Interstate 101 Billboards

I commute along 101 everyday.  I find the billboards along this highway fascinating.  This advertisement for odrive.com cracked me up.

Resource Recovery

Many people ask me:  What is 'resource recovery'?  Here's what I say...

Understanding the lifecycle of the materials that we use and discard is at the core of resource recovery.

Resource recovery is the reclaiming of "garbage" materials for a new use. It includes collecting, sorting, and processing materials that are traditionally viewed as waste and transforming them into the raw inputs used to create new products. Recycling and composting are among the best known resource recovery practices.

The intention of resource recovery is always to make the best and highest use of all materials, and landfilling only those materials for which there is currently no use. Over time, the volume of landfill-bound material to shrink to a negligible amount as a result of creative resource recovery efforts.

Resource recovery is an important aspect of environment sustainability. Resources such as food scraps, yard trimmings, discarded paper, plastic, and fabrics are removed from the category of unusable materials, and recovered for their reuse while preserving the use of virgin materials.

Here are just a few examples of reusable materials that benefit the agricultural and manufacturing industries throughout the world.

    Composting
    Recycling
    Art & Invention

Composting

Composting is the process of managing the natural decomposition of organic material. It involves organic matter (such as food scraps and yard trimmings), moisture, oxygen, and bacteria.

Composting organic material reduces our carbon footprints by avoiding the creation of methane gas when this material is buried in landfills. It also reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, and conserves water and energy for the farmers and landscapers who use it.

Recycling (v): To repeat a cycle. To use again after processing

Recycling is the process of collecting, sorting, and converting discarded materials into raw inputs used to produce new products.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists some of the positive impacts of recycling that go far beyond trees. These include:

    Protecting and expanding U.S. manufacturing jobs
    Reducing the need for landfilling and incineration
    Preventing pollution caused by the manufacturing of products from virgin
    materials, including keeping 60    
    pounds of air pollution out of the atmosphere for every ton of 100% recycled
    paper used
    Saving energy from natural resource extraction
    Decreasing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change
    Conserving natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals for future
    generations

Art & Invention

Making art of out recovered materials is essential to inspiring the public to see what they discard in a new light.

The Artist in Residence Program in San Francisco and GLEAN in the Portland area provide local artists with access to discarded materials and a stipend. These programs enable artists to educate and inspire the public about recycling, reuse and resource conservation. The program also supports the local art community to creatively divert materials from landfills and promote new ways of thinking about art and the environment.

No such thing as a Poop Fairy

The Santa Cruz Parks & Recreation Department launched a new sign campaign along West Cliff Drive reminding people that there is no magical fairy that floats along the oceanside walking path and makes dog poop disappear.

The sign, has a purple fairy with a clothes pins covering her nose and a message alerting dog owners that dog waste does not biodegrade like wild animal waste -- it sticks around for a long time. It contains harmful bacteria, pollutes groundwater, and smells disgusting on the bottom of a shoe.

Santa Cruz paid $1,350 for the new poop fairy signs. A fine for not picking up after your dog could cost more than $100.

Modern Toliet Restaurant

I guess I need to make a trip to Taiwan to check out this bathroom-themed restaurant called Modern Toilet.  Apparently, the inspiration for this place came from a robot character from the Japanese cartoon Dr. Slump who loved to "play with poop and swirl it on a stick."By the way, there is also an  ice cream shop selling swirled chocolate ice cream on top of paper squat toilets.

Here are some photo to give you an idea of that the place looks like:

Deja poo

The undeniably eerie feeling that you've seen all this shit before.

Valentines Day

Gifts of jewelry and chocolate are appropiate for VD day.  So what kind of stone would be appropiate for someone like me?  Coprolite!

Coprolite is fossilized animal waste i.e. "dung stone".

My poo collection won't be complete until I get this (hint hint)...

Get a load of this...

With the holidays here, it's time to think about recycled paper sources.  One of my favorites is Poo Poo Paper who makes orderless paper products from Elephant Poo.  You can check out their stuff here:  http://new.poopoopaper.com/

FECAL MATTER O'FACTS

Poop, poo, dung, doo, pies, patties - whatever you want to call it - has been used for millenia in so many useful ways: as a fuel; as a building material; as an insect repellant. POOPOOPAPER™ products simply continue a long time tradition by using poop as the base for our unique pulp mixtures.