Inventive Recycling

This is a great video on how recycling and saving something small such as a plastic bottle can make a big difference and make a great change on our lifestyles!

Ordinarily, we would simply throw our plastic containers and other recyclable items into the recycling bin (and hopefully not the garbage!) only to pass the duties of the actual reuse of these items to someone else. But do we really know what our waste is being turned into? Most of the plastic we recycle can be made into recycled plastic, but this product is actually not even recyclable. The recycling process of plastics require a variety of different treatments which in turn requires massive amounts of energy when you think about how much plastic we use everyday. The United States has continually increased it's use of plastic bottles each year since the 1990's, even though the recycling rate has remained at around 27 percent. This means that only a small amount of effort is being put towards recycling all the materials we can after we use them.

 We may not all be able to build houses out of our own collection of plastic bottles, but in order to keep our unusable waste amounts decreasing, and our reusable products increasing, it definitely would not hurt to pay a little more attention to the things we can recycle instead of mindlessly throwing into the garbage can for our simple convenience!

Here's also a helpful list of items that can/cannot be recycled:

"Planting Pride, City Wide"

          The pictures above are from neighbors in Boston's urban neighborhoods who have banded together to form a urban design group called CityRoots. They have worked with  32 community groups, comprised of over 600 residents, on more than 48 projects ranging from community greenspace installations to tree plantings and low-impact landscaping. 


          CityRoots has transformed front yards, streets, parks, and vacant lots into beautifully restored green areas. Aside from the aesthetic transformation, CityRoots has proven to create physical and social transformations that leads to greater strength of the urban communities. They realize that building a greener neighborhood is a community-building opportunity. 


          For urban ecology to make a difference, organizations like CityRoots need to be supported and continued. We can not only build neighborhoods but also communities. 

LIVING WITH FRIENDS

    As the population grows, there is less and less habitable area on earth. For this reason, the population density in certain areas increases beyond a point and become urban centers. When these urban centers start intruding onto natural resources, we also intrude onto local wildlife.

                One of the fundamental concerns of urban ecology is how to deal with invading animals. The rats that live in our attics, the squirrels in the parks, the termites in the houses, the moles in our lawns and the weeds in our gardens are not invading us, but vice-versa. As we push the boundaries between our worlds, creatures of all sorts have adapted to an urban life.

                Urban ecologists understand that we will never be able to exterminate all wildlife from our urban areas. With this assumption, they try to understand the needs of wildlife and develop cities that take that into account. Wildlife professors Clark Adams, Sara Ash and Kieran Lindsey wrote a book called Urban Wildlife Management that talks about these strategies. They explain how distress calls can be used to lure dangerous animals outside of the city walls. They also suggest having designated areas that can be used to attract animals. This way, they explain, we can all live symbiotically.

                These thoughts might be idealistic but they offer some solution to the growing trend of urban wildlife. 

Composting

Composting is one of the simplest ways that people can help make their homes greener. By not throwing away food scraps and instead creating a compost pile (or giving their compost to the city), people can help regenerate soil by introducing bacteria and fungi that help break down organic matter, help prevent pollution by reducing the amount of trash that goes to landfills (which eventually results in large outputs of harmful gases like methane), and can reduce their own spending by not having to buy fertilizer or pesticides.

Do you know what goes in a Yard Waste Bin?

The above article discusses participant levels in King County's compost program; they are lower than hoped. King County itself is the national leader in composting, but when it comes to composting at home, many citizens are not willing to make the extra effort.

Composting is simple and easy! Seattle should work on trying to compost more and throw waste into the garbage less. It's only one extra bin on your curb that makes a huge difference to the environment and especially the soil.

This article details what to put in each type of waste bin. Do your best to separate your waste accordingly!

Carbon Footprint App

As our population is steadily on the rise, so have become our concerns on our natural environment. With increasing levels of pollution and decreasing amounts of resources, ecology is one thing that effects us all. Ultimately, it is up to us to change our lifestyles to incorporate things we can do daily to save energy and save our environment. Here is one way to get started!

One of technology's greatest inventions in our current generation is the smart phone. Most of us use this handy device for its amazing convenience wherever we go. The link to the iPhone app below allows us to measure our current eco footprint and help us to be aware of how much we are using on a daily basis. By knowing these simple numbers we can then make adjustments to our daily activities so we can use less and save more!

http://www.apple.com/webapps/calculate/carbonfootprintcalculator.html

Sustainable Cities

Here's a video that looks at simple ways to make cities more sustainable - by utilizing space more efficiently and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

VERTICAL FARMING...oh yes, it's here

          The Problem:

By the year 2050, an estimated 80% of earth's population with live in urban centers. Using the current demographic trends, the human population will increase by 3 billion people during the interim. A land area the size of Brazil will need to be available to feed the population if current farming practices continue.

         The Solution:

Vertical farming has been discussed many times in the past century, but technology has finally caught up to the  idea. Below is a picture of a proposed vertical farm.

The concept of vertical farming has been around since 1915 when the term was first coined, but Dr. Dickson Despommier from Columbia University has given it new life in the light of our present global conditions. In the clip below he talks about how the farms would work and how they can help.