Bellingham Recycling Toilets in Sidewalk
Did you know that some of the sidewalks in Bellingham, WA are made from recycled toilets? Because I sure didn't! I was looking for "green articles" on the Huffington Post and stumbled across this one. The article stresses that it is a creative way to recycle toilets and that is definitely an understatment.
They call these tiles "poticrete" which contains crushed porcelain instead of gravel. The old toilet pieces replace about one dump-truck load of gravel which saves a lot of energy!
It also saves about 5 tons of materials from the landfill by crushing it up and reusing it instead. It is also the first roadway construction project that earned a Greenroads certification.
Greenroads certification Bellingham:
- First energy-saving LED street lights
- City's first porous-paver pocket parking (porous pavement filters pollutants out of stormwater runoff and moderates water flow)
- Rain gardents (help filter and moderate the flow of stromwater)
- New and improved facilities for walking and bike riding
The Greenroads must meet 11 requirements and be awarded one of four levels
- Certified
- Silver
- Gold
- Evergreen
Where are these toilet sidewalks?
The poticrete went on Ellis Street as part of the six-block in the Whatcom Creek TrailWhere did these toilets come from?
Bellingham Authority, which had received a federal grant to replace its old toilets with more water-efficient, low-flow toilets. The local nonprofit company, Sustainable Connections called Anthony ( project engineer) with the suggestion for Bellingham to make use of the porcelain.
Final Thoughts:
Although this is kind of an...odd way to recycle toilets, it is incredibly creative and honestly needs to be done. Toilets are a pretty solid thing to have in landfills and by grating them up and reusing them we are reducing waste in an easy way.Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/13/bellingham-washington-sidewalks-recycled-toilets_n_1342322.html?ref=green-technology
No comments:
Post a Comment