By John D. Sutter, CNN
Here's the problem with recycling: It's boring.
But maybe it doesn't have to be. A Boston company called Greenbean Recycle is trying to make the act of keeping bottles and cans out of the landfill into a fun, competitive and engaging game for students at MIT.
The new company, which won an innovation prize this week from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, has converted a beefy recycling machine on MIT's campus into a point tabulator of sorts. When students approach the high-tech trash can to dump in their recyclables, they punch their phone number on a touch screen. A bar-code reader in the machine counts the number of cans, bottles and the like that the person has dropped off - and then uploads that data to Greenbean's website. FULL POST
By John D. Sutter, CNN
On Tuesday, algae took a United plane from Houston to Chicago.
And on Wednesday, Alaska Airlines was scheduled to fly from Seattle to Washington D.C. - on cooking oil.
But does this signal, as Alaska Air says, "aviation's next era, where sustainable biofuels can provide a viable alternative to conventional fuel"? FULL POST
By John D. Sutter, CNN
Camden, Maine (CNN) - Follow Daniel Kish out onto a dock and ask him about the view.
"There's this pylon here and there's an object about 20 feet away - here - and another one, about 50 feet away," says Kish, overlooking a bay in coastal Maine during the recent PopTech conference, where he was a featured speaker. "I guess those are boats. I can't tell from this distance, really, but they're solid and we're on the water - so it stands to reason."
Kish is completely blind - he lost sight in both eyes by age 13 months. Yet he uses his ears to see. When he walks around unfamiliar places - he loves hiking - he clicks his tongue and then listens as that sound bounces off nearby objects.
Each week, CNN's "The Next List" profiles innovators, visionaries and agents of change. They’re not household names just yet, but they’re movers and shakers in their own worlds. We’re introducing them to you because these individuals are steadily mapping the course to the future with their new ideas.
WHO: Host Dr. Sanjay Gupta
WHEN: Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. ET - All new time!
WHERE: Only on CNN
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