Interesting piece in the Calgary Herald.
Archive for the ‘Trash Politics’ Category
Trash pickers want carbon credits
Sunday, October 10, 2010Gowanus Canal Sponge Park
Sunday, October 10, 2010It’s Open House New York day here in NYC, a wonderful event that offers numerous opportunities to tour urban spaces not always open to the public. My brilliant friend Mia reserved several spaces on a tour along the Gowanus Canal and was generous enough to offer me one of those spots. We met up with our friend Anna and joined about a dozen other inquisitive folk to spend a gloriously sunny day strolling through industrial Brooklyn.
Gowanus Canal
For those not familiar with the Gowanus, it runs through an industrial stretch of South Brooklyn and is best known for it’s stinky smell and inability to host happy water life. After years of sewage overflow, toxic factory run-off and generally standing still, the water in the canal now has only half of the oxygen needed for fish and plants to thrive (we saw some minnows, there are apparently crabs and jellyfish but not much else residing below the green surface). Lots of people have taken interest in this predicament, including the Federal government. The EPA designated the Gowanus a Superfund site.
Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club
There’s also a great group called the Gowanus Dredgers who lead canoe tours, lobby for dredging the banks so people can boat, and keep a fleet of canoes that you can access anytime if you pay a fee to become a member. I once took one of these free tours, back when I was first getting into trash politics and wanted to paddle into a marine transfer station. It’s a great free way to spend a day, as long as you don’t touch the water.
The walking tour I took today was themed around the proposed Gowanus Canal Sponge Park for which a group of people would like to A) set up sponges to prevent excess storm water from overflowing the sewers, one of the major causes of contamination in the canal and B) develop the street end sections of water front to provide nice places for people to sit and walk, launch boats and in general enjoy the setting—once the canal is cleaned up a bit that is.
Gowanus Canal Sponge Park rendering
In the meantime, the city is retrofitting a pump to churn the still and stagnant water and, while that is going on, using this mysterious cone contraption to aerate the water. The aeration is no quick fix, but will keep the water bubbling a bit to prevent it from getting any worse.
Aeration cone thing
At present, oil floats on the water’s surface and trash falls in and collects along the water’s edge. It’s getting better, but only slowly. It’s not hard to understand why locals call the Gowanus “Lavendar Lake” because of the lovely toxic shade created by the oil.
Trash and oil
The city and nonprofits are doing what they can to attract life back to the area. There are Green Streets planters along some of the access points where streets dead end into the canal. And these bright birdhouses, some of which our tour guide says are occupied by actual birds.
Bird houses
Afterward we went for pie at that joint everyone’s been talking about. Trash + pie = perfect afternoon.
Honeyed pumpkin pie
Mount Trashmore
Friday, October 8, 2010Check out this audio visit to Miami’s Mt. Trashmore in which radio intern Flora Thomson-DeVeaux and her mom, garbologist Vivian Thomson, visit South Florida’s biggest landfill—a destination that evidently draws more tourists than one might imagine. Thanks for the tip, Erika!
Mount Trashmore
Weekly compactor: long overdue edition
Friday, October 8, 2010
Garbage truck Turkish style
This week in trash news:
- 10 of the Turkish city of Mardin’s trash hauling donkeys retired so (of course) they imported new ones from Italy;
- The Guardian reviews The Garbage King, a novel turned children’s play about trash picking kids in Ethiopia;
- Gap revives its Recycle Your Blues jeans to home insulation program; and
- A random review of Amy Winehouse’s new fashion line tangents into an entertaining paragraph on upcycling and the French Revolution.
Garbidge hotel
Wednesday, September 22, 2010A hotel made completely from garbage, specifically debris left behind by beachgoers in Europe, is now on display in Rome. The Save the Beach Hotel will travel around. Eurotrashies look out for it in a city near you soon. via Travelkat and inhabitat. More here and here. Thanks for the tip, Nakia!
photo via inhabitat.com
Regulating trash
Tuesday, September 21, 2010This funny photo from Last Night’s Garbage links to a disturbing article on garbage trucks rigged with cameras in Canada. The idea is to see if people are recycling properly. A bit much if you ask me; also a bit reminiscent of Vic’s reporting on Swedish trash crimes.
Trash Inc: The Secret Life of Garbage
Tuesday, September 21, 2010New documentary to air on CNBC Wednesday, September 29th at 9pm EST. I like the tagline “this is away” because it’s more or less the garblogger’s mantra.
Trailer trash panel
Monday, September 13, 2010This Sunday (9/19/10), everydaytrash.com is taking part in a trash-themed panel moderated by artist Paul Lloyd Sargent as part of a project called “15 minutes, 15 people” on the Mobile Literacy Arts Bus (MLAB).
MLAB
MLAB is a renovated RV that travels the country hosting educational events. It holds about 15 people, hence the project name. Now through September 24th, the RV is parked in front of the Stephan Stoyanov Gallery (29 Orchard Street). And from 2-4pm on Sunday, Paul will host a panel on the disposal chain that will include trashies like myself and the amazing Robin Nagle, anthropologist in residence for the Department of Sanitation, New York City.
We’ve covered both Paul and Robin’s work in past posts. Most recently here and here.
Robin was also recently interviewed by The Believer so be sure to check that out.
Facebook invite to the overall MLAB event here.
I’m looking forward to filling a trailer with trash talk with these guys plus other trashies! If you’re in NYC, stop on by. And let me know if you’re interested in a trash collecting walk beforehand. Paul is organizing one as part of a larger garbage art project.
Life or trash circumstances
Thursday, September 9, 2010Good Samaritans leaving water for migrants on the harsh trails between Mexico and Arizona risk going to jail under the state’s strict litter law. The Washington Independent recaps a fascinating TIME article on the subject here.
Burning trash makes troops sick
Friday, August 6, 2010U.S. military bases in Afghanistan (the site of that war to the right of Iraq, just past Iran) generate a lot of trash—tons in fact. That trash is burned and generates a lot of smoke which is making U.S. service men and women as well as military rent-a-soldiers from big outsourcing companies ill. Those soldiers are now suing. The Washington Post reports:
In a lawsuit in federal court in Maryland, 241 people from 42 states are suing Houston-based contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, which has operated more than two dozen so-called burn pits in the two countries. The burn pits were used to dispose of plastic water bottles, Styrofoam food containers, mangled bits of metal, paint, solvent, medical waste, even dead animals. The garbage was tossed in, doused with fuel and set on fire.
For more details, such as lovely descriptions of the stuff the affected soldiers have been coughing up and other side effects of toxic exposure, click here. Be sure also to click through the haunting photo timeline beginning way back in 2001 and full of haunting images and once-familiar faces like Rummy and Powell.
via Newser
Ghost of a Dream
Friday, August 6, 2010
Chinese trash islands
Wednesday, August 4, 2010In China, following serious flooding, several cities are now under threat from large islands of trash blocking water flows, potentially causing more flooding. In the city of Baishan, a 160,000 square feet trash island has parked under a bridge. If this floating monument of weirdness isn’t cleared soon, the bridge might collapse, according to the Straits Times.
The Guardian has a picture and a fuller story on the threat at the Three Gorges dam. One can only hope that Chinese authorities have the boldness to rewrite the crisis plan for things-to-do-when-a-flood-comes to include some more garbage workers upstream. Then again, as per usual, the amount of trash to begin with is the problem.
Customer service
Wednesday, July 28, 2010In an opinion piece on food trash, published by the Stockholm Consumer Cooperative Society, some interesting facts about wasted food are presented. The figures are based on a Swedish study, implying that it is relevant in other western consumer cultures. 50% of the overfeeding of lake- and seawater in Sweden is created by the food industry. At the same time, 40-50% of the global total amount of produced food is wasted. Spooky connection.
According to the piece, what is needed is regulation that improves people’s ability to refrain from throwing out so much that was supposed to be eaten. The solution, according to the writer, is in more efficient cooling, packaging and logistics, to name a few examples.
While these are all excellent ideas, I would hazard a guess that regulation holds little power against changing people’s mindset on what’s foul and what’s edible. The food industry obviously has an interest in selling more food, i.e. their incentive to inform customers that they indeed can eat a “wasted” tomato is small. If they had a change of heart for the greater good, I’d be happier buying their food.
Weekly compactor: blogroll edition
Monday, July 26, 2010This week in the garblogoshpere:
- The Temas Blog reports on a Brazilian initiative offering electric bill discounts to people who recycle.
- Last Night’s Garbage sums up summer in New York in a single image;
- Olympia Dumpster Divers turns four;
- Fake Plastic Fish wonders why body wash in plastic bottles is more popular than bar soap;
- Make turns an old organ into an 8 bit synth; and
- Art for Housewives compiles alternative uses for neckties.
The Beat Waste Start-Up Challenge
Thursday, July 22, 2010The Beat Waste Start-Up Challenge is offerin a 25k prize for the best idea—in the form of an elevator pitch—to reduce waste in an innovative way. Check out the finalists here. Rooting through now for future posts, there are some great ideas here. Which is your favorite?
everydaytrash 