From Leslie Kaufman at The New York Times:
At Yellowstone National Park, the clear soda cups and white utensils are not your typical cafe-counter garbage. Made of plant-based plastics, they dissolve magically when heated for more than a few minutes.
At Ecco, a popular restaurant in Atlanta, waiters no longer scrape food scraps into the trash bin. Uneaten morsels are dumped into five-gallon pails and taken to a compost heap out back.
And at eight of its North American plants, Honda is recycling so diligently that the factories have gotten rid of their trash Dumpsters altogether.
Across the nation, an antigarbage strategy known as “zero waste” is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants, stadiums and corporations.
The movement is simple in concept if not always in execution: Produce less waste. Shun polystyrene foam containers or any other packaging that is not biodegradable. Recycle or compost whatever you can.
Though born of idealism, the zero-waste philosophy is now propelled by sobering realities, like the growing difficulty of securing permits for new landfills and an awareness that organic decay in landfills releases methane that helps warm the earth’s atmosphere.
More…
Seed magazine interviews William Kamkwamba, the young engineer who built a windmill from scrap in his native Malawi, and eventually brought power to his entire village…
From the blustery plains of Texas to the Danish island of Samsø, wind power—and the giant, bladed towers that generate it—is all the rage in a warming world searching for cleaner sources of energy. Fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba had never heard of windmills, or climate change, for that matter, when he stumbled across a photograph one day and it changed his life forever.
Now 22, Kamkwamba has become something of an international DIY celebrity: He’s spoken at the World Economic Forum, at the Aspen Ideas Festival, and at TED Global—twice. He’s chatted with Al Gore, Bono, and Larry Page. A documentary about his life is currently in the works. But Kamkwamba’s story isn’t really about stardom: It’s about the grit, resourcefulness, and audacity of a young engineer who built a windmill from scrap in his native Malawi and brought power to his home—and eventually lit up every house in the village. It’s told in brilliant detail in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (out now from William Morrow), co-authored with journalist Bryan Mealer. Seed editor Maywa Montenegro spoke with Kamkwamba while he was in New York City kicking off a US book tour. More…
Congratulations to Diane Costello and Brian Bishop, the winners of the International Award for Excellence in the area of environmental, cultural, economic and social sustainability for their paper Community Sustainability and Social Justice: Whose Vision?
Abstract: Government policies in Australia rely heavily on local communities developing their social capital networks to solve complex social, economic and environmental problems. This study explored a regional community’s experiences with promoting social, environmental and economic strategies to facilitate community development within the sustainability paradigm. Applying multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks this study contributes a contextual view of a complex adaptive system. It is argued that the power differentials in governance relations and inclusivity of stake-holders in developing community visions is overlooked by decision makers. Furthermore that locational disadvantage and political isolation are also key considerations.
If you have read the paper you may wish to add a review.
