StartupRealities

StartupRealities No 169 LandfillConverter is a real estate developer which acquires landfill sites and sewage treatment plants in urban areas, relocates the waste operations to outside the city and converts the sites to residential and commercial real estate. The company's business model is partly based on the increase in value of the sites after they are developed and partly on receiving local and national subsidies for reducing pollution in urban areas. The landfill and sewage processing sites are levelled and the ground is sealed with layers of polymer and concrete to guarantee a clean environment for the residents and workers at the new developments. CEO QUOTE "Cities around the world keep growing and often outgrow their essential services. This is how landfill sites, recycling plants and sewage works end up in relatively central locations or even end up surrounded by the city. This happens to airports as well but airports are easy to convert into real estate. While ...

StartupRealities No 132 FlexibleDrains  produces bendable gutters and downpipes that allow harvesting rainwater from rooftops by channeling the flow of the downpipe into a container. The biggest obstacle to the productive use of rainwater at present is the fact that the drain pipes attached to the exterior of house walls are fixed and inflexible, which does not allow inserting the lower end into a container to store the water. CEO QUOTE "When it rains, our roofs collect copious amounts of rainwater. Instead of an asset, this becomes a liability as the water goes virtually down the drain and into urban sewage systems, leading to overflow and flooding. The additional water also means extra volumes that become a burden on the wastewater treatment capacity of the sewage network. We turn the situation around by replacing the lowest two metres of fixed downpipes above ground with flexible pipes that allow moving the end of the drain to a nearby container. Simples!" said Flexi...

StartupRealities No 19 PeeGardens Limited produces organic biodegradable pellets which absorb urine and lock in unpleasant smells, making the pellets ideal for environmentally-conscious people to use for fertilising their gardens. ENVIRONMENT Human urine contains valuable soil nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) needed by plants to grow. At the same time, urine flushed down the toilet not only wastes water for flushing but also creates the need for treating the sewage to prevent algal blooms which result from nutrient-rich wastewater reaching the ocean. On the other hand, people buy tonnes of fertiliser for their gardens, while flushing down the toilet the same nutrients that fertiliser contains. The company's pellets simply create home-made fertiliser to replace fertiliser bought at the gardening store. CEO QUOTES "PeeGardens finds a golden lining in the urine cloud, if you'll pardon the pun," joked company CEO Piet Gardi. "Urine is pure gol...