Content about Sustainability
One of the arguments in favor of organic farming is that it’s more environmentally sustainable.
The city has started a new program for downtown businesses that simplifies recycling with hopes of decreasing waste.
Last month, the City Council unanimously voted to pass the bag ban ordinance, which means single-use plastic or paper bags will no longer be offered at retail stores beginning next year. However, many local artists have decided to take a more creative approach by incorporating these recyclable materials into their art — from creating crafts out of recycled water bottles to crocheting with plastic yarn.
In order to avoid the sometimes inevitable collision between bikers and pedestrians, a group is working to make UT-Austin a more pedestrian and cyclist friendly campus.
City council is voting today on a citywide ban on disposable paper and plastic bags, which would require consumers to use reusable bags at all retail establishments within city limits.
The ban would attempt to eliminate all use of disposable single-use bags used throughout the city. The first draft of the ordinance was released Dec. 8, 2011 after the city discontinued the Recycle the Bag pilot program encouraging citizens to increase recycling of disposable bags.
With the rapid rise of the health food movement, students are constantly barraged with prescriptions of what to eat: local food, sustainable food, organic food, chemical-free food. We are told to search labels for key words like “all-natural” and “farm raised.” We should avoid “processed” and “industrial” packaged foods at all costs.
The Austin-based Food is Free Project hosted their third volunteer event Saturday with the planting of “wicking bed” gardens along Joe Sayers Avenue.
Single-family residences in Austin will have the opportunity to implement greywater systems to increase conservation and lower costs under a new city council proposal.
With a trailer full of recyclables parked on the West Mall early Tuesday morning, a student group hoped to bring awareness to their campaign to ban disposable plastic water bottles on campus.
The Campus Environmental Center promoted a campaign about the harmful impact of single-use plastic bottles and containers in honor of the America Recycles Day.
Austin city officials planned to send 20 percent less waste to landfills by 2012 but have already surpassed this goal ahead of schedule.
Dr. Jerry Brand, professor of molecular cell and developmental biology, gives a talk about new biofuels derived from algae Monday afternoon at the AT&T Conference Center. Brand explained algae could become a new sustainable resource instead of fossil fuels within the next 20 years.
Fanny Trang | Daily Texan Staff
Jerry Brand’s algae collection, with nearly 2,800 specimens in all, is more than just pond scum. The diverse range of organisms is part of a growing multi-hundred billion dollar industry, used to produce anything from supplements to ice cream thickener to dental impressions and most recently, alternative biofuel, he said.
An open forum held last week focused on the proposed citywide plastic bag ban, which aims to reduce the amount of waste in the environment and cut city spending on cleanup programs. Various interest groups have debated the issue for months, and City Council will introduce a draft of the legislation in early November outlining such a ban.
Months of meetings with Austin residents, business owners and city officials led to an open forum Monday night seeking the public’s final input on plastic bag prohibition.
Editor’s note: Some portions of this interview were translated from Portuguese and Spanish.
Renowned Brazilian energy mogul Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello encouraged the U.S. to develop a green energy partnership with Brazil to increase the world’s energy sources and protect the environment in a lecture Thursday night.
What we choose to build has a huge impact on our natural world. Buildings consume 50 percent of energy used in the United States and as the human population grows exponentially, our need for homes, offices, parks and public buildings is not easily abated. By 2030, half of the buildings in our cities will have been constructed in the last 30 years.
In order to raise environmental awareness on campus, Kinsolving Residence put together a fashion show. Students had to create creative fashions using recyclable materials.
A local bicycle builder gives us a rundown of why he builds bikes and what makes his custom bikes so special.
President William Powers Jr. emphasized the importance of reducing long-term environmental impact at the University in a speech he gave at the second university-wide sustainability conference Friday.
He said changes should be implemented now to prepare for the future.
“Just on the issue of getting a better mix of our energy sources, if we don’t make serious progress on that in 25 years, then we’re not going to be in very good shape,” Powers said.
Many cyclists decorated their helmets and bikes as a way to remind themselves of why they ride and to encourage and inspire teammates.
Fires have scorched the plains of Texas and substantial rain has yet to come to Austin this summer, but wildfires and a severe drought aren’t slowing down local gardeners.
On Saturday the Sustainable Food Center hosted the first in a series of three gardening classes at the UT community garden located at 2108 Concho Street.
From a test tube of algae, UT scientists and other engineers at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus have produced 2,200 gallons of algae in an effort to find an efficient alternative to fossil fuels.
“Through our method of letting single-celled algae reproduce by the double, we can grow it exponentially,” said Michael Jochum, chief scientist of AlgEternal Technologies. “This algae contains oils that can be extracted by the guys at UT and turned into either biodiesel, crude oil or even biomass — a substitute for coal.”
While the Longhorns kicked the Rice Owls’ cans on the football field, student volunteers collected the cans tailgaters left around campus Saturday afternoon.
The second year of Longhorn Recycling Roundup began when members of the Tailgate Recycling Crew handed out plastic bags to sort recyclable and non-recyclable items to tailgaters.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Restaurant owner Gary Honeycutt says a push in California’s state Legislature to ban the plastic foam containers he uses to serve up takeout meals could cost him thousands of dollars in an industry where profit margins already are razor thin.
BJ’s Kountry Kitchen, in the heart of California’s farm country, uses about 26,000 of the 9-inch foam clamshells a year, mostly for takeout by the customers who come in for the restaurant’s popular breakfast omelets.
