Using plastics to help a community recover from disaster

An Australian company is building kit homes for a cyclone-ravaged Pacific island from laminated veneer lumber and a wood-plastic composite.  The design team’s ultimate aim is to use 100 percent recycled plastic to construct homes and other buildings for poor communities around the world that are affected by natural disasters, but it is still working on getting the right technology…

Being Smart about Dealing with Disaster in Japan

As a country prone to natural disasters, especially earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons, Japan has a long history of disaster education. However, what does Japan’s public disaster education look like and how should it be further developed?  Broadly speaking, disaster education fits within two categories: publicly funded and voluntarily organised education. Currently, voluntarily organised disaster education is rapidly outpacing its publicly funded counterpart…