Are Zero Waste College Campuses in Our Future? by Jamie Bogert Trash. Recycle. Laundry. These are the three options offered at CityCoHo, the largest and only green co-working space in Center City—and the new home to PLAN, the Post-Landfill Action Network. The laundry bin, located in the common space next to an old red-leather couch you
MoreIllustration by Kathleen White Oil Change by Matt Bevilacqua For many people, excess cooking oil is something to pour down the drain after preparing a meal. But at Leigh Maida’s restaurants, all that greasy liquid has another destination: gas tanks, where it will power cars rather than block sewer pipes. “You have to do something
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Illustration by Kathleen White Leftovers by Justin Klugh On a cold night in Philadelphia, Jane grabs her box cutter and flashlight, a fistful of plastic bags and a container of baby wipes. “I take a step ladder for if I fall and can’t get out once I get in,” she says. “I usually don’t ever
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Second Harvest by Marilyn Anthony Monika Crosby, a “true blue farmer’s daughter,” does not grow vegetables. Employing what she calls “picking with a cause,” Crosby runs Philabundance’s gleaning program, coordinating volunteer vegetable harvests at three commercial farms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Since 2014, Philabundance has redirected 760,000 pounds of produce to low-income families. Dating
MorePhoto by Mark Likosky The Crucible by Thomas Parry It’s below freezing and the wind blasts across a lot in Northeast Philadelphia, but Chris Little doesn’t shiver. He’s big. Defensive-tackle big. And fast. In a moment he’s around the back of his battle-worn Ford pickup, sorting through a pile of metal set against the wall
MoreIllustration by Chelsea Manheim Let’s Trash the Idea of Garbage by Jerry Silberman Question: How much of my household waste can I recycle, and does it decrease energy and materials use? The Right Question: Why do I have waste, anyway? If you are my age or older, you probably remember when beer and soda came
MoreIllustration by Kathleen White Time to Waste interview by Heather Shayne Blakeslee Modern products—from store-bought soap to paper plates—are a reflection of the shift from a time when handwork ruled to our age of mass manufacturing. That change in the kind of work we do in our daily lives has also ushered in a time
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Illustration by Laura Weiszer A Plague of Plastic Bags by Phil Bresee Throughout much of 2015, negative stories and shortsighted opinion pieces on recycling dotted national and local media. The stories, including a particularly exasperating editorial by John Tierney in The New York Times, mostly stemmed from reports on the historic low-market values for
MoreA robot made on a 3D printer at NextFab studio | Photo by Addison Geary 3D printing is a breakthrough but also creates unwanted material by William Beisley The 3D printer was first patented in 1986 by Chuck Hull, co-founder of 3D Systems. The initial purpose of the machine was to expedite labor-intensive and costly
MoreWhen your Christmas tree needles begin to fall this year, don’t throw your tree curbside, recycle it. Providing an alternative for trashing dying trees, the Streets Department’s Residential Christmas Tree Recycling Program will recycle it. This year, the program will run from Monday, Jan. 5 through Saturday, Jan. 17. where from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., you can
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