LEGO Works to Make Bricks from Recycled Plastic

The LEGO Group has been working on a way to make LEGO bricks out of recycled plastic. The bricks aren’t ready yet, but the company says it’s making progress. Making bricks from recycled materials could cut pollution from the company’s bricks by 70%.

Many people are familiar with LEGOs. Developed in Denmark, the plastic building toys have been around since the 1950s. The toys click together firmly, allowing users to build things that don’t fall apart easily. The company calls this ability to hold tightly “clutch power”.

Since roughly 1960, LEGO bricks have been made from a kind of plastic called ABS. ABS plastic makes LEGO bricks very tough, and gives them great clutch power, over and over again.

Sadly, ABS plastic can’t really be recycled, and it takes a very long time to break down. That’s a big problem. The world is struggling with a huge plastic waste problem. And LEGO makes about 110 billion bricks every year.

But since 2015, LEGO has been making an effort to make their products more earth-friendly. Three years ago, the company began making some LEGO parts, like trees, out of a plastic made from sugar cane. Recently, LEGO started using paper bags instead of plastic to reduce packaging.

But making bricks out of recycled plastic is a big challenge. The goal is to make bricks out of PET plastic, which is softer than ABS plastic and can be found in things like bottles and clothing. A recycled one-liter plastic bottle could make about 102×4 LEGO bricks.

Over the past three years, the company has tested over 250 different ways of creating LEGO bricks from recycled plastic. A team of more than 150 people are working on the problem. Tim Brooks, who focuses on environmental responsibility at LEGO, says that experimenting and failing is “an important part of learning”.

Now, the company says they’ve found a way to make a good 2×4 brick from PET. One important step was finding a way of adding things to PET plastic to make it tougher and give it better clutch power like ABS.

“We know kids care about the environment,” said Mr. Brooks. “Even though it will be a while before they will be able to play with bricks made from recycled plastic, we want to let kids know we’re working on it.”

2 . Psychologists who study creative accomplishments throughout the life cycle generally find that creativity peaks between the ages of mid to late 30s or early 40s.They tend to view creativity from the perspective of creative and innovative disciplines, rather than individual accomplishment. And they find little variation across different professions and disciplines of creativity and innovation, such as the arts and sciences.

At What Age Does Creativity Peak? A new study shows that it counts on whether you are a conceptual or an experimental thinker.

But according to two economics professors at Ohio State University, that’s only part of the story. Their research, which looked at 31 Nobel Prize Winners in the field of economics and when they made their most significant contributions to the field, uncovered evidence of two peak cycles of individual creativity in the sciences, one that surfaces very early in some people’s careers, and another that, for others, rises up later in their lives. The difference between those who experience a peak in creativity during their mid twenties and those who are more likely to peak in their mid 50s, the researchers say, is in the type of creativity involved.

People who are conceptual innovators — those who think out of the box and challenge conventional wisdom — tend to come up with new ideas and innovations automatically and peak at an earlier age. Those creators who are more experimental — who build on their knowledge and accepted theories throughout their careers and ultimately find new and innovative ways to analyze that knowledge — tend to peak later in life.

Past research has shown that conceptual artists — poets, painters and novelists — who have clear and more immediate goals for their work, such as to communicate very specific and timely ideas or emotions, work in a different time frame than experimental artists, whose goals are less clear and less precise and who work through trial and error at a more gradual pace. Examples of conceptual innovators include Pablo Picasso, T.S. Eliot, Herman Melville, and Albert Einstein, all of whom contributed their most innovative work while they were young. Examples of experimental innovators include Paul Cezanne, Robert Frost, Virginia Woolf, and Charles Darwin.

The researchers believe that their findings on this view of creativity — that your most creative period is more a product of the type of creator you are and the nature of your work than of the particular field you are in — extend to other academic and scholarly disciplines as well. If you are a conceptual thinker, you are likely to be more creative when you are younger; if you are an experimental thinker, you are likely to do your most creative work when you are older, perhaps even past middle age. In theory, then, there are no limitations to creativity. You could end up doing your best work in your forties, fifties, sixties or even later.

3 . No trees are seemingly cut down every time you search something or read a social media post on your phone or laptop. But websites alone do create emissions (排放)—internet usage is responsible for almost four percent of global emissions. That might not seem like a lot, but it is equivalent to about the same emissions caused by global air travel. That percentage is predicted to almost double by 2025 according to a post by Brussels-based energy magazine Energuide. And internet usage is on the rise—as the pandemic pushed many jobs and education online, internet usage went up as high as 40 percent.

The emissions caused by websites come from the hosting company that ensures that websites are up and running when users search for them on their server. By working with an environmentally sound server like Green Geeks, A2 Hosting, and Host Papa that focuses on renewable energy or lowering their energy usage, websites become more sustainable, Wired UK reported. Something as simple as using fewer images on a web page also helps lower emissions. Another way to reduce emissions is to have simply designed websites with little to no moving images like gifts.

Another aspect of creating more sustainable websites means raising awareness, or letting servers or customers in need of new web design know that it’s even an option for them. Some major search engines like Google have promised to reduce their tech centers’ water usage and to rely on more sustainable energy to run their search engines and other online products like Gmail and Google Docs.

Baruch Labunski, CEO of Toronto-based SEO company Rank Secure, explains that when many clients work with the company to have their websites designed, they don’t often think about sustainability. Companies like Rank Secure make a point to have sustainability as part of their process when working with businesses who want help with web design by relying on more sustainable data centers.

Of course, lowering the greenhouse gas footprint of your website is just the start of building up a sustainable company. Just relying on some renewable energy to have an eco-friendly website doesn’t make a company automatically eco-friendly.

“We need to think about the overall impact of our businesses.” says Labunksi. “If your business manufactures or even uses singleuse plastics, then your website’s carbon footprint shouldn’t be your primary concern.”

4 . Getting Around on Campus

Thanks to the sunny weather and wide campus, bicycles are one of the most popular means of transportation at Stanford. There are over 12,000 bikes on campus, as well as the full service Campus Bike Shop at Tresidder Union.

To make it safer for walkers and cyclists, the University has designed the center of campus a pedestrian zone; four wheeled vehicles are not allowed. You can ride your bike anywhere on the Stanford campus except in the arcades(拱廊) around the Main Quad, which are reserved for foot traffic.

Some Things to Keep in Mind.

·Register your bike. Whether you purchase a bicycle at Stanford or bring one from home, you must register it with Santa Clara County. You can register your bike:

1. During registration events in White Plaza during New Student Orientation;

2. Online at Parking and Transportation Services (P&TS) website.

·Buy a bicycle lock such as a Kryptonite U-lock and a six-foot cable or chain. Bicycle theft is the most common campus crime, and most bikes that are stolen are locked with easy-to-cut cables. If you lose your bike lock key, call the Campus Bike Shop at (650) 723-9300 to have the lock cut for a fee.

·Park your bike in designed spaces. Be sure not to block a pathway, building entrance, or ramp intended for use by people with disabilities. The Department of Public Safety may remove and impound improperly parked bikes.

·Use a bike light if you are riding at night, and you are advised to wear a helmet at all times. P&TS gives out free bike lights during registration events; the Campus Bike Shop sells highquality helmets for $20.

·Follow traffic laws. Bicyclists are expected to obey the same traffic laws as automobile drivers and may be ticketed if they do not. To avoid a ticket, stop at all stop signs, ride in the direction of traffic, and use the same turn lanes as other drivers. The Bicycling Information section of the P&TS website has additional information on biking at Stanford, including bicycle route maps. You also can learn more about Bicycle Rules and Safety at the California Department of Motor Vehicles website.

5 . One morning in 2003, a 19-year-old Amy Purdy left for her job as a nursery teacher, feeling healthy and ready for her day. Halfway through her morning, she started to feel achy and unwell. Once home, she had a fever and fell into a deep sleep that was impossible for her to shake.

After a short, tense ride to the nearest hospital, Purdy was given less than a two percent chance of surviving. Over the course of the 2.5month treatment that followed, she lost kidney (肾) function and hearing in her left ear—then her spleen and, eventually, both of her legs. What doctors thought was the flu ended up being a very deadly meningitis (脑膜炎) infection. Purdy’s life was changed forever.

It was when she was in bed for months that she started to think about that big life question: what was her story going to be? She began dreaming about snowboarding and visualized herself carving down a mountain of powder, feeling the wind on her face.

This made her return to the sport as a double-amputee (截肢者). Being back on the board was rough at first—several times, her board and her prosthetic (假体的) legs flew down the mountain without her. But Purdy had a strong will and set out to build her own prosthetics that would be purpose built for snowboarding. Purdy’s first home made snowboarding feet is on display in the Smithsonian now.

In 2005, after her 21st birthday—and the gift of a new kidney from her father—Purdy decided to start Adaptive Action Sports. Purdy and her family organized a team of snowboarders and began pushing for their sport to be part of the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia. After being turned down several times, they were finally granted access to the Paralympic Games, appearing as parasnowboarding for the first time in history. Since then, her snowboarding team has brought home six medals and raised the visibility of the sport.

Since her illness took her legs 18 years ago, Purdy has managed to squeeze as much achievement and joy out of her life as possible. “Maybe instead of looking at all our challenges and barriers as something negative or bad,” she proposes, “maybe we can look at them as little gifts that fire our imaginations.”

Roald Amundsen,    1    (bear) in 1872 near Oslo, Norway, left his mark on the Heroic Era as one of the most successful polar explorers in the world. He became the first to travel    2    the Northwest Passage, in his ship Gjoa in 1903-1906.After this journey, plans were made to reach the North Pole, but news of Peary’s success in reaching the pole arrived,    3     caused Amundsen to make new plans for a journey to the Antarctic and the South Pole. On December 14, 1911, Amundsen and four others     4     (stand) at the South Pole, a month before Robert Scott.

7 . We don’t see many 17-year-old who can list as many accomplishments (成就) as Eduardo Caiado.

Edu, as he likes to be called, lives in Anapolis, Brazil. He’s always been driven to help others. In fact, when he was just 15, he was named one of the 50 Young Inspirers of the United Nations for his project on reusing_______ to provide drinking water in a village. He also bought gifts for 52 people living in a local nursing home, _______ his own money.

These are all totally natural for Edu, who says he’s been_______trying to help others for most of his life. But right now he centers on saving stray (走失的) animals.

Since he was 9, he’s dreamed of the day he could open a _______for the many lost or forgotten pets he’s seen. Less than ten years later, he_______that dream a reality by starting the EduPacoca Institute!

“The place where I live is cold, and many stray dogs were dying of_________cold,” he said. The EduPacoca Institute depends on_______to help these animals in need. First, Edu rented a house; now, he’s using the money to_______food and other expenses. “I want these animals to know that even if they don’t have owners, they will be with me until they grow old and die.” he said.

After years of feeding animals on the streets, Edu understands that while they’re not human, animals have feelings of their own. Each has their own habits,_______ , and preferences, and Edu loves getting to know them.

He’s already given about 30 dogs and cats a home, and the number keeps growing every day! His only regret is that he doesn’t have enough room or money to____________every stray.

Never Too Old to Shine

When Wang Deshun showed on the stage as a male model in his late 70s, many thought he had reached his apex (顶点). However, the 85-year-old showed them he's still flying.

The white-bearded Wang took flight in Beijing Miyun District in a SW100 light aircraft on Aug 17, 2021. During the course of the flight, he completed turns and climbs on his own, becoming the oldest person to undertake flight training in China.

His physical stats proved enough to apply for a flight license due to his many years of exercise. At Miyun Airport in Beijing, he was guided by a professional team that made a training plan for him.

“I've been dreaming of flying for more than 50 years so I thought I should learn. I thought I could do this," Wang said.

This is not the first time Wang has wowed (使喝彩) his fellow Chinese citizens. Born in a rural family in Shengyang，Liaoning Province in 1936, Wang started to work as a bus conductor and then a factory worker. In 1960, he became a stage actor and appeared in bit parts in films such as Brave Journey to Northeast and Miss Granny.

Wang continued to challenge himself throughout his life. At 44 he learned English, and at 50 he began fitness training. He learnt to ride a horse at 65, to ride a motorcycle at 78, and hit the catwalk at 79, when he took part in Beijing Fashion Week and rose to social media fame. Walking down the catwalk completely shirtless, he wowed audiences and was nicknamed "China's hottest grandpa".

"It's never too old to have your dream," he said. "Age has never been a problem. Just do it."