waste.
There is a lack of energy but not lacking in waste, some say. Because more and more often, initiatives arise when the energy comes from waste.
The most recent comes from Kenya, where Access: Energy, Energy Division of the Association Access: collective, is promoting the use of mini wind turbines, called Night Heron Turbines, providing people with the technical knowledge to achieve their wind turbine from scrap metal, car parts and electronic waste.
But, as we said, the combination of garbage and sustainable energy is not new. From Africa we move to Latin America, specifically in Brazil, where since 2007 Coelce has initiated the project Ecoelce, which provides discounts on the energy bill to customers who return the material to be sent for recycling at the collection points.
In other words: to promote sustainable energy, every idea is good. Garbage seems to give plenty.
