San Francisco has implemented a compulsory Composting Law – What about Philadelphia??

Philadelphia has 2 composting firms – PhillyCompost and Bennett Compost and city wide composting efforts are still distant plans.

It’s now illegal to throw your food waste into the trash in San Francisco…what about Philadelphia??

The easiest way to help people change behavior

… Is to make it FUN

For a while now I have written about my struggles with what is it that I can do to move people to dispose of their trash properly and recycle.

One thing I do know – getting angry at someone who throws their bier can or sandwich wrapper out of the window of their car… will more likely get me into a fight than teach the benefits of recycling.

See the Playback Theater Performance on the subject right here >> Making Sustainability FUN

This latest initiative from Volkswagen brings us the factual proof that making it fun works.  I suggest you take a minute to watch this short video clip on the worlds’ deepest Trash bin:

Notice: In one day, the world deepest trash bin collected 72 Kg of trash when a usual trash bin just a few meters away collect 41 Kg less.

Terracycle or How to Turn your Trash into Gold

The first thing that jumped at me when I arrived at Terracycle was the walls.  Terracycle walls  are covered with incredible murals and graffiti. Yes, why keep this typical post World War II set of warehouse buildings in West Trenton NJ  in its standard  industrial dread style?

Check out  pictures of some Terracycle’s murals right here…

Neighborhood Bike Works: The Hub of the Bicyle Culture

Find out what Neighborhood Bike Works and the “Bicycle Lifestyle” is all about right here >>>

This four minutes video was filmed and edited by Greendocs:
Julia Hoff, Bunker Seyfert,Heather Craig and Kathleen Monahan.

Read on…

The simple things the city can do to decrease its carbon footprint

It is amply clear that Michael Nutter, the Mayor of Philadelphia is committed to moving Philadelphia and its region to be more environmentally sustainable.

The City appointed a Director of Sustainability, Van Jones has been regularly consulting and talking with city and regional leaders and the convening of a cabinet level meeting promoting Green Jobs on February 27, all underscored Mayor Nutter’s commitment to moving to a Green Economy.

Great!!

What concerns me is the low level stuff, the little things that each of us can do in our every day life to reduce our carbon footprint.

The struggle to reduce our carbon footprint will be lost or won by millions of people all over the United States who decide to make very small changes to their daily life.

Filadelfia – Guatemala

Thirty three years after my first visit, I just spend a week in Guate.
That is Guatemala. If you have not made the trip, I strongly suggest you do. Be ready to be totally dazzled by incredible hand stitched fabrics, by colorful fruits and smiling people.

You may wonder: what is the link?
What is the connection between Guatemala, Philadelphia and Sustainability?

Your Old Sneakers Reincarnated as a Sustainable Farm in Ghana!

What to do with used sneakers? If you happen to have 600 pairs, you alone can set a Ghanian family up in sustainable farming, through a cool organization called PPPF Africa, – Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation.
Here’s the deal:
1. There are collection recepticles around the NorthEastern US. You can locate them on the site.
People drop their “used by not abused” sneakers in them.
2. Eventually these sneakers are shipped to Ghana where they are resold. Most Ghanians cannot afford new sneakers, let alone multiple pairs….
3. The proceeds from the sale of 600 pairs pays for a small farmer to receive a M.O.R.E. module, the video shown above. Modular Organic Regenerative Environments include livestock, a well, irrigation, 50 fruit trees and all kinds of other inputs which will allow a family multiple harvests a year, all achieved sustainably, so there is no environmental harm. I imagine planting the trees helps to maintain the water table?  The 1200 running shoes generate approximately $1800.
If you’re inspired, they will help you set up a collection receptacle. It’s a great project for a school class, a club, or faith-based group. Perfect for colleges at the end of the year when students are jettisoning everything possible!
Founder Jim Riordan has a background in sustainable agriculture in developing countries. It’s run by a handful of dedicated people, with a fun slogan:
Please Help Shoe-In Prosperity!

“Forest Floor”: Trash as a literacy of ourselves.

Brett Haymaker is taking us on a walk in the woods where trash, abandoned newsprints relate the story of people we discarded.
Brett is a promising young writer who lives in West Philadelphia.
Read on…

People walk a lot. Sometimes, I walk, too. To drink a coffee somewhere, in some one room coffee shop that is not my one room apartment. To place a letter in a mailbox. To sit in a park and watch people walk. Sometimes, I walk to meet a friend, to go for a walk, because, by God, walking is the means and the end, the journey and the desired destination. The action and the result.

There was once a time in our lives when walking was the culminating achievement. When I walk, I don’t feel like an achieved person. Like a learned person. I see trash and treasure lying on the street.

Green Bucks

Let’s see we are in the worse recession in … decades. Philadelphia City schools are chronically under-funded, the Philadelphia Free Library is planning to close 11 of its branches. Now is the time to think outside the box and launch alternative community funding mechanisms.

Living High on Trash: The Falls and Tullytown PA landfill expand and accept radioactive materiel too.

Pa.’s high-tech trash pile to expand — again

By SANDY BAUERS
The Associated Press
Posted on Sat, Aug. 23, 2008

TULLYTOWN, Pa. – For 38 years, the mountains of trash have risen, all but surrounding William Penn’s historic summer home, Pennsbury. Nearby, in Tullytown, a 14-story peak now looms over one end of the tidy borough in lower Bucks County.

Source: ZerowasteAmerica.org

From afar, the mountain is big enough that the trash trucks , queueing at the top to dump up to 10,000 tons a day , look like insects.

Over the years, the two mega landfills , GROWS (Geological
Reclamation of Waste Services) and Tullytown, on 6,000 acres beside
the former U.S. Steel Fairless Works , have become a regional trash hub, with two-thirds of its waste now coming from out of state, mostly New York and New Jersey.