Self-sufficient Farming Communities

Roots Up creates self-sufficient farming communities on the Ethiopian highlands by doing away with bad farming habits, upcycling things that are readily available and recycling waste product instead of dumping them.



Let us hope that the greenhouse design that they are working on to allow them to collect water from the atmosphere will be available in the market soon.

Living in a container

If you like the idea of living simple.  Consider getting yourself a container home.

 

I would like to be an owner of one and hope that we can create a community where we can swap containers home to live in for a break.

Mealworms = No plastic waste?

I read a CCN report that mealworms can live on a diet of Styrofoam and other types of plastic.

A research published in Environmental Science and Technology by co-authors Professor Jun Yang and his doctorate student Yu Yang of Beihang University, and Stanford University engineer Wei-Min Wu reported that mealworms can transform the plastic they ate into carbon dioxide, worm biomass and biodegradable waste which seemed safe to use in soil for plants and even crops.  They plan to study whether the microorganisms within mealworms, waxworms and other insects can biodegrade plastics such as polypropylene, microbeads and bioplastics.

This sounds like a good news initially, a great way to get rid of plastic waste, until I did a search and discovered some facts about mealworms from Wiki.

Do you know that mealworms are:

1) edible for humans and are considered high protein healthy snack food, baked or fried?
2) marketed as food for pets, such as, reptiles, fish, and birds?
4) fed to wild birds in bird feeders?
3) used as fishing bait?

It makes think, "What if mealworm farmers started using Styrofoam as feed on their farms? 

Styrofoam, as we know it, is polystyrene, which is a petroleum-based plastic made from the styrene monomer. What happens if mealworms fed with polystyrene are ingested by fishes and animals that we eat?

Something to think about.

A Song of Our Warming Planet

If earth can express its feelings about climate change, this is how it will sound.



Daniel Crawford based his composition on surface temperature data from NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies. The low notes you hear represent the relatively cool years and it ends on higher notes which signify warm ones.

Could you vibrate with what earth is feeling too?

Container resort home, anyone?

Could you guess just by looking at this photo that this home is made up of six shipping containers?

It is located at Berjaya Hill, Bukit Tinggi in Pahang and took 4 months to complete.  Don't believe me?  Then watch how it is done by Anand Bungalows Sdn Bhd.



Like that?  Here are 15 more container home ideas to drool over.

Heard of seatbelt bag?

Have you heard of seatbelt bags?  No, they are not bags for keeping seatbelts.  They are bags that are made up of seatbelts woven into shape and sewn up to be used like your regular bags.

These bags are not only eco-freindly but should be stronger and more durable, don't you agree?

What's in your personal care products?

Look at the labels the next time you are out shopping for your personal care products. Watch out for ingredients like polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) on it.

Don't be surprised if you see such plastic beads in the body or facial wash that your family have been using. Why are these microbeads in the product? Where do these minute plastics that you rinsed off flow to? Do you think you should continue to buy such product?

Get the answers to all these questions by watching this video from the "Story of Stuff Project" gives you clear .



In USA, the California State Senate has already passed the legislation to ban the sale of personal care products containing plastic microbeads.  If signed into law, by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, the legislation would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

This means that "selling or offering for promotional purposes in this state a personal care product containing plastic microbeads that are used to exfoliate or cleanse in a rinse-off product" will be prohibited.

Can we start a Zero Waste Community?

Can we start a Zero Waste Community in Malaysia?  If you are wondering what that is, this is how it is being done in USA.