garbage

Chinese astronauts have spent six hours reinforcing tiangong against an increasingly dangerous enemy: space garbage

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The night in orbit just leaves truce. In low orbit, the Tiangong Space Station It becomes the scene of a constant activity that requires millimeter precision. In the last extravehicular exitChinese astronauts had to face a challenge that does not come from technical failures or scientific experiments, but from a silent enemy that multiplies the risks of each mission: the Space garbage which accumulates in the low terrestrial orbit and threatens to hit the structure of the complex. The schedule of China’s manned flight agency places the start of extravehicular activity on September 25 at 19:45 (Beijing time), with Wang Jie as the first astronaut to leave the Wentian module. It was followed shortly after Chen Zhongrui, in charge of attending the installation of the equipment. Chen Dong, from inside Tiangong, managed communications with the control center and supported his teammates throughout the maneuver. The walk concluded at dawn, at 1:35 of September 26, when the two crew closed the hatch after completing the planned agenda. The maneuver was carried out with support from the robotic arm of the station and the team on land. Sludes against fragments: Tiangong’s strategy to resist in space During the walk, the main objective was to install a protection device against Orbital fragmentsdesigned to reinforce the most exposed areas of the station. The operation also included the review of the state of external equipment and structures, with special attention to the systems that suffer greater wear due to continuous exposure to the spatial environment. According to those responsible for the programthis combination of installation and maintenance seeks to ensure that Tiangong maintains its operational capacity in the middle of an increasingly saturated environment of remains. The increase in spatial garbage in the low orbit is one of the factors that most worries agencies in recent years. Each launch adds fragments that, although small, reach speeds that multiply their damage. For China, reinforcing Tiangong does not respond to a specific incident, but to the need to get ahead of an increasingly complex scenario. China is not the only one that has had to reinforce its station in the face of the threat of orbital fragments. The International Space Station Specific armor systems for years have beenknown as anti-mmod shields, which protect their habitable modules from impacts from Micrometeoritos and space garbage. The difference is in the context: it is an infrastructure with more than two decades of service, which has needed to adapt continuously to an increasingly congested environment. In the ISS, this philosophy materializes in shields in Whipple and Stupfed Whipple layers, with several hundred shields distributed in critical areas. The comparison between Tiangong and the International Space Station helps to understand the scope of its protection systems. The Chinese station completed its construction in 2022 with a T configuration formed by the Tianhe, Wentian and Mengtian modules. The ISS, on the other hand, began to assemble in 1998 and ended its main segment in 2011, with a much broader and more complex structure. This difference in dimensions and seniority explains why its shields follow different logics: ISS combines protections included from its design with reinforcements added over the years, while Tiangong integrates solutions designed from the beginning for a more congested environment. The closure of this extravehicular activity does not imply a break, but the beginning of a new stage for the Shenzhou-20 mission. The three astronauts They will continue with numerous scientific experiments and technological tests, in addition to participating in on -board celebrations linked to the Chinese calendar. The installation of additional shields has a clear objective: to hold over time the crew safety and the integrity of Tiangong, which aspires to consolidate as a stable basis for space research in the midst of a more demanding orbital environment. Images | Xinhua In Xataka | 24 years ago, the earth was symmetrical. Now the northern hemisphere is “unequivocally” darker than the southern hemisphere

Our brain also “draws the garbage.” And it is one of the reasons why sleep is so important

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We have known for a long time that sleep is more than rest, it is a vital need such as eating or breathing. Lack of sleep can have devastating consequences on our physical state, but also on our mental state. The big question for many scientists is why, a question that we have not yet answered at all, but in whose resolution we have advanced significantly. Sleep and dementia. A line of research that in recent years has gained importance has been the one that studies the role of the glinphathic system in the relationship between our dream and the appearance of dementia. The key would be in the “cleaning” work that this system exerts in our brain. The glinphathic system. The glinphathic system can be seen in certain contexts such as a cerebral analogue of the Lymphatic system. This forgotten anatomical system exercises different tasks in our body, being one of them to “take out the garbage”, clean the accumulation of waste generated by cells and eliminate harmful substances that may be present in our tissues. The lymphatic system does not extend through our brain, but someone must perform this important task in the central nervous system. A few years ago we began to understand who and how. The problem is that we have not yet managed to find out the most relevant aspects of the call GLINFATIC SYSTEM. Cleaning the plates. This cleaning work could be linked to the appearance of diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In A recent article in The conversationa group of researchers from the Macquarie University formed by Julia Chapman, Camilla Hoyos and Craig Phillips, explained this relationship. This hypothesis is based on the role they play in the appearance of the disorder Beta-amyloid proteins (Aβ). Over time these proteins tend to accumulate in our brain and, if they are not refined, they form plates that hinder the proper neurological functioning, damaging the brain and giving rise to the appearance of the disease. Night work The hypothesis that links sleep and Alzheimer’s way of the glinphathic system is also based on the idea that it is during the dream that the system takes the opportunity to clean impurities and toxins. However, the doubts about what the dream is what this relationship unleashes. As Chapman, Hoyos and Phillips stand out, studies sometimes seem to contradict, for example when measuring if the Aβ levels we find in the brain liquid are greater during sleep or during vigil. From mice to people. One of the problems we find in this line of research is that much of what we know we know it thanks to studies in micewhile the analysis with humans are limited. However, some studies have managed to approach the problem from human biology. An example cited by the team is A study Posted in 2018 in the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Pnas). In it the team observed how a simple night of sleep deprivation could cause Aβ levels to increase significantly in the hippocampus. The study therefore reinforces the theory that the dream is closely linked to the probability of dementia. The risks of insomnia. The 2018 study was conducted in healthy people who experienced a night of sleep deprivation. So what about people who have insomnia or similar problems? This issue is different and requires a separate study. According to Macquarie’s team, some analysis carried out with people with insomnia and sleep apneas (interruptions caused by breathing problems) have associated these types of problems with a higher risk of dementia or with lower levels of Aβ. This again seems to support the thesis of a relationship between sleep and dementia mediated by this “cleaning system.” Another relevant issue is how sleeping pills influence, if it is at sleeping facilitate the functioning of the glinphathic system or if on the contrary the effect of these does not facilitate their night activity. A study Made in mice and published this year in the magazine Cell points to the second possibility since these compounds They did not activate the appearance of norepinephrinea compound that seems to perform an important rum in this “drain” function of toxins and other harmful compounds for the brain. In Xataka | We have been detecting a relationship between Herpes and Alzheimer’s years. Now we are discovering that treating one helps with the other Image | Craig Adderley / Milad Fakurian

China has many garbage incinerators. So many, they don’t have enough garbage to burn

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A few years ago, China was the world landfill. Since the 80s, countries around the world exported their garbage to China and processed them as raw materials for their industry. Today, China has a problem with waste management, but very different. What is left over is not garbage, but incinerators to burn it. Hungry incinerators. China has more than 1,000 garbage incineration plants for electricity generation. Combined, they have an ability to burn more than one million tons of garbage per day. Currently, according to a report from Cinda Securities These incineration plants are working at an average of 60% of their capacity, which represents an important underutilization of their resources. Because. The amount of waste continues to grow in China, the problem is that it does so at a lower rate than their management industry. According to South China Morning Post, Since 2019 solid waste has increased more than 10%, but incineration capacity has doubled. The reasons for this lag are, on the one hand, an economy in recession where it is urbanized at a slower pace, and on the other an excess of optimism of the past. On fire. Although they started building incineration plants much earlier, it was in the 2000s when China began a more powerful expansion. In 2015, China already had 223 plants working And he intended to double his ability. And what if they got it. In October of last year there were 1,010 incineration companies throughout the country. And all despite the numerous population protests and the Criticism of environmental organizations They estimate that, only in 2022, this industry issued more than 100 million tons of CO₂. It was seen coming. China did not count on a point where the population (and therefore the waste) would not grow so quickly. In addition to the Covid caused the migration of cities to less populated areas. This excess of optimism could have a pass in the first years, but according to statements by climate activist Chen Liwen to SCMPin 2020 it was already evident that there was a problem. Energy garbage. It is not just about eliminating waste, but also extracting energy in the process. The garbage incineration plants for energy production were part of the Chinese government plan for renewable energy. They offered many subsidies to companies that generated electricity with this system, which caused many companies to see a profitable business. It is estimated that such a plant takes ten years to recover the initial investment, so the situation of many of these plants is critical. Image | Chatgpt In Xataka | The European waste industry has been lying for years: in 2018 everything jumped through the air and we have not yet recovered

A garbage cube of 2,000 ago in Mallorca exposes the star product of Roman fast food: Zorzal’s skewer

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The concept of “fast food“It is currently strongly associated with that of”junk food”. It usually involves a not very healthy dish due to the presence of processed foods. But fast food really exists For centuries And the Romans, of course, have something to say there. And a recent study puts on the table an important fast food industry in Roman times to northern Mallorca. The star dish? Singing birds. “Popina”Alejandro Valenzuela is a researcher at the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies in Mallorca and the author of a Published article in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology in which he details how in the Roman city of Pollentiahe Zorzal He was the protagonist of street food. Founded in the 123 AC to the north of Mallorca, Pollentia was an imperial city for the empire due to its location in the Mediterranean and its ports that They favored trade With the island. Today is an archaeological site in which we have a curious and small theater, but in its day it must have been a very busy city, a bustling shopping center in which food played an essential role. Inside the shops, were the ‘Popinae‘. These are small establishments where you could eat something fast and have a wine before following the way. They were focused on the lowest classes of Roman society. Searching in the garbage. This was something common in Roman cities due to their rhythm of life. In Herculano and Pompeii you can see some ruins in good condition of Themopoliumwhich are more like taverns for somewhat more wealthy people, but basically, in both cases there was a bar with amphorae to get some hot food, serve the client and that it followed on their way. An example of Thermopolium Valenzuela, what interested him was to know what was in those mud vessels, but to discover what the inhabitants who were walking for Pollentia had to look in their garbage. Near one of those popinas there was a septic tank of a few meters deep in which everything was thrown. Part of the garbage was ceramic, which has allowed to date the date of use of the well between 10 AC and 30 AD What else was there? A large number of mammalian bones, birds and fish. And the bones of the birds are the ones that caught their attention. Pollentia location in Mallorca in image A. in B, the location of the well. In C, the meters at which a greater concentration of bones were found Fast Food Bird. Although there were several species, such as chicken, the bones were mostly slut. They are small singing birds associated with the diet of the upper classes of the Roman empirebut here we are in a very different context: popular food at street level. The remains highlighted the skulls and sternons of those birds, which indicated one thing: the most juicy parts should be the ones that served in the popina. As with other birds, the extremities and the upper part of the chest are the most juicy, and Valenzuela estimates that removing that juicy meat allowed the food seller to cook those parts quickly to the grill or in oil to serve it quickly. It is a meat that hardly takes a few seconds to cook. The darker, the more presence of parts they found in the black well. Within the red perimeter, the most fleshy parts and their associated bones, little present in the well Seasonal. There is also the possibility that customers sit down and consume the zorzal in dishes, since ceramic remains could indicate that there was a dishes, but due to the size of the bite, Alejandro Comment In Live Science that, within the “context of street food, it is also plausible to serve in skewer to facilitate consumption.” In the end, except exceptions, food in ancient times was linked to seasons and the foal is a seasonal product that would have integrated well into a diet like that of Roman cities with others like domestic chicken either European rabbittwo species whose remains would also have served in this restaurant Fast food of Pollentia. But the most important thing is that this finding makes the belief that the Zorzal was a luxury bite for the Romans staggers because the Popinae They were not precisely the premises that most frequented the High classes. Images | Daniele Florio From Rome, Dion art In Xataka | The world ranking of ultraprocess food: the countries that most and less consume it worldwide

In Galicia they have tired of finding garbage outside the cubes. So they will begin to rummage in it to fine their owners

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In Sanxenxo They are fed up of finding trash out of the containers. Hence, the cleaning service and the local police of this coastal municipality of Las Rías Baixas, very popular as Tourist destination During the summer months, they have assumed a peculiar task: rummage in the bags to hunt receipts, tickets or any other track that reveals who has skipped the ordinance. And the City Council already warns: the ‘joke’ can be expensive. What happened? That Sanxenxo, a municipality of the Pontevedrés coast, He said enough. Its authorities have tired of being garbage bags outside the containers spread throughout the people and want to cut that annoying root habit. As? Searching on the bags to identify their ‘owners’. And how will they do it? In A statement Published on Tuesday the City Council explains that the concessionaire dedicated to the collection of waste, Ascan, will be responsible for “analyzing” the bags thrown out of the collection points to “locate the offender.” It will also do so from the hand of the Municipal Police and with a strategy worthy of the classic detectives. The operators will look for receipts, cards or any other track that can reveal where the bag came from. What if they locate the person in charge? Sanction. The Galician City Council recalls that those who skip the Environmental Protection Regulations, public cleaning and garbage collection face a fine of up to 600 euros. After all, The Consistory insistsArticle 39 of that rule makes it clear that pouring garbage into “unauthorized places” is considered a very serious infraction. Why do you do it? Because over the last days the Consistory has encountered garbage bags thrown in the center of the town, in areas as crowded as Consistory or Praza do Pazo, although it has also located abandoned waste in other parts of the interior of the municipality. In Sanxenxo there are some 18,000 neighbors registered, according to the latest INE data, but the number of people who walk and spend the night in the town He shoots every summer. Some estimates They point out that its population It is quintupple During July and August and, at least in 2020, the town had 11,100 second residences. Only in August last year the INE registered 70,000 travelers housed in hotel stores. To give services, to them the usual neighbors, the town has 2,000 containers and 651 islands of waste, spaces that the City Council wants them to use yes or yes. Although it must resort to fines to achieve it. Is it the first to do it? No. Sanxenxo is not the first town hall to which it occurred to search in the garbage bags to hunt offenders. Before they have already done other municipalities in the country, with disparate results. Similar measures were raised in their day in Sherry, Barcelona, San Sebastián either Seville. In the case of Donostia, In 2015 The Consistory ended up issuing an order so that the operators in charge of the collection of garbage stopped opening the bags. The decision was made after the complaint of a neighbor they had fined 250 euros. Images | Sanxenxo 1 City Council 1 and 2 and Hugo Cadavez (Flikr) In Xataka | The rent has risen so much in Galicia that its beaches have problems hiring something fundamental: lifeguards

The subsoil of historical cities hides a great garbage vacuum. The problem is that you have to punch

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Tony Soprano, from the great series’The soprano‘He was dedicated to garbage management. It may seem an exaggeration designed for fiction, but as usually happens, fiction surpasses reality. Base management It is a problem for half the world (more now than China decided to stop being our landfill) and move so much money that there is mafias moving from one country to another. In the search for solutions, the definitive company came up with a Swedish company to stop seeing cubes and garbage trucks through the streets: move waste from pipes. It is something that has turned medieval cities into the technological pinnacle of garbage collection. But the day -to -day life of the neighbors is something else. Changing the approach. It all started by chance. At the end of the 1950s, the Sollefte hospital in Sweden was investigating the creation of a central aspiration system to catch dust. One of the participants in the table was OLOF H.Hallstrom, director of Centralsug, the current Waste Waste company, and the idea arose: instead of a giant vacuum For dust, a giant garbage vacuum could be created. So They tell On its website, where they point out that the system was inaugurated in the hospital in 1961 and that it continues to work with many of the original pieces installed more than 60 years ago. But of course, if it works so well in a building, why not expand the network to an entire city? That is no longer so easy. Sollefte basements with garbage collection tubes A giant vacuum. First of all, you have to see how it works. Known as’Pneumatic garbage collection‘O’ Automatic vacuum collection ‘, AVAC from now on, is a giant vacuum connected to a multitude of underground pneumatic tubes. On the surface there are a series of nozzles that are designed for organic or plastic waste (the glass could damage the system) in which the bag is deposited with the waste and, thanks to fans that generate suctions of more than 60 km/h, travel through the tubes to a collection center. Example of one of these nozzles They are classified and loaded into trucks to transport them to their final location. This system reduces the use of trucks and their corresponding pollution, as well as Cubes in the streets. The most current systems include doors that are automatically open and cards in possession of citizens to activate the system. Modernizing historical cities. And that reduction of cubes and trucks circulating is something ideal for any city, but it seems key in locations with two profiles: tourist or old helmets of medieval cities. A clear example is Bergen, a Norwegian city founded in 1070 that is the second most populated in the country and has a historic center full of colorful wooden houses. It has fired several times and the garbage itself can be a focus of fire, so by safety and improve the helmet, they decided to bet on an avac type system. It is one of the 200 cities in the world in which this system has been installed and, as we read in The Washington Postthe diesel emissions Since the garbage trucks stopped circulating along their narrow streets. Among others, Leganés, Barcelona, ​​Barakaldo, Torrent, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Stockholm, Doha or Seoul have neighborhoods in which a pneumatic collection system is used, and in new construction complexes of some cities are also betting on it. Complex. The problem is what you can imagine: the system itself is expensive, but it is also a headache. In new neighborhoods, it is as simple as to pass one more pipe in the streets where there are already other pipes, but in Historical cities Or neighborhoods already built, bet on something like avac implies lifting the streets and performing a considerable work. Bergen’s example is clear. As they point out on TWP, since they made the decision to start building the system in the historic center in 2007, they have invested about 100 million dollars. There are years to finish connecting the entire network and estimate that the cost will be 30 million dollars. Terje Strom, responsible for waste management in the city, says it is “almost impossible.” Contextualizing the figures? It is almost the entire annual budget of the Waste Department. Collection Central in Konza Technolopis, Africa Gamification and penalty. But, leaving cost aside, user experiences seem positive. It is a system that simplifies the garbage, which eliminates full cubes and the truck transit. In Spain we have containersbut in other cities they work with individual cubes that roll through the streets and share the stamp. Not everything is perfect, since although there are no trucks, they do operators who are dedicated to unblocking the mouths when someone introduces something that should not. And beyond not seeing garbage trucks, there are two incentives for citizens. One is the gamification by application That tells us how many kilos we have deposited in real time and compares with the previous month. It also tells us how average we are, since there is a limit. In Bergen, to open waste mouths, residents bring their electronic key, which allows you to register how much discard and collect a rate according to the amount of non -recycled garbage they send to the incinerator. This penalty is something that It has also been seen in South Koreawith positive results regarding the increase in recycling. Not everyone is happy. Beyond installation costs, it seems the perfect system to manage waste. However, looking at what happens in Spanish cities in which these systems have been installed, we see that not everything is so beautiful. There are more than thirty cities that use this pneumatic collection, and in some Failures are reported that cause the tubes to be full due to pipes that do not absorb well. Tubes in a kind of garbage rooms in Leganés. The main problem for users is the diameter of the mouth. Image | Xataka It is something that causes bad odors, as users of … Read more

Bird nests and kilometers of garbage

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Among the technologies that have been applied on the battlefield in Ukraine, few as currently recognized as one of the Mortifical weapons. We talk about drones and fiber optic cables, a lethal conjunction that has the potential to change the dynamics in the contest. In fact and how We have recentlyin Ukraine, every Russian drone that raises the flight becomes a silent bet between life and death if a cable accompanies it. Now, in addition, technology is leaving an unpublished trail. Invisible summer. It Forbes explained The weekend. Ukraine is entering a new phase of technological war with the massive deployment of attack drones guided by fiber optic cables, marking what is already known as The “summer of fiber drones”. Thus, in fields and villages, the remains of these systems, which leave fiber ribbons gathering as Cobbles on the groundthey have become omnipresent. In this regard, the immediate environmental impact is already long term of the wiring kilometers remains uncertain, but From CEOBS There are works that are exploring several concerns, such as the possible release of degraded cable microplastics, pollution from hazardous chemicals such as PFAS, risks to wildlife due to physical tangles and the complications that they can mean for activities such as demining. Not just that. Recent images even show Bird nests Built with cable fragments, an unnoticed but eloquent symbol of the reach of this new technology. What began as a Tactical innovation now it is transforming the way They fight the battles: Ukrainian and Russian operators can introduce drones by windows and doors to locate and destroy hidden vehicles, overcoming the limitations of conventional drones that They depend on signals of radio vulnerable to electronic blocking. Forgotten concept evolution. Like almost everything in war, the idea is not new at all: already in the 2000s, Darpa had conceived Guided drones by fiber optic cable to avoid electronic interference. But it was not until the war in Ukraine when that concept found real application. Russia was the first in deploy fiber drones On a little more than a year ago, and quickly went to a broader production. Ukraine, with the support of international volunteers Like former Marine American Troy Smothers, It has accelerated: 15 local companies already manufacture these drones (although at a distance from Russian machinery). The Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, has led the effort, promoting collaboration between private initiative and defense capabilities. Unlike traditional drones, which can lose communication if they fly low or after a hill, fiber maintains an uninterrupted connection along tens of kilometers, and do so without issuing signals that can be detected by the enemy. Lethal tactics. The first fiber drones barely exceeded 3 kilometers, but today missions have been documented up to 41 kilometers. In fact, A Russian video It even shows a 50 km coil that weighs less than 4 kilos, compatible with larger models. Thanks to the low energy consumption of cable connection, some drones can land and stay In ambushed mode For long periods, ready to activate When passing from an objective. Russia has also shown prototypes of small land robots that work as mobile platforms To launch fiber drones, expanding its autonomy and coordinated attack capacity. The concept of a “cobweb operation”, with multiple drones connected and launched from unmanned vehicles, is dangerously approaching to become reality. How to stop the impossible. We counted a few days ago that Ukrainian troops have tried everything, even scissors. But current defensive measures are ineffective to the new threat. Physical networks can stop some drones, but a slit to allow their entry, such as They demonstrate videos Where Ukrainian drones go through Russian meshes without resistance. In addition, tracking the cable to its operator has become impracticable to the entangled landscape of abandoned fibers. Cutting the cable is also A theoretical option more than practical: there is A video which shows a quadcoptera achieving such a feat, but doing so requires an extremely complicated precision and synchronization combination. Drones equipped with shotguns They have shown efficiency in demolishing other drones, but they are Little useful Given the speed and discretion of fiber FPV. Some Ukrainian units, Like the Birds of MasharThey have managed to intercept Russian devices with the help of tactical radars, but their reach, again, is limited and not scalable. No clear rules. The proliferation of fiber optic drones It is accelerating on both sides, and the defenses still They do not adapt to the rhythm of its deployment. Thus, the battles of the immediate future could include fighting between autonomous drones in the air, where human reaction time is no longer enough. Hence, the need to develop automatic interceptors capable of detecting and neutralizing these real -time drones has become urgent. The problem? That the development of countermeasures goes behind offensive innovation, and no one can predict how long this era of tactical supremacy based on invisible cables will last, nor what will be the trigger that ends. Image | 12th Brigade Azov In Xataka | Ukraine soldiers are starting to carry scissors. It is the only way to face Russia’s most lethal weapon In Xataka | A technology 20 years ago took Ukraine to the Russian bombers. Moscow’s response comes from China: a laser cannon

New York has released its new and revolutionaries garbage containers. They have been in Spain for decades

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They call it “The garbage revolution”although it really has little revolutionary. At least for any European accustomed to doing something as simple as throwing their waste into the garbage can. On Monday the New York authorities They took chest announcing its new and brand new strategy to manage the waste of the Big Apple, a pilot program that is now bounded to a neighborhood and,, according to their driversit will be a pioneer throughout the United States. So far not surprising beyond political rhetoric. The funny thing is what New York wants to boost that peculiar “revolution” of cleaning: with garbage cubes and trucks such as those seen in the streets of Spain for decades. Garbage. In New York, workers of the garbage collection service are forced to do something less and less frequent in Spain and most European cities: withdraw on the sidewalks plastic bags full of waste and throw them to the rear of a truck. For them it is a Latoso work. For the city, a problem: the bags are piled up in the streets, hinder the passage, generate bad odors, overthrow liquid and attract rats. In fact, the New York town hall has already had to see them with Rodents. That is why in countries like Spain a different strategy has been chosen for a long time. Collectors are installed in the streets so that citizens can throw their garbage bags inside, leaving them safe from rats and seagulls. Over the years the system has been purified with wild boar cubes, collectors endowed with Electronic locks that are unlocked with special cards and systems that facilitate the discharge of garbage inside the trucks. Revolution in New York. After half a century Of “accumulation of garbage in streets”, in New York they have decided to say enough and change their garbage collection model for a new one, very similar to that of Europe. The first step was taken in 2023, when the authorities demanded from the businesses of the food branch (from bars to supermarkets) that they deposit their waste in containers. A year ago that obligation extended to all companies and in recent months the same standard has been making its way between small residential buildings. The great change has now arrived with a pilot test in the streets of the Community Board 9 of Manhattan, where the use of containers will apply to all types of residential buildings, from small blocks of less than ten homes to the largest, with more than 30. The City Council claims that the neighborhood has thus become “the first neighborhood of North America to have 100% of its garbage in containers” and even speaks of a “garbage revolution.” An old flavor revolution. The most curious thing is that this revolution really has little revolutionary. At least from the perspective of Europeans, who have been (if not decades) accustomed to the tools with which New York now wants to improve the management of their garbage. The reason is simple: the change in the Harlem will basically be supported on three pieces, all integrated for a long time in the urban landscape of the Spanish cities: Empire garbage cubes with capacity for 3,000 L, collectors with wheels and side load trucks. Closed and card cubes. Over the last weeks the New York Health Department has dedicated itself to installing in West Harlem around 1,100 Empire containerswhich are the ones that present a small novelty. Unlike most garbage cubes that can be seen in Europe, these collectors will not be available to any neighbor who passes through the sidewalk. They will remain closed and their use will be assigned exclusively to a building, which can access the collector thanks to a special card. In fact, residents will not even pull the bags in the cube. The idea It is that they leave them in an area of ​​collection in the building itself and the cubes themselves handle them the staff of the buildings or the waste managers. It is not the model that is usually used in Spain, although here They also look card collectors. Measuring buildings. The largest blocks of West Harlem, those with more than 30 homes, have been assigned Great Empire Garbage Cubes. Those between 30 and 10 apartments are allowed to choose between that smaller model or containers with wheels and the buildings with less than a dozen families are asked to use 200 l cubes. To expedite the work of the operators, a year ago the City Council also presented a prototype of garbage collection truck with lateral load that can be handled by only two operators. In November the Consistory has already asked these smaller buildings for residential use to start using containers, which has a first idea of ​​what is their result. Your conclusions? “The first data show that the use of containers is working: since the demands entered into force, six months ago, the number of rats has decreased,” celebrate. A revolution with challenges. New York is discovering more than the use of containers. He has also encountered the challenges they represent. The New York Times public A chronicle This same Monday explaining how cleaning service employees have to deal with double -row cars that block the cubes and prevent trucks from accessing them. It also warns of the impact they will have on the parking spaces. The municipal authorities already calculate that expanding the program to the entire city would demand to eliminate 50,000 spaces to park vehicles. That without having the hundreds of millions of dollars that would require buying garbage cubes and collection trucks capable of attending the entire population of the Big Apple. Critics write down a “but” more: That the initiative to recycling does not expand. Image | City of New York In Xataka | The cities emptied during the pandemic. The rats took advantage of him to impose his reign

There are so much space garbage that the ESA has said enough

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When astronauts run to take refuge in their ships within a few months, rocket fragments fall into populated areas and multiple flights are diverted, it is that The problem of space garbage It is getting worse. The European Space Agency wants more strict rules and greater international cooperation, and will impose them even if no one follows. The goal: avoid the dreaded Kessler syndrome. From bad to worse. In 2024, the amount of space waste increased considerably after several incidents. In May, a Russian satellite that had been inactive for three years disintegrated in the low orbitforcing astronauts of the International Space Station to take refuge in their ships. In August, A CZ-6A Chinese rocket exploded After deploying 18 satellites in low orbit, generating a cloud of more than 300 fragments. In October, the IS-33E communications satellite Manufactured by Boeing, but he did it in the geostationary orbit. Up there, the 700 documented pieces will last thousands of years. Official data. According to a Recent ESA Reportapproximately 54,000 objects of more than 10 centimeters are known orbiting the earth, including active satellites. However, there are at least 1.2 million objects between 1 and 10 centimeters that could also put manned missions at risk and satellites due to its great kinetic energy. ESA warns in its report that the current trend increases the real risk of Kessler syndrome, a cascade of collisions in the low terrestrial orbit that could use this region for future generations. This scenario would not only put the new satellite constellations, such as those of Starlink, Kuiper or Oneweb, but seriously affect the safety of astronauts. It is not strange that China has dedicated much of 2024 To fortify its Tiangong Space Station to protect it from spatial garbage fragments and small meteoroids. But the implications of space waste are not limited only to space, they also have tangible impacts on the mainland. Not only does it affect space. As the cadence of launches increases, so do the uncontrolled falls of satellites and rockets. They almost always disintegrate in the atmosphere, but some elements, such as carbon fiber tanks, can resist the heat of the reentry even traveling 27,000 kilometers per hour. Spacex could be touching the limits of its launching capacity after suffering several incidents. The closest to a misfortune has occurred this year in the airspace of Poland, where a second stage of Falcon 9 was disintegrated. Several large fragments managed to survive the heat of the reentry and They fell near the city of Poznanincluding a subway and a half deposit on the grounds of an industrial plant. The frequent tests of new rockets are also a reason for concern. The Spacex starship has exploded twice on the Atlantic Ocean this year, causing two debris rainfall and Several deviations on commercial flights of the Caribbean or Florida. Bluen’s New Glenn rocket propeller fell out of control in the Atlantic during its debut flight, but did so at dawn, without great consequences. New ESA rules. Although there were already rules such as 25 years (which establishes that obsolete satellites must get out of orbit within a maximum period of 25 years after their useful life), the level of compliance varies according to the type and size of the object. It is only 52% for large satellites. Therefore, ESA has introduced a more strict five -year limit in its missions, seeking to set an example to establish more rigorous standards globally. All this is part of A “Zero Debris” commitment which seeks to reach an orbital environment without waste by 2030. The frame includes technical measures to avoid space garbage, actively eliminate waste through advanced technologies and foster a spatial circular economy based on the beginning of the four R: “Remove, reuse, refurbish, recycle”, eliminate, reuse, restore and recycle. In search of an international framework. It is not clear that ESA will lead the world by imposing stricter norms, because it could affect the development of new commercial constellations, but the problem of space garbage is becoming a real priority in the international legal field. There is a legal framework: the 1972 Responsibility Convention. It was applied, for example, in the case of the Kosmos 954 Soviet satellite, which spread radioactive remains over northern Canada in 1978, or when part of a Spacex Crew Dragon ship of Spacex fell on a Saskatchewan farm In 2024. In most cases, however, it is difficult to purify responsibilities, he points out A report from the University of New York. According to the report, more robust and binding international agreements are urgently needed. Image | THAT In Xataka | The new space race has created Boomerang scrap. The probability that clash against a plane has also increased

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