pneumatic waste collection meet-up

You may want to consider a trip to beautiful Barcelona this November if you are a pneumatic tube enthusiast, particularly one interested in the ins and outs of trash disposal.

The International Pneumatic Waste Collection Association Conference is to be held on 16th November, as an official side event of the Smart City World Expo Congress. More information on their website.

Image my own.

above above ground

Plans are afoot for even more pneumatic tubes in New York City, already home to the Roosevelt Island tubes and the Hudson Yards developments, as well as many others in the world of fiction and cinema. This time it is the High Line which might be tubed for waste disposal, quoted in The Atlantic's CityLab as perfect for such infrastructure considering that "the tube could be strung along the bottom of the viaduct, avoiding any need to tunnel through streets".

Image of the High Line used under Creative Commons lisence from David Berkowitz's Flikr page.

mecca's tubes

With millions of worshippers visiting Mecca every year, the Saudi government needed to think of a way in which to deal with the crowds and the material consequences of that many people, namely their rubbish. Scattered around the Hajj mosque, visitors will find 400 little holes where they can deposit their trash and have it whisked away by vacuum, underneath the holy site. Read more in WIRED.

Thanks Jess for sending me this link to this fascinating use of tubes!
Image used under Creative Commons lisence, from Mohd Rasim's Flikr page.

old tubes in old montreal

I have been to the beautiful city of Montreal on a few occasions. I first visited when I was nine years old, and saw felt what it was like to sink into waist deep snow for the first time. I lived there as a medical student in a basement apartment, and another time, with my sister, who generously shared her studio with me. I remember the smell of St Viateur bagels, the sound of the Tam-Tams, the taste of poutine on a Saturday night. But I cannot remember seeing the pneumatic underground. Look out next time you are in the old town - amidst those old European buildings likes another trace of Europe, but you need to keep your eyes on the ground.

Image from Envac.

taking the trash out

Taking the trash out seems to be increasingly becoming a pneumatic affair.

For decades residents of some Swedish suburbs have used pneumatic systems to dispose of their trash. The Swedish company Envac (previously CentralSug) have been making these tube systems since the 1950s, the first system for the disposal of medical waste being installed in Sollefteå Hospital in 1961. Later in the 1960s the company installed systems for household waste disposal in new suburbs, and now more recently in the historic city centre of Stockholm.

Further afield Envac's pneumatic tubes can be found in places such as the Garak Fish Market in Seoul, Copenhagen Cathedral in Denmark, Disneyworld and Roosevelt Island in the U.S. and since January 2015, a new eco-neighbourhood in Paris, France.

Residents of Clichy-Batignolles in the 17th put their garbage bags in green receptacles in the lobby of their buildings, which are then sped through pipes to a disposal centre 1.5 km away for treatment and recycling. The residents of the 20 billion dollar new Hudson Yards project in New York City will find a similar system in their designer neighbourhood while those working and living in one of the 112 tower buildings in the Gujarat International Finance and Tech-City in India, have since last month been using one of the world's largest underground waste disposal systems.

As eco-neighbourhoods, designer districts and techno-cities emerge across the globe, we may be seeing the disappearance of trashcans and garbage trucks, as pneumatic tubes find yet another way to spread their tentacles into daily life.

Image of Parc Clichy-Batignolles from David Fleg's photostream. Thanks to Cargofish for pointing me towards many aspects of this fascinating topic.

radio day

It is that time of the week for some pneumatic distraction. A good old fashioned radio show this time. Via soundcloud you can listen to Roman Mars interview Molly Steenson about pneumatic tubes on the San Francisco radio show dedicated to design, architecture and the built environment, 99% Invisible. It is a great radio documentary on the topic, with sound recordings of tubes, sitcoms and trash disposal.



In the show Molly Steenson ponders on why pneumatic tubes are so magical and suggests that they inspire wonder because they feel as if they are alive, extending breathing electrical tentacles through the city. They feel a lot bigger than we are she further suggests and most romantic of all, if you scent a handkerchief through the tubes, it would still smell like you.