Schools promote waste-free lunches
‘Trash talk’ takes on new meaning as more schools promote waste-free programs
By Karen Ann Cullotta
September 27, 2009 Link to full article below
In the lunchroom at Stowe Elementary School in Duluth, Minn., forlorn piles of half-eaten sandwiches and bruised bananas are transformed from trash to treasure.
Instead of tossing their uneaten school lunch scraps in the garbage bin, Stowe students donate their leftover fruits and vegetables to the school’s worm compost. Items that aren’t as compost-friendly, such as breads and potatoes, are donated to area farmers, who feed the free and tasty slop to their pigs.
“Knowing it won’t all be going into a landfill feels good,” said 10-year-old Bradley MacDougall, a fifth-grader at Stowe. “Most of the kids at our school are pretty good about it.”
To read the full article: http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/sep/27/health/chi-tc-fam-lunch-waste-0924-0927--dot--ar0sep27
Showing posts with label solution: recycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solution: recycling. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Recycling the Suburbs
Recycling the Suburbs
By Bryan Walsh
Thursday, Mar. 12, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/printout/0,29239,1884779_1884782_1884756,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1884779_1884782_1884756,00.html
The American suburb as we know it is dying. The implosion began with the housing bust, which started in and has hit hardest the once vibrant neighborhoods outside the urban core. Shopping malls and big-box retail stores, the commercial anchors of the suburbs, are going dark — an estimated 148,000 stores closed last year, the most since 2001. But the shift is deeper than the economic downturn. Thanks to changing demographics, including a steady decline in the percentage of households with kids and a growing preference for urban amenities among Americans young and old, the suburban dream of the big house with the big lawn is vanishing. The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech predicts that by 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (on one-sixth of an acre [675 sq m] or more) in the U.S.
Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left the nation addicted to cars. But all the steel, concrete and asphalt that went into making the suburbs can't simply be tossed out in favor of something new, even if it's perfectly green. That would be worse. "As much as possible, we need to redirect development to existing communities and infrastructure," says Kaid Benfield, director of the smart-growth program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Otherwise, we're just eating up more land and natural resources."
The suburbs need to be remade, and just such a transformation is under way in regions that were known for some of the worst sprawl in the U.S. Communities as diverse as Lakewood, Colo., and Long Beach, Calif., have repurposed boarded-up malls as mixed-use developments with retail stores, offices and apartments. In auto-dependent suburbs that were built without a traditional center, shopping malls offer the chance to create downtowns without destroying existing infrastructure, by recycling what's known as underperforming asphalt. "All of these projects are developer-driven, because the market wants them," says Ellen Dunham-Jones, a co-author of the new book Retrofitting Suburbia.
Not every suburb will make it. The fringes of a suburb like Riverside in Southern California, where housing prices have fallen more than 20% since the bust began, could be too diffuse to thrive in a future where density is no longer taboo. It'll be the older inner suburbs like Tysons Corner, Va., that will have the mass transit, public space and economic gravity to thrive postrecession. Though creative cities will grow more attractive for empty-nest -retirees and young graduates alike, we won't all be moving to New York. Many Americans will still prefer the space of the suburbs — including the parking spaces. "People want to balance the privacy of the suburbs with more public and social areas," says Dunham-Jones. But the result will be a U.S. that is more sustainable — environmentally and economically.
By Bryan Walsh
Thursday, Mar. 12, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/printout/0,29239,1884779_1884782_1884756,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1884779_1884782_1884756,00.html
The American suburb as we know it is dying. The implosion began with the housing bust, which started in and has hit hardest the once vibrant neighborhoods outside the urban core. Shopping malls and big-box retail stores, the commercial anchors of the suburbs, are going dark — an estimated 148,000 stores closed last year, the most since 2001. But the shift is deeper than the economic downturn. Thanks to changing demographics, including a steady decline in the percentage of households with kids and a growing preference for urban amenities among Americans young and old, the suburban dream of the big house with the big lawn is vanishing. The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech predicts that by 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (on one-sixth of an acre [675 sq m] or more) in the U.S.
Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left the nation addicted to cars. But all the steel, concrete and asphalt that went into making the suburbs can't simply be tossed out in favor of something new, even if it's perfectly green. That would be worse. "As much as possible, we need to redirect development to existing communities and infrastructure," says Kaid Benfield, director of the smart-growth program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Otherwise, we're just eating up more land and natural resources."
The suburbs need to be remade, and just such a transformation is under way in regions that were known for some of the worst sprawl in the U.S. Communities as diverse as Lakewood, Colo., and Long Beach, Calif., have repurposed boarded-up malls as mixed-use developments with retail stores, offices and apartments. In auto-dependent suburbs that were built without a traditional center, shopping malls offer the chance to create downtowns without destroying existing infrastructure, by recycling what's known as underperforming asphalt. "All of these projects are developer-driven, because the market wants them," says Ellen Dunham-Jones, a co-author of the new book Retrofitting Suburbia.
Not every suburb will make it. The fringes of a suburb like Riverside in Southern California, where housing prices have fallen more than 20% since the bust began, could be too diffuse to thrive in a future where density is no longer taboo. It'll be the older inner suburbs like Tysons Corner, Va., that will have the mass transit, public space and economic gravity to thrive postrecession. Though creative cities will grow more attractive for empty-nest -retirees and young graduates alike, we won't all be moving to New York. Many Americans will still prefer the space of the suburbs — including the parking spaces. "People want to balance the privacy of the suburbs with more public and social areas," says Dunham-Jones. But the result will be a U.S. that is more sustainable — environmentally and economically.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Radiant Cities: Living In Your Car
Radiant Cities: Living in your car
New breed of houses makes use of carbage
by Lisa Selin Davis
12 Mar 2009
http://gristmill.grist.org/print/2009/3/10/14135/3664?show_comments=no
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/3/10/14135/3664?source=daily
Guess what will save the economy and the environment? Buying a new car!
OK, maybe not save -- but according to the folks at Oregon-based Miranda Homes, it can help. The automobile industry has lost some half a million jobs and $50 billion in revenue while we hang on to our old jalopies. Miranda owner Rob Boydstun knows that cars hold great potential when reincarnated, and their waste products -- let's call that stuff carbage -- can be transformed into cleaner, greener, and cheaper houses, coming soon-ish to a subdivision near you.
Salvage is nothing new in the building industry. The deconstruction business -- dismantling houses to reuse their parts, from timber framing to copper wire -- is still healthy, and there are plenty of creative recyclers using tires, bottles, cans and even picture-frame corners to help build homes. But Miranda houses are made of steel: recycled steel crafted of junked car parts, to be specific.
Which means, says Boydstun, you don't need to feel guilty about trading in your old car for a new one (especially if the new one has better mileage and lower emissions), and you should encourage your neighbors with car-carcasses rotting in the backyard to get them to a scrap heap. He says the automobile is recycled more than any other consumer product on the market. Per the Clean Air Foundation, it takes less than a minute to implode a whole car into a fistful of metal.
Boydstun's not exactly an objective observer when it comes to cars, having spent the last 19 years at the helm of a commercial car carrier manufacturer. That business has suffered, understandably, as his own customers surf their economic tsunami; he's laid off some 400 workers. And he sometimes sounds more like a car salesman than a builder when talking up his homes. But the car parts, he says, are the least important aspect of Miranda creations. "The foundation is more impressive than the steel," he says. "It's really about the holistic approach."
new house
Bye-bye Murano, hello Miranda.
Remaining on Boydstun's staff is a team of engineers who have honed that holistic approach to create super-insulated, panelized housing of recycled materials that costs little to buy or to keep up. It's a kind of pre-fab, where most of the house is assembled in a plant and snapped together on site. They were inspired by the manufacturing philosophy of a former client, known as the Toyota Production System. It's a kind of advanced version of Henry Ford's assembly line mixed with on-demand technology: create product based on what customers want, when they want it, rather than flooding the market with supply.
Miranda homes, which have been in the laboratory stage for the last two years, resulting in just a single model house, now has two customers: a subdivision-to-be in suburban Portland, Ore., and a development on the coast called Wilder, in Newport, Ore. Between them, they'll have at least 50 Miranda homes, which should sell for around $95 per square foot and maintain a yearly utility bill in the $800 range.
On the design side, the homes pass for traditional suburban aesthetic, a cottage with an attached garage in the front. The recycled steel is both mold- and rot-resistant, and not prone to termites, of course.
Not everything is economically and environmentally friendly about a Miranda house. They are almost too efficient, requiring only five workers to build, as opposed to the 15 or so workers usually involved in a house's construction. And let's be honest, buying a new car purely for the sake of turning the old one into housing stock may not be the best environmental bargain. Still, Boydstun points out that you can, after all, get a heck of a good deal at your local dealership right now. "Let's get those old cars off the road," he says. "Right now's a great time to buy a car."
New breed of houses makes use of carbage
by Lisa Selin Davis
12 Mar 2009
http://gristmill.grist.org/print/2009/3/10/14135/3664?show_comments=no
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/3/10/14135/3664?source=daily
Guess what will save the economy and the environment? Buying a new car!
OK, maybe not save -- but according to the folks at Oregon-based Miranda Homes, it can help. The automobile industry has lost some half a million jobs and $50 billion in revenue while we hang on to our old jalopies. Miranda owner Rob Boydstun knows that cars hold great potential when reincarnated, and their waste products -- let's call that stuff carbage -- can be transformed into cleaner, greener, and cheaper houses, coming soon-ish to a subdivision near you.
Salvage is nothing new in the building industry. The deconstruction business -- dismantling houses to reuse their parts, from timber framing to copper wire -- is still healthy, and there are plenty of creative recyclers using tires, bottles, cans and even picture-frame corners to help build homes. But Miranda houses are made of steel: recycled steel crafted of junked car parts, to be specific.
Which means, says Boydstun, you don't need to feel guilty about trading in your old car for a new one (especially if the new one has better mileage and lower emissions), and you should encourage your neighbors with car-carcasses rotting in the backyard to get them to a scrap heap. He says the automobile is recycled more than any other consumer product on the market. Per the Clean Air Foundation, it takes less than a minute to implode a whole car into a fistful of metal.
Boydstun's not exactly an objective observer when it comes to cars, having spent the last 19 years at the helm of a commercial car carrier manufacturer. That business has suffered, understandably, as his own customers surf their economic tsunami; he's laid off some 400 workers. And he sometimes sounds more like a car salesman than a builder when talking up his homes. But the car parts, he says, are the least important aspect of Miranda creations. "The foundation is more impressive than the steel," he says. "It's really about the holistic approach."
new house
Bye-bye Murano, hello Miranda.
Remaining on Boydstun's staff is a team of engineers who have honed that holistic approach to create super-insulated, panelized housing of recycled materials that costs little to buy or to keep up. It's a kind of pre-fab, where most of the house is assembled in a plant and snapped together on site. They were inspired by the manufacturing philosophy of a former client, known as the Toyota Production System. It's a kind of advanced version of Henry Ford's assembly line mixed with on-demand technology: create product based on what customers want, when they want it, rather than flooding the market with supply.
Miranda homes, which have been in the laboratory stage for the last two years, resulting in just a single model house, now has two customers: a subdivision-to-be in suburban Portland, Ore., and a development on the coast called Wilder, in Newport, Ore. Between them, they'll have at least 50 Miranda homes, which should sell for around $95 per square foot and maintain a yearly utility bill in the $800 range.
On the design side, the homes pass for traditional suburban aesthetic, a cottage with an attached garage in the front. The recycled steel is both mold- and rot-resistant, and not prone to termites, of course.
Not everything is economically and environmentally friendly about a Miranda house. They are almost too efficient, requiring only five workers to build, as opposed to the 15 or so workers usually involved in a house's construction. And let's be honest, buying a new car purely for the sake of turning the old one into housing stock may not be the best environmental bargain. Still, Boydstun points out that you can, after all, get a heck of a good deal at your local dealership right now. "Let's get those old cars off the road," he says. "Right now's a great time to buy a car."
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