RECYCLING CELL PHONES FOR A SAFER COMMUNITY

http://www.securethecall.org/what-we-do/

SECURE THE CALL

WHAT WE DO

SECURE THE CALL IS A 501 (C)(3) CHARITY THAT PROVIDES FREE 911 EMERGENCY-ONLY CELL PHONES TO SENIOR CITIZEN CENTERS, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND POLICE AND SHERIFF DEPARTMENTS WHICH IN TURN ARE GIVEN BACK TO THE COMMUNITY AND USED TO CONTACT THE POLICE IN THE CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

We bring together two seemingly unrelated problems.

First, electronic waste—broken or unwanted electronic assemblies of one kind or another—is threatening to choke our landfills with items that will not have properly biodegraded for thousands of years and contain significant quantities of toxic materials. Unwanted cell phones promise to become a large percentage of this waste and our original effort was targeted on just keeping cell phones out of landfills.

Second, hundreds of thousands of people in this country are electronically isolated from readily available emergency services. They have no convenient way to dial 911. Ironically, the success of cell phone manufacturers has resulted in placing public pay phones on the endangered species list. If you don’t have a phone of your own, you’re cut off from most of the world most of the time.

The solution to both problems was to use one to solve the other. BY LAW, cell phones sold in the United States must be capable of accessing 911 services regardless of their status relative to a carrier. All users of cell phones pay a monthly fee to support this service. If you have an old cell phone that you got from a carrier you no longer have a relationship with, you can still call 911 with that phone if it is charged up.

That’s what we do. We collect old, unwanted cell phones. We inspect them at our home offices in Maryland to select the used phones that work well enough to be reused. We process and package them with chargers so that they can be immediately reused to acquire 911 services. Finally, we ship them out to agencies, companies and institutions across the nation that redistribute the phones to individuals who are not only in need, but at a high risk for needing emergency services.

We never charge a fee for this. We never make demands of any of the groups we work with. Our existence is a function of the continuing generosity and cooperation of the greater community.

Recovery: The QUICK HOUSE. $99,000 - $200,00.00

http://www.architectureandhygiene.com/main.html

Adam Kalkin Quik House




Want your own container house?

There's a six-month waiting list for the Quik House by architect Adam Kalkin, who is based in New Jersey. The distinctive Quik House comes in a prefabricated kit, based on recycled shipping containers (in fact a completed house is about 75% recycled materials by weight).

The standard Quik House offers 2,000 square feet, three bedrooms and two and one-half baths, though larger options are also available. The shell assembles within just one day, and all the interior details can be finished within about three months.

The Quik House comes in two colors (orange or natural rust bloom), and the estimated total cost, including shipping and assembly, is $184,000. You can add even greener options such as solar panels, wind turbines, a green roof and additional insulation (to R-50).


houses

• quik house
• rammed earth quik house
• 12 container house
• $99,000 house
• bunny lane
• kalkin house
• old lady house
• push button house
• push button house 2

Recovery: ECOPOD. Alternative Home Design using Cargo Shipping Containers

http://ecopods.ca/index.php

THE ECOPOD  (Recreational)



Another container home designed for on- or off-grid living is the Ecopod. Made from a shipping container, an electric winch is used to raise and lower the heavy deck door (power is supplied by a solar panel). The floor is made from recycled car tires, and the walls have birch paneling (over closed-cell soya foam insulation). The glass is double paned to slow heat transfer.

The Ecopod can be used as a stand alone unit or with other structures. It is designed to minimize environmental impact.


Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/shipping-container-homes-460309#ixzz2Fq3zMnGB

Rebuilding your home and community using pre-fabricated structures

http://www.archdaily.com/160892/the-pros-and-cons-of-cargo-container-architecture/





The Pros and Cons of Cargo Container Architecture

With the green premise growing in popularity across the globe, more and more people are turning to cargo container structures for green alternatives. There are countless numbers of empty, unused shipping containers around the world just sitting on shipping docks taking up space. The reason for this is that it’s too expensive for a country to ship empty containers back to their origin. In most cases, it’s just cheaper to buy new containers from Asia. The result is an extremely high surplus of empty shipping containers that are just waiting to become a home, office, apartment, school, dormitory, studio, emergency shelter, and everything else. More information after the break.

   

There are copious benefits to the so-called shipping container architecture model. A few of these advantages include: strength, durability, availability, and cost. The abundance and relative cheapness (some sell for as little as $900) of these containers during the last decade comes from the deficit in manufactured goods coming from North America. These manufactured goods come to North America, from Asia and Europe, in containers that often have to be shipped back empty at a considerable expense. Therefore, new applications are sought for the used containers that have reached their final destination.

On November 23, 1987, Phillip C. Clark file for a United States patent describe as a “Method for converting one or more steel shipping containers into a habitable building at a building site and the product thereof.” This patent was granted on August 8, 1989 as patent 4854094. The diagrams and information contained within the documentation of the patent appear to lay the groundwork for many current shipping container architectural ideas.

In 2006, Southern California architect Peter DeMaria, designed the first two-story shipping container home in the U.S. as an approved structural system under the strict guidelines of the nationally recognized Uniform Building Code. Even more impressive is Lot-Tek’s Puma City, which was built with abundant material at a low price, without substituting design quality. As such, there are many great examples of shipping container architecture in the world.

Puma City, Photo by Ari Herzog - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari-herzog/

Shipping container architecture gets a lot of encouraging coverage in the design world as a trendy green alternative to traditional building materials, and seems like a smart choice for people looking for eco-consciousness. However, there are a lot of downsides to building with cargo containers. For instance, the coatings used to make the containers durable for ocean transport also happen to contain a number of harmful chemicals, such as chromate, phosphorous, and lead-based paints. Moreover, wood floors that line the majority of shipping container buildings are infused with hazardous chemical pesticides like arsenic and chromium to keep pests away.

Reusing containers seems to be a low energy alternative, however, few people factor in the amount of energy required to make the box habitable. The entire structure needs to be sandblasted bare, floors need to be replaced, and openings need to be cut with a torch or fireman’s saw. The average container eventually produces nearly a thousand pounds of hazardous waste before it can be used as a structure. All of this, coupled with the fossil fuels required to move the container into place with heavy machinery, contribute significantly to its ecological footprint.

Another downside is that dimensionally, an individual container creates awkward living/working spaces. Taking into account added insulation, you have a long narrow box with less than eight foot ceiling. To make an adequate sized space, multiple boxes need to be combined, which again, requires energy.

In many areas, it is cheaper and less energy to build a similarly scaled structure using wood framing. Shipping container homes makes sense where resources are scarce, containers are in abundance, and where people are in need of immediate shelter such as, developing nations and disaster relief. While there are certainly striking and innovative examples of architecture using cargo containers, it is typically not the best method of design and construction.

Give Your Loved Ones The Gift Of Emergency Preparedness ..

         

Release date: 

December 22, 2012

Release Number: 

4086-067

TRENTON, N.J. -- With the holidays fast approaching, New Jersey residents might want to consider giving gifts that will help protect their family members and friends during a future emergency. 

Supplies for an emergency preparedness kit can make unique — and potentially life-saving — holiday gifts.

Excellent emergency preparedness gifts include:

• Battery-powered or hand-crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert.
• A quality flashlight and extra batteries.
• Solar-powered cell phone charger.
• Smoke detector and/or carbon monoxide detectors.
• First aid kit.
• Fire extinguisher and fire escape ladder.
• Enrollment in a CPR or first aid class.
• Books, coloring books, crayons and board games for the kids, in case the power goes out.
• Personal hygiene comfort kit, including shampoo, body wash, wash cloth, hairbrush, comb, toothbrush, toothpaste and deodorant.
• A waterproof pouch or backpack containing any of the above items, or with such things as a rain poncho, moist towelettes, work gloves, batteries, duct tape, whistle, food bars, etc.

Holiday shoppers might also consider giving a winter car kit, equipped with a shovel, ice scraper, emergency flares, fluorescent distress flags and jumper cables. For animal lovers, a pet disaster kit with emergency food, bottled water, toys and a leash is also a good gift.

The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency urge Garden State residents to give at least one of these practical gifts – either as a present under the  tree or as a stocking stuffer. It might just save the life of a friend or family member. For more information, preparedness tips or other gift ideas, visit www.Ready.gov.

FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.