Guest Post by Dr. Robert (Bob) Humphreys In the previous post, we gave a brief overview of the preliminary stage of sorting of municipal solid waste (MSW) to separate a fraction that is similar in composition to single-stream recyclable waste that municipalities collect at curbside. Further sorting of this recyclable waste can occur at the mixed waste recovery facility ... [Click to Continue...]

Guest Post by Dr. Robert (Bob) Humphreys Engineers are without a doubt the most important people in a modern, technologically advanced society such as the one we enjoy in the USA. Virtually every step in the daily lives of every person in the country is impacted or made possible by something an engineer did, is doing, or will do. Engineers work on mundane projects such as ... [Click to Continue...]

In my last post we started a discussion on the high level state of jobs in the United States.  The graph above shows a telling trend.  Manufacturing output is up over 20% since the recovery started, but jobs are only up approximately 6 percent.  There was job creation in the manufacturing sector, but automation and factory efficiency led the way.  So where are the jobs that ... [Click to Continue...]

  (source: iStock photo/Getty Images) For my readers who live in the United States, the last few weeks have been a head-scratcher.  One of the key campaign issues was job creation.  So how do you create jobs?  Interesting and complicated question.  Since this is an innovation blog, one might ask, where is the topic of innovation in the discussion?  My take is ... [Click to Continue...]

Guest Post by Dr. Robert (Bob) Humphreys Compostable/biodegradable (1) plastic packaging can be found in grocery, convenience, and fast food stores in the USA, Canada, and Europe (see Post 5 in this series for an excellent example). Nevertheless, broad acceptance of biodegradable/compostable plastics in the gargantuan food packaging market has been slow to develop and ... [Click to Continue...]