The Philippines Is Making Roads and Cement With Plastic Garbage

Throughout India, wastepickers – people who scour landfills for garbage they can sell to recyclers – live at the bottom of society. But the city of Pune did something radical: with the help of a collective, they did away with expensive garbage trucks, and now all household garbage is collected by wastepickers with pushcarts. Pune saves millions of dollars each year and recycles more – and the wastepickers have decent wages and social standing. The concept is now spreading globally.

Finding ways to reuse brewery waste can save water treatment plants money. In Havre, Montana, Triple Dog Brewing has entered into a partnership with the town’s wastewater treatment plant, supplying discarded barley to feed the plant’s microbes. The barley replaces commercial bacteria feed, which would have cost the plant thousands of dollars. The town was also able to avoid having to do costly upgrades to its water treatment plant. Other towns are looking to this process for inspiration.

Upcycling spent barley helps to ease wastewater treatment. In Havre, Montana, the town’s wastewater treatment plant uses barley from a local brewery, Triple Dog Brewing, to feed bacteria. The nutrients from the barley give the bacteria a boost, helping to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous levels in the water. The collaboration means that Havre can save on expensive solutions and upgrades to its wastewater treatment plant.

Reducing landfill waste takes a comprehensive approach. By implementing city-wide composting alongside trash collection and utilizing the sorting technology of Recology, the city’s municipal waste recovery company, San Francisco has significantly reduced the amount of waste residents send to landfills. Although it missed the ambitious target of achieving zero waste by 2020, the city aims to cut what it sends to landfills in half by 2030.

Abandoned buildings can become spaces for economic innovation and experimentation. An abandoned resort spa in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, now houses BlueCity, an ecosystem of sustainable enterprises. The initiative aligns with The Netherland’s 2050 circular strategy, which aims to reduce waste and implement circular design into the economic. At BlueCity, the businesses are leaders in sustainable innovations, from brewers that share byproducts with bakers to companies that recycle plastic.

Alabama's Historic Prattville Redevelopment Authority has emulated the successful downtown revitalization project in Columbus, Georgia, in an effort to address vacant industrial sites and a blighted downtown. Through a collaboration with local entrepreneurs, a private real estate company, the Chamber of Commerce, and other departments and members of the local government, the HPRA is transforming the small city. Several local business prepare to open, the old cotton gin mill will open new apartments, and recent community events demonstrate an increasing public interest in a revitalized downtown Prattville.

Even with such increasingly popular trends as reusable grocery bags and biodegradable food containers, 70% of plastic products end up in landfills; but with the help of a local start-up, MacRebur, several townships in Scotland are cutting back on this quantity while simultaneously servicing and improving the quality of their transportation networks.

Michigan's roads have been in disrepair for years. Now with increased private sector funding and partnerships between companies and the government, the state could start to see improvements in its infrastructure.

The Downtown Greenway in Greensboro was already underway when the coronavirus hit and it has turned out to be quite the respite and economic boon. The Greenway draws visitors in with trails, greenways, public art, local businesses, and "the first grocery store to open in 30 years in downtown.” $8.5 million was invested in the project, but it has already brought in $215 million in revenue. The Downtown Greenway was created in partnership with the city and nonprofit Action Greensboro, and while it's currently being used with social distancing, it'll still be there when the quarantine is over.

Recycling provides an economic alternative to heavy industry. In the former steel town of Eskilstuna, recovery from economic decline has meant re-platforming into a model of sustainability. From the city’s second-hand article mall to state-of-the art trash sorting technologies, innovations in closed-loop economics have created new jobs and possibilities for longtime residents and new arrivals alike.