Photo: Jaguar

Under the Hood of the Jaguar C-X75
The C-X75 is a plug-in series hybrid, a bit like the Chevy Volt. But unlike the Volt, it has 4 electric motors, providing all-wheel drive, and when the battery is drained, it doesn’t get recharged by a conventional gasoline engine. Rather, it uses twin micro-turbines, each generating 70 kW by spinning at 80,000 rpm.

The C-X75 has a drag coefficient of 0.32 Cd.

Photo: Jaguar

Power and Top Speed
The four electric motors produce 145 kW (195 bhp) and 400 N·m (295 lb-ft) each, for a total power of 580 kW/780 bhp. Top speed is 330 km/h (205 mph), acceleration from 0-100 km/h (62 mph) is achieved in 3.4 seconds, and from 80-145 km/h (50-90 mph) in 2.3 seconds.

“The mid-mounted 70 kW (94 bhp) micro gas-turbines can generate a combined 140 kW (188 bhp) to charge the batteries and extend the range of the car to 900 km (560 miles)–or, when in Track mode, provide supplementary power directly to the electric motors. The four electric motors provide torque-vectored, all-wheel drive traction and grip, which Jaguar deems essential in a car that produces 1,600 N·m (1,180 lb-ft) of torque.” (source)

Photo: Jaguar

What Makes It Green (Kind of, Depending…)
All this power seems overkill, and I’d much rather see a car that looks just as good but is less powerful, lighter, and gets a longer electric range and then gets better fuel economy once the battery is drained.

But still, the Jaguar C-X75 has an electric range of 110 kilometers (68 miles). Since the average American rarely drives more than 40 miles in a day, and that number is probably lower for Europeans, this means that if this supercar was plugged in every night, it could conceivably be greener (at least when it comes to usage) than a much less powerful car like a Honda Fit or whatever.

All of this is theoretical. The C-X75 might never reach production, and if it does, it would probably stay a small-volume model. But if this design project has helped Jaguar engineers to get familiar with series hybrids and electric cars, and to develop new technologies that can push the field forward, then it’ll be worth it. I’d rather see automotive engineers work on these kinds of things than ever larger V8s like in the 1990s and early 2000s.

China has a booming air travel industry and 350 million smokers. That means a lot of lighters get confiscated at security checkpoints.

At Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, instead of trashing the lighters confiscated from departing passengers, they’re provided for free to arriving passengers. It’s a brilliantly simple way of preventing a lot of plastic from ending up in the trash (and saving people a little cash).

Here in the states some airports sell confiscated items on Ebay or donate them to the homeless, but I’ve never seen this much simpler tactic employed. Would it work with shampoo, too, or are there hygiene issues?

How convenient is it to have a giant 55 gallon bin to throw all of your recycling in to without the need to sort it?

It’s very nice indeed. I have one and love it. But that convenience might actually be destroying the U.S. recycling industry.

This one giant bin method of recycling is called single stream recycling. While this method’s widespread implementation has helped lead to dramatic increases in recycling program participation, it has also led to the rise of the recycling industry’s biggest problem.

Contamination.

Take pizza boxes, for example. Pizza boxes do sport the universal recycling symbol on the bottom, but once they’re used the grease and melted cheese from the pizza itself renders them unrecyclable. The oil causes great problems for the quality of the paper, especially the binding of the fibers.

Before the rise of single stream recycling, this contamination would only affect the other cardboard and paper in the bin. But with single stream recycling the grease has the potential to contaminate the plastics, aluminum, and other material found in the giant bin.

Food matter contamination causes a serious problem for recyclers. In the case of FutureMark Paper, which manufactures recycled paper for publications such as Every Day with Rachael Ray and Outside Magazine, was forced to shut down part of its production line after food-contaminated paper caused a bacterial bloom in its waste paper cleaning equipment.

Recycling companies don’t have the resources to take such painstaking measures in sorting out unrinsed containers or grease stained pizza boxes…but Chinese recycling companies can. In fact, China now buys 70% of the United States’ waste paper.

Some experts even claim that waste paper is our number one export, by pound, to China.

Unfortunately China’s willingness to purchase the waste paper and pay for secondary sorting provides little incentive for recycling collectors to keep cleanliness standards high. This eventually results in higher prices for recycled content products and a shortage of materials domestically.

What can you do to help?

1. Minimize food contaminants. Throw away food-contaminated paper containers (fast food wrappers, pizza boxes), wash out jars and cans and take the lids off bottles and containers before putting them in your recycling bin.

2. Ask for and buy recycled products. The most effective way to promote a green recycling economy is to grow demand for recycled goods. Generally, recycled goods are less resource-intensive to produce than their non-recycled counterparts. For example, in the case of paper, organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund report that recycled paper takes far less water, energy and chemicals to make than paper made from wood pulp.

3. Support community recycling drives (or organize one for your favorite cause). Recyclables such as aluminum and newspaper are worth money. Many civic organizations, schools and other community groups are sponsoring collection drives for recyclable materials as fund-raisers for their organizations or for charitable causes. Whether they’re asking for Caprisun packets or old magazines, try to support these local recycling drives. They not only provide valuable fund-raising opportunities for neighborhood organizations, they also provide a cleaner supply of recyclable material to manufacturers.