Organic waste in University City can now stay local thanks to the opening of The Dirt Factory, a neighborhood composting center. With help from a local property owner and the University of Pennsylvania’s donation of two Earth Tub composting systems, residents will have a place to bring their organic waste and,
Morestory by Dana HenryAlmost 10 years ago, Sandor Katz, the self-proclaimed fermentation fetishist, wrote and published the ‘zine-turned-book, Wild Fermentation, a DIY bible for making food with healthful bacteria. After a second book and years of touring, educating and meddling with microbes, Katz is back with his third and most comprehensive text
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There’s a new renewable energy source in town and it’s coming from a surprising place: our sewage. In April, NovaThermal Energy, a Philadelphia-based company, installed a wastewater geothermal system at the Philadelphia Water Department’s Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant. This is the first facility in the country to have a system of this kind.
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Image via takebackvacantland.orgLast month, we wrote about Pennsylvania’s land bank bill and Philadelphia’s own efforts to bring the “bank” to our city. Good news! The City recently acquired the “front door” to their land bank. After a year and a half, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority has launched new processes in acquiring property and maintaining vacant
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story by Liz Pacheco | photo by Neal SantosTo increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables in Philadelphia neighborhoods, a farmers market is often the ideal solution. But for parts of West Philadelphia, the model proved inefficient.
“[It] didn’t really work for us,” says Ryan Kuck, a former farmer at Greensgrow Farms
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You’ve heard of rooftop agriculture, but what about basement farming? The Partnership CDC, a 17-year-old community development organization, is raising peppers, collard greens, tomatoes and tilapia, all in the basement and first floor of their building on 60th Street. By using an aquaponics system, where fish are raised and produce grown
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story by Samantha WittchenInnovation” might not be the first word Philadelphians associate with SEPTA—two tokens sold in a plastic bag that says “Go Green” seems, um, not innovative—but that reputation deserves to change. SEPTA is piloting a cutting-edge regenerative braking project that saves energy and money, and positions Philadelphia as a
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Steps away from the Temple University Train Station is another example of how green building can be affordable. Paseo Verde, or “green way,” is a new, sustainable mixed-use rental housing development spearheaded by the Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM) and Jonathan Rose Companies. APM has already built eco-friendly, single-family homes
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story by Samantha WittchenFACT: It takes approximately 5,000 pairs of sneakers to create an elementary school playground surface.
PROBLEM: The average lifespan for sneakers is 500 miles. For most people, that means replacing their sneakers every six months to a year, which results in somewhere between 300 and 600 million pairs of sneakers
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story by Missy SteinbergWhen Kelli Caldwell heard members of local design and dye house BlueRedYellow speak last summer about the dangers of synthetic dyes, she decided to take action. “It’s all about being aware that your clothing can be just as toxic as the air you breathe,” says Caldwell, a project
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