(River week at the blog continues.)
Learning how to build sustainable highways, transit infrastructure, sidewalks, bridges, alleys etc. is not going to be accomplished overnight, but Richardson and Texas, everyone, needs to be way more interested in sustainability. There are some things that have been done locally but it really needs to be taken far more seriously. How we re-build (and build) is as important as why and where we build, because we will keep building and building and expanding. And building. And rebuilding.
Highway addiction. Impermeable surface addiction. Whatever building addiction. We got it, big time.
A part of the definition of building sustainably is to not eat the seedcorn. Make things work for the present, but don't ruin or damage the ability to allow future needs to be met.
I had the chance to visit landfill and recycling facilities over the last couple of weeks in another state. I took some pictures and was looking at them today. Clean metal, unused wood, bricks, and there were shingles too (lots and lots of shingles)..... trashed, wasted, disposed. It looked like 90% or more could be managed as reclamation and the other composted with a few exceptions.
I asked one fellow who was dumping clean metal why he didn't go take it and sell it for scrap because it was easier then driving over muck and mud to get to the spot where it was directed to be dumped. This was a gigantic load of clean metals. He said the facility that could take it was closed after 4pm, so his company told him to take it all to the dump, to make way for the next batch. He said he more often than not just dumped the metals.
Truck after truck, big and small, rolled into these landfills of materials that could be handled otherwise. These were dumps where commercial and residential dumping were both permitted.
Dumping recyclable (and compostable) material continues to happen at many landfills, stations and dumps across the globe undoubtedly. It happens here too.
I had the chance to go to the metal scrap yard again. Aluminum .60/lb. Appliances .07 (cents/lb). Don't know how much the scrap cars were bringing per lb if it was different than appliances or not. There were more local good old boys and girls rounding up all the recycling (scrappin') than formal entities it seemed.
Plastics being warehoused or trashed until prices climb.
I heard today that one Texas city is working on a contract to have the landfill it uses "mined" in addition to other measures, including working with construction debris handling. I haven't confirmed this yet. Mining landfills is not a new idea, it just isn't laughed at as much as it was.
NCTCOG has a construction debris management program and many efforts but underutilized.
Recycling, in place, on site, of the old roadway using it (crushed up and combined like with cold foam) in the new roadway is being done succesfully, but not widespread as it needs to be yet. It saves time and money (materiel/debris handling reduced and in some cases almost eliminated).
None of these are new ideas. They just aren't taken seriously enough by enough people, yet. Some are in the "to be mocked" stage. This is where the all important question comes in from the hack seat filler politician types.
What, are you? One of those treehuggers or something?
In my case, Yes. Yes, I am. In fact, I found the biggest tree I could find yesterday and I hugged it, real hard. I apologized afterwards for hugging it too hard. I seriously heard it squeak a little. My mind was racing. I wondered if it would be okay with an ecofriendly burial. I was sure it would be. I also did not want to be accused of herbicide (for stepping on Dandelion on the way to hug Tree). But it turned out okay.
I went out and watered some dying trees last month using my spray wash tank filled with rainwater loaded in the back of my half ton hybrid Silverado pickup because no one else was.
I really don't know about the global warming or cooling stuff. I just love trees. And I love hugging them. When I go to sleep, those aren't sheep I'm counting. I'm willing to take allergy pills. Sometimes I can't stop sniffing them. The trees.
In fact, I have to go right now. I'm going a tree huggin.
