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Rotterdam is building the world’s largest electric vacuum cleaner to suck up smog and turn it into jewelry

Can we completely rid our skies of pollution once and for all? That is the mission behind Studio Roosegaarde, which recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to build the world's largest smog-sucking electric vacuum in Rotterdam.

The team, led by Netherlands-based innovator Daan Roosegaarde, is building a 23-foot-tall Smog Free Tower that will harvest carbon from the air and transform it into beautiful rings and cufflinks. The tower is expected to rise as soon as September. And if that goes well, the studio hopes to build many more smog vacuums across the globe.

The tower has the capacity to clear away 123 million cubic feet of smog every day. If one tower has the power to clean that much air, just imagine what several towers could do. The company has launched a crowd-funding campaign that has swiftly gained traction as people demonstrate excitement to join a movement that could rid the skies of smog. Their Kickstarter campaign set sail on July 22 with a goal of $54,000 to build a prototype, and so far it’s right on track. The first smog-sucking tower will be unveiled in Rotterdam, Netherlands this coming September. After the studio completes the first tower in their home country, they hope to build smog towers in other countries, including China, Mexico and India.

In addition to ridding skies of smog, the tower could address another major environmental (and social) travesty. Since diamonds are made of carbon that has gone through a high pressure process, Studio Roosegaarde’s innovative jewels may reduce demand for these unethical “blood” stones. According to their estimations, it will take 35,000 cubic feet of air (out of the 123 million cubic feet of air the tower can vacuum everyday) to make one ring, of which 42 percent is comprised of carbon particles. Anyone wishing to purchase cubes, rings or cufflinks can do so by supporting the project’s Kickstarter page. The pieces will range from $54 for a cube to $271 for a piece of jewelry.

The leader of the project, Daan Roosegaarde, claims his ingenious idea began after awakening one day with a downright obsession with pollution. In this video Roosegaarde holds up a bag of ‘precious’ pollution particles and so eloquently explains, “This is not waste, because waste in the future shouldn’t exist.”

Rotterdam is building the world’s largest electric vacuum cleaner to suck up smog and turn it into jewelry

Details

  • Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • Studio Roosegaarde