3 incredibly innovative ways of curbing air pollution that you need to know about
Air pollution is an alarmingly rising global concern that is not only affecting our environment but also our health. While researchers are burning the midnight oil to find ways for air pollution reduction, inventors have come up with unique and creative solutions, such as turning air pollution into ink or tiles! They are actively looking for new ways to tackle air pollution. Do you want to know how they do it? Keep reading!
Murals in Mexico used for absorption of air pollutants
Mexico is known for its beautiful murals, and now, innovators are turning them green! How? Absolut Street Trees is an initiative which began in 2019, involves artists painting murals in the city using Airlite paint. This paint cleans polluted air! You may be wondering how a paint can purify the air. The process is similar to photosynthesis in plants. Plants consume carbon dioxide and expel oxygen. Similarly, when exposed to sunlight, the paint absorbs polluted air and exhales oxygenated air via a series of chemical reactions! According to the project leaders, the murals can offset the pollution produced by 60,000 vehicles each year! If you visit Mexico, you can see one of these murals in the form of a giant tree painted on the Paseo de la Reforma boulevard, a wide road that runs diagonally across Mexico City. The Absolut Street Trees initiative is currently working on two more murals.
Ink made from air pollution
AIR-INK is a company that is turning air pollution into ink! Anirudh Sharma, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, came up with the idea for AIR-INK while visiting India. He took a photo of a white wall covered with a triangle of soot and observed how soot emitted from vehicles can create art. He established the Graviky Labs in India in 2015 and began experimenting. He and his colleagues at Graviky Labs developed a device that captures pollutants such as soot from vehicles. The device then filters the soot and condenses it into high-grade ink that can be used for art and writing! The device, known as KAALINK, was a hit. Several Indian companies contacted Graviky Labs to dispose of waste that would otherwise pollute the environment. Graviky Labs has cleaned over 1.6 trillion litres of air since its inception in 2016. And how much ink do you believe was produced? More than 1,200 litres! The KAALINK device is currently being tested for installation on massive factory chimneys. Imagine how much air the device could purify!
Tiles made from air pollutants
Graviky Labs collaborated with another company in 2019 to further investigate the potential of air pollutants, and Carbon Craft Designs was born in 2020. This company creates tiles out of carbon soot found in air pollutants! The AIR-INK technology from Graviky Labs captures soot from cars and factories, filters it, converts it to powder, and sends it to Carbon Craft Designs. Here, the powder is made into tiles. But how does powder become tiles? Carbon Craft Designs combines carbon soot powder with cement and quarry waste to create monochromatic tiles. Every tile contains at least 70% waste. In 2020, the company retrofitted an Adidas store entirely in Mumbai with carbon tiles. With its growing influence, creators are finding ways to reduce the costs of carbon tiles to make them available to ordinary people. They aim to fit carbon tiles in every house on the planet!