The road safety solution, made from waste fibre optic cables, has been nominated for the Intertraffic Awards 2024, the world's leading trade event for mobility professionals, which takes place in April in the Dutch capital.
The road safety solution, made from waste fibre optic cables, has been nominated for the Intertraffic Awards 2024, the world’s leading trade event for mobility professionals, which takes place in April in the Dutch capital.
Owner of ‘Europe’s first and largest multi-operator fibre optic network’, a digital motorway that passes through more than 145 municipalities in Portugal and has already exceeded the milestone of 900,000 homes covered, DSTelecom generated 39 tonnes of fibre cable waste last year. What to do with this material that is difficult to decompose?
‘DSTelecom, in partnership with Sernis – a Portuguese company dedicated to developing road safety solutions through innovation – has just announced the launch of SR-ECO-BALI, a globally revolutionary environmental traffic marker, built from waste fibre optic cables,’ revealed the telecommunications arm of the Braga-based group on Monday, 11 March, in a statement.
With this solution, which stems from the Green DSTelecom project – for research, development and validation of new solutions for reusing or recycling fibre optic cables – the DST company ‘wants to add an environmentally responsible solution to the market, which will also reduce the waste generated by the operation of companies in the telecommunications sector’.
This traffic marker has already gained recognition at the prestigious Intertraffic Awards 2024, which nominated Green DSTelecom in the Green Globe Award category, ‘having been highlighted as a revolutionary solution in the field of sustainability and innovation’.
Intertraffic Amsterdam, which takes place this year in April in the Dutch capital, is the world’s leading trade event for mobility professionals.
‘Green DSTelecom is the result of our commitment to promoting sustainability and the circular economy throughout our operation, and SR-ECO-BALI is just the beginning. We want to explore new applications for fibre optic cable waste and create more innovative solutions that can be used throughout the market,’ promises João Faria, head of innovation at DSTelecom.
Other possible applications for fibre optic waste, thereby expanding the impact of the Green DSTelecom project, will be studied by Product Design students at the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo.
“Collaboration, co-creation and innovation are catalysts for success for the Portuguese economy and, above all, for the environment. Teamwork, bold thinking and resilience are key factors that enable us to convert problems into value-added and environmentally responsible solutions,” emphasises João Faria.
‘More than 15% of our workforce is involved in innovation projects, and we want to continue promoting progress and sustainability, leading the way towards a more sustainable and efficient telecommunications sector,’ he argues.
Faria also mentions POP Geotermia, another company project that aims to significantly reduce energy consumption in telecommunications centres, ‘through a passive air conditioning solution based on geothermal drilling, but without the need for a heat pump,’ he explains.
According to DSTelecom’s head of innovation, this solution ‘is currently being tested at a DSTelecom network centre, and it is estimated that it will reduce the energy used to cool telecommunications centres, which are spread from north to south of the country, by around 80% in the municipalities where the company operates’.
Source: Jornal de Negócios
