The Green Loop: Present Architecture's Proposed Plan to Create Compost Islands in NYC is Brilliant,
How to turn our daily waste into useful products is the key to creating a resilient and green future. The Green Loop idea from Present Architecture's Andre Guimond and Evan Erlebacher takes the tons of compostable food waste generated in NYC and turns it into compost that can be used in parks and farms right in the city it is created.
The Green Loop curtails costs, energy use and pollution from trucking tons of valuable waste to far off landfills. The compost hubs will be placed throughout the city's 520 miles of waterfont. Each "compost island" will have an elevated park above which can be used for recreation, educational facilities and neighborhood gardens.
The Green Loop proposal will create a network of composting parks processing our organic waste (30% of the residential waste stream) while adding 125 acres of public park land. This means drastically reduced truck miles to landfills, decreased traffic, noise, and pollution, with the added benefits of safer streets, cleaner air, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Plus, a new type of public park is born and a product for market --nutrient rich compost made in NYC is generated.
The Green Loop may sound like it is a far off concept, but it is not! New York City is already piloting a curbside composting program, so composting will soon be a reality. (And, composting is manadatory in San Francisco already.) The Green Loop jumpstarts this reality. And, what's cool about the Green Loop idea is that the plan calls for composting hubs in each borough, unifying the city in an organic, socially just fashion. Thus, The Green Loop addresses “borough equity” in NYC's waste management, ensuring that every borough is responsible for processing its own waste instead of sending the entire city’s trash to one or two over-burdened boroughs.
