Alternative technology
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Alternative technology is a term sometimes used by environmental advocates to refer to technologies which are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice. There are many factors which may be cited as implying greater environmental friendliness, such as greater efficiency, or different fuels or power sources.
The term also includes products or production processes that promote or enhance material recovery, recycling or marketing of secondary materials, or that reduce or eliminate waste or emissions at the source of generation.
Alternative technologies themselves are part of the politics of the environment. Common political issues related to alternative technologies include whether or not they are practical for widespread use; whether or not they are cost-effective; whether or not widespread adoption would produce negative impacts on the economy or lifestyle; how to encourage rapid adoption; whether or not public subsidies for adoption are appropriate; which technologies government regulations should favor, if any, and how environmentally unsound technologies and practices should be regulated; what technological research should be done and how it should be funded; and which of a field of competing alternative technologies should be pursued.
Some "alternative technologies" have in the past or may in the future become widely adopted, after which they might no longer be considered "alternative." For example, a class of chemicals known as CFCs have been replaced by more ozone-friendly chemicals, such as HFCs and HCFCs.
Some alternative technologies
- Wind generators
- Liquid fuels for automobiles (besides gasoline and diesel)
- Alcohol (either ethanol or methanol)
- Natural gas
- Vegetable oil
- Biogas
- Biodiesel
- Solar panels
- Silicon-based
- Photosynthetic "Gratzel cells" (Titanium dioxide)
- Fuel cells
- Greywater
- Paper recycling
- Aluminum recycling
- Methane extraction from garbage dumps
- Fluorescent lights
- Composting
- Urban car
Some companies developing alternative technologies
- Kyocera
- Toyota, with the Prius hybrid electric-gas car
- Volvo, with its recyclable cars
- BMW, researching a liquid hydrogen fueled engine