Sustainable Infrastructure
May 16th to June 20th 2024
About this course:
Managing land ecologically is a resource-intense activity which requires finding a balance between consumption, ecological impact, and financial solvency. This course will provide practical answers on balancing these often complex and sometimes competing needs. Sustainable Infrastructure centers student understanding on the fundamentals of farm and ranch scale energy systems, material choices, and waste management. We will explore how to design, maintain and manage energy systems, integrate cyclic waste management strategies, and evaluate and find low-impact materials for landed projects.
#Plastic#Recycling#WasteManagement: "Plastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report.
“The companies lied,” said Richard Wiles, president of fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which published the report. “It’s time to hold them accountable for the damage they’ve caused.”
Plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is notoriously difficult to recycle. Doing so requires meticulous sorting, since most of the thousands of chemically distinct varieties of plastic cannot be recycled together. That renders an already pricey process even more expensive. Another challenge: the material degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can generally only be reused once or twice.
The industry has known for decades about these existential challenges, but obscured that information in its marketing campaigns, the report shows.
The research draws on previous investigations as well as newly revealed internal documents illustrating the extent of this decades-long campaign."
In embracing the concept of the #circulareconomy, Indonesian officials have become prone to portraying #plasticpollution as a potential resource to be repurposed for economic uplift. Lukas Fort on the politics and policy of the "#plasticene" in #Indonesia, "[r]eframing waste as only an economic resource does not convey the urgent need for #wastemanagement and #wastereduction."
"#CommunityMappers set out to find the distribution of trash in four informal settlements in #Nairobi. The study mapped trash according to volume/size, contents, fresh trash, and evidence of burning and presence of odour. The study incorporated use of satellite data to show the distribution of the trash. Volume of trash was split according to what could fill a sack, a cart, or a truck. " https://www.reseauconsulting.com/post/the-importance-of-waste-management-in-east-africa
By Nicera Wanjiru Kimani
A good reminder: Disaster preparedness is certainly important, but post-disaster recovery planning, including waste management, is also important (but often overlooked).
This Temblor article indicates that among U.S. states, WA is better prepared to deal with post-disaster waste management.