Garbager

Garbage sold as building material in Senegal causes public health catastrophe

John — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:08:11 +0000

In flood-prone Guédiawaye, Senegal, people who are too poor to buy other building materials buy garbage, and use it to keep their homes above water, creating a breeding ground for disease year-round.

Garbage might have seemed safe to the boy because it is everywhere in this forlorn, dun-colored slum abutting Dakar, the capital. Delivered on order for a few pennies a load by rickety horse-drawn carts speeding through the dirt streets of the Médina Gounass neighborhood of Guédiawaye, it is as pervasive as the hot midday sun in which it bakes. The people use it to shore up their flood-prone houses and streets in this low-lying area near the Atlantic coast; they have no choice.

Garbage, packed down tight and then covered with a thin layer of sand, is used to raise the floors of houses that flood regularly in the brief but intense summer rainy season, and it is packed into the dusty streets that otherwise become canals. The water lingers for months in the low-lying terrain of this bone-dry country.

“It’s a problem of money,” said Zale Fall, standing nearby. “The people who live here don’t have the means for sand or rubble, so they are obliged to call the cart-drivers for filler. It’s for our children’s sake. Better to have illnesses than death.”

Ami Camara, Aba’s mother, was not the first to lose a child to the hidden bogs of Médina Gounass. Hanging her head in the courtyard of a four-room shanty where she and 15 family members live, she quietly recalled bathing her young son after lunch and sending him out to play. Then his friends found his shoes, and his body.

“Everything that happens is the will of God,” said the boy’s grandmother, Yaline Ndaye. “We can’t do anything about it.” She turned away.

“All the diseases come with it,” he said, “and they are so far advanced in these neighborhoods. Children are the most exposed. People live all year long right up against stagnant water and garbage.”

Read the rest of the article at the New York Times

Pizza box transforms into 4 plates and a container for leftovers

John — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:54:46 +0000

Here’s a patented design for a pizza box which transforms into four “plates” and a container for leftovers. So cool!

Green Box – Product Demo

Developed by Environmentally Conscious Organization, Inc. As far as I can tell they are not yet in production.

Union Square Trash Affair

erika — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:15:30 +0000

Sunday night in the back blocks of Union Square. David was kind enough to stand in each photo for scale.

Trashbag art

erika — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:10:50 +0000

Joshua Allen Harris is a street artist who makes inflatable sculptures out of shopping bags and trash bags. The sculptures inflate by means of subway or exhaust air.

Part of the magic of it is that it looks like trash on the street, then it becomes animated and comes to life – Joshua Allen Harris

New Yorkers should dial 311 to deal with trash

erika — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:56:37 +0000

“When Street Team member (weact.org), and Harlem resident, Betty Fincher inquired about the best way to have garbage complaints addressed, Supervisor Milagros Medina of the Department of Sanitation (DOS) informed the team that calling 311 and stating specific problems was the most effective manner of problem resolution. She stated that handling 311 phone calls was of high priority to DOS.
She further explained that each supervisor receives a list of 311 complaints in the morning and the majority must be hand-delivered before the end of the day. Supervisor Duncan also mentioned that residents could help improve garbage maintenance by recycling properly and tying up garbage bags.”

Source: www.weact.org

The Norway Rat

erika — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:05:13 +0000

The New York City rat is called Rattus Norvegicus (Norway Rat) or sewer rat or water rat. It has a life span of about one year. It is 12 to 16” long including the tail. It weighs one pound. The female gives birth 5 to 8 times a year and has 6 – 12 babies or pups. The gestation period is 22 days. The rat is a burrowing, gnawing, nocturnal (night time) creature of habit. It burrows in the ground, under buildings, and in rubbish. It will travel from 100 to 150 feet from its resting place. It requires one ounce of food daily and one ounce of water. It feeds on animals and vegetables and prefers meat and fish.

Diseases caused by rats

Salmonellosis, Bacterial food poisoning – most common disease transmitted by rats in United States
Murine Typhus, Transmitted from rodent to rodent and to man by scratching infected flea feces intoskin
Leptospirosis, (Weil’s Disease) –Transmitted from rodent and to man by contact with infected urine
Plague, Highly fatal bacterial disease for mammals transmitted from field rodent to man by bites of infected fleas (Pasturella Pestis)
Rat Bite Fever, Bacterial disease –bite infected rat
Trichinosis, Endo Parasite – pork infected with parasites by ingesting rat contaminated garbage/food. Vicious cycle – rat – pig – man
Rabies – Non existent or reported case

Source: The City of New York Department of Housing Preservation & Development: Housing Education Program on Pest Control

Rats Prefer the Grid of Manhattan

erika — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:45:48 +0000

“We put rats in relatively large areas with objects and routes resembling those in Manhattan,” explains Prof. Eilam. The rats, he found, do the same things humans do: They establish a grid system to orient themselves. Using the grid, the rats covered a vast amount of territory, “seeing the sights” quickly. In contrast, rats in an irregular plan resembling New Orleans’ failed to move far from where they started and didn’t cover much territory, despite travelling the same distances as the “Manhattan rats.”

Source: Science Daily

"Rat tracks" made by rats in two city plans: Manhattan-style (left) and New Orleans-style (right). In both plans rats cover the same distance, but rats in the "Manhattan" grid cover more territory. (Credit: Tel Aviv University)

Nasty Nolita

erika — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:26:10 +0000

Nolita trash pile

It doesn’t seem to matter what side of the Williamsburg bridge you’re on, the trash is high and wide on a Sunday night.

Williamsburg pile up

erika — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:07:38 +0000

trash in williamsburg

Cruising the trashy streets of Williamsburg on a spring Sunday evening.

Plastic: The Ocean’s Albatross

John — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:41:59 +0000

Many people have seen photographs of seals trapped in nets or choked by plastic six-pack rings, or sea turtles feeding on plastic shopping bags, but the poster child for the consumption of pelagic plastic debris has to be the Laysan albatross. The plastic gadgets one typically finds in the stomach of the bird-whose range encompasses the remote, virtually uninhabited region around the northwest Hawaiian Islands-could stock the checkout counter at a convenience store.

–Across the Pacific Ocean, Plastics, Plastics, Everywhere