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Post tags: "leed", BREEAM, composting, greywater reuse, Living Building Challenge, Living Future unConference, Method Homes, mobile classroom, portable classrooms, prefab buildings, prefab classrooms, rainwater collection system, SEED Collaborative, SEEDClassroom, SEEDClassroom Seatlle, self-sufficient classroom

Read the rest of How To Start an Odor-Free Freezer Compost Bin as a City or Small Space Dweller

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Post tags: compost, compost ideas, compost in a small space, compost in an apartment, composting, diy compost, freeser compost, hot to start a compost, naturemill, sotring your organic scraps, storing your compost scraps

The Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina has deployed 1.9 million worms to turn a boatload of organic waste into fertilizer. Every day the airport housekeeping department headed by Bob Lucas processes 2.5 tons of waste, including plastic, clothing, aluminum and food tossed out by rushed passengers, NPR reports. The recyclables are pulled out from the pile and sold and the organic waste is transferred to a giant composting bin where the army of red wigglers go to work.

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Post tags: Charlotte Douglas International Airport, composting, divert waste from the landfill, Environment, fertilizer, food waste, News, north carolina, recyclables, recycling, Recycling initiatives, red wigglers, usa

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Post tags: "solar energy", community, composting, David Vandervort, eco design, electric vehicles, green design, Issaquah, recycling, sustainable design, sustainable living, washington, Zero energy, zHome

In the U.S., approximately 78 million dogs leave behind 10.6 million tons of dog waste each year. Three years ago a park in Ithaca, NY launched a plan to lessen that environmental impact by composting dog waste. Now the first batch of dog poo compost is complete after 18 months. The results are, literally and figuratively, mixed: 12 tons of dog waste have been diverted from landfills, yet the end product is only two truckloads of compost – not enough to sustain the program through sales.

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Post tags: Allen H. Treman Marine State Park, cayuga compost, compost, composting, dog poo, dog poo compost, dog waste, ithaca, Leon Kochian

Read the rest of HOW TO: Use Naturemill’s Metro Composter to Compost Indoors Without the Odor

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Post tags: composting, Eco, Gardening, green, green kitchen, how-to, indoor composter, Metro, naturemill, Sustainable, Waste

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Post tags: "wind power", 7 ways the superbowl is going green, composting, eco superbowl, football, green super bowl, green superbowl, indianapolis, inhabitat-news, nfl, recycling, Sports, super bowl, superbowl, superbowl 2012, superbowl going green, superbowl recycling, superbowl xlvi, sustainable superbowl

Even those of us who aren’t so savvy about economics know that Greece is in big trouble – but the country’s very first eco-community, which is currently under construction, offers a green glimmer of hope. Situated on Mt. Telethrion, the Telaithrion community aims to provide a model for sustainability and healthy living that is harmonious with the earth and its residents that the whole nation can learn from. When complete, the project will include a host of sustainably built geodesic domes and yurts, as well as a forest garden, sheds, compost heaps, and much, much more. But they need help, for which they are turning to the Indie GoGo crowd. More deets and a video after the jump.

Read the rest of Telaithrion Will Be Greece’s First Ever Eco-Community

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Post tags: composting, eco community, eco design, geodesic domes, greece, green design, organic farming, pacific dome international, renewable energy, sustainable design, Telaithrion project, yurts

The paper industry estimates that Americans used more that 23 billion dollars worth of paper cups last year – and as much as we love taking our morning coffee and tea on the go, the trash truly adds up. Fortunately, the geniuses at Repurpose Compostables recently invented an eco-friendly plant-based, insulated cup that can be composted in 90 days. The amazing cup has been available to the food service industry for the past year and it just became available to the masses at Bed Bath and Beyond. The cups are made from FSC-Certified paper, their manufacturing process produces 65% less CO2 than traditional paper cups, and they are completely non-toxic.

Read the rest of Plant-Based Repurpose Compostables Coffee Cups Hit Store Shelves Nationwide

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Read the rest of City Farm: South Providence’s Urban Agriculture Transformation

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In 2009, more than 30 million tons of food was dumped into landfills, making food the most abundant material there by far. This amounts to roughly 200 pounds a year for every single individual in the United States. Throwing away food means we’re losing money, but more importantly we’re also creating unnecessary waste and greatly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. To curb this nationwide problem, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Food Marketing Institute are launching a mega-campaign that aims to increase donations to food banks and composting practices in order to decrease the amount of food sent to landfills.

Read the rest of Food Industry Wages War Against Food Waste

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Post tags: amount of food in landfills, amount of food wasted in america, composting, environmental protection agency, epa, epa food waste, food composting, food industry, food marketing institute, food waste, grocery manufacturers alliance, war against food waste

Recently, Frito-Lay pulled its biodegradable SunChips packaging from store shelves less than a year after its debut. Not because the bag’s composting abilities were questionable, but because people complained that they were too noisy. Seriously. The complaints sent the company back to the drawing board, and they announced yesterday that they’ve created a new plant-based bag that won’t hurt your ears.

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The Liz Christy Community Garden (Image © Jessica Reeder via Flickr)

With the ever-increasing interest in local food and urban agriculture, it’s easy to understand the growing popularity of community gardens. A new survey from GrowNYC shows that New York City’s community gardens are helping to create more sustainable neighborhoods. Of the gardens surveyed, a whopping 80 percent produce food for their community, 65 percent compost, and 43 partner with at least one school!

Read the rest of Survey Shows Majority of NYC Community Gardens Grow Food, Compost

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One of the biggest deterrents to at-home composting is the awful stench of rotting food. But while some of us will withstand any odor for the sake of the environment, understandably, others need a helping hand in their efforts. If you’ve been looking for a way to compost in your kitchen in a clean and odorless way, then this steel pail from Simple Human just may be your glowing green ticket to composting heaven. Made from odor-resistant stainless steel and featuring a natural bamboo handle, this streamlined little receptacle will discreetly hold all your organic matter until you’re ready to throw it onto the compost heap.

+ Simple Human

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A lot of concept houses come across our desk here at Inhabitat, but we were really impressed with this design for eco-housing in Ghana. Designed by Lisbon-based Blaanc in collaboration with Architect João Caeiro, Emerging Ghana is a plan for an eco-affordable single family house for the emerging middle class of Ghana. The design recently won first place in the international design competition Open Source House, a non-profit organization that aims to provide better, more sustainable housing in low-income countries. Emerging Ghana is modular single-family home design to be built with local materials, local labor, and with all the best sustainable design strategies you can imagine, all for a low cost of about $12,500 USD.

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Post tags: affordable housing, blaanc, composting, eco design, eco housing, eco-friendly materials, emerging ghana, energy efficient home, garden, Ghana, Green Building, green design, housing for developing nations, João Caeiro, local, local labor, local materials, low income housing, low-tech solutions, modular construction, modular housing, natural ventilation, open source house, rainwater collection, rammed earth walls, solar passive design, Sustainable Building, Sustainable Materials, wastewater management

KinetiCompost is a wind powered rotating composter made of 100% recycled material. Designed by Ben Bangser, an industrial design and sculpture double major at Syracuse University, KinetiCompost works by using a geared down wind turbine to slowly turn the compost barrel. Just put your compostable materials in KinetiCompost’s rotomolded barrel, pop on the lid, and let mother nature do what she would normally do – only about 10X faster!

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If you’ve ever experienced composting in action, you may know that things can get pretty hot when microbes meet organic material. So what if there was a way to capture all that heat and use it to warm up a cozy little space? Tokyo based architects Bakoko have come up with a circular pod-shaped teahouse that does just that by harnessing temperatures in excess of 120°F that are generated by compost. The designers are taking a simple, biological process and turning it into a viable (and free) way to heat small public spaces like the traditional garden teahouses found all throughout Japan.

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Post tags: alistair townsend, alternative heating, bakoko architects, comploo, composting, composting heat, japanese tea house, kayoko ohtsuki, organic material, urban spaces

This green Ekokook kitchen by Faltazi design is one of the most well-researched culinary concepts we have seen. Ekokook proposes that in the future, the general public will strive to become self-sufficient in their homes, and they will do so through conservation and reuse. Eco enthusiasts will drool over the abundance of green features and efficient functionality, and the hearts of design aficionados will beat a bit faster when they see the clean lines, polished renderings, and ultra-cool process video.

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Post tags: appliance, composting, concept, conservation, cooking, culinary, Design, design team, Eco, ekokook, faltazi, france, french, Futuristic, green, green kitchen, research, Sustainable, Waste

At this month’s Green Drinks in Chicago, extroverted and engaging restauranteur Dan Rosenthal inspired the crowd with tales of his limitless efforts to green the city. When he realized that he could not afford for his restaurants to go green, Rosenthal partnered with fellow renowned restaurant owner and “Breakfast Queen” Ina Pinkney to launch the Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op in 2007. This was a significant step for the restaurant industry, but Rosenthal’s newest venture could bring even bigger changes to the windy city – he has revealed plans to open the largest food waste composting plant in the nation by the end of this year!

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Post tags: chicago, composting, dan rosenthal, Eco, food waste, foresight design, green co-op, green drinks, guaranteed green, Organic, Restaurant

By now you have probably heard that composting helps make a garden green because it is an effective way to deliver nutrients to plants and reduce food waste. Previously we featured the Jarst planter, which makes composting food waste in your home easy with a side compartment that can distribute the compost directly to the plant soil. Here, we see this idea transform into something to fit the city scale. With Envi, industrial designer Julien Bergignant, proposes a concept for a city trash can outfitted to collect and then process public food waste, all while adding some green texture to the city landscape.

Read the rest of Envi: Composting Trash Can Provides Urban Greenery

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Post tags: compost, composting, guerilla gardening, outdoor furniture, street furniture, urban gardening, urban greening