Green and Sustainability solutions for our Cities
All over the world the we generate much domestic waste from New York City to New Delhi, a call for reduction of waste should be in calculated by Architects. Buildings are the sources of waste and it should be reduced, reuse and recycled otherwise we will find ourselves living among the waste.
Failure of Disposal Waste designs by Green Architect
We can learn from nature how waste is processed. The spider eats up the waste webs , plants consume the Co2 we dump, and the bacteria consume our waste, the earth does not have a dump center. But our domestic waste is left to decompose and we are running our of land fills as the waste takes about 30 years to decompose and diapers takes 500 years to do like wise, to a stable conditions.
We generate much waste as the figures listed below reveal; Architects can do much to solve the problems.
- New York City generates as much as 36,200 tones of garbage every day.
- London city’s waste can generates 9,100 tones per day, equivalent power to power 2m homes
- The amount of domestic waste( Municipal Solid Waste) generated is 2,400 tones per day in Kuala Lumpur
- New Delhi generates about 7,000 tones of waste per day
In the absence of a comprehensive Integrated Strategic MSW Plan all over the world, Architect can forge a plan to reduce the waste at the source-the building, where 95% be recovered and recycling the aluminum and steel and the wet waste to be reprocessed composted for reuse. Or biomass waste power be generated and re-supplied into the grid.
Consideration by Green Architects in Domestic waste( solid) disposal
As Green Architects our responsibility lies in designing for Waste Collections Centers (waste dumps) where rubbish is sorted out not dumped. Sorting should be done at every floor of the office tower so that it is not dumped at the waste dumps but easily sorted out early at the source.Sorting should be wet waste, paper, cans and bottles waste.Every waste dump at every residence, industrial buildings, resorts, hotels, commercial centers are
to be designed like wise for waste sorting.
Consideration by Green Architects in Domestic Waste water disposal
As Green Architects we ensure the drains are built properly ,the collapsed drains can be a source of to breed mosquitoes. Bios vales may be considered to replace the external drains as the waste water can be recycled as portable water even for human consumption.
Consideration by Green Architects in Wet Waste disposal
As Green Architects we should ensure the food waste ( wet waste)are not dumped into the drains which help to breed rats rampantly, liters in drains can encourage the rat population to breed.
Wet Waste mixed with the landscape waste, should be sent to the composting yard at every building which should be reused as compost manure which is a better manure for the landscaped areas as it stabilizes the acidity of the ground helping to maintain Eco balance in the ground, See the Edmonton waste center in Canada, an example where waste is recycled as manure. We can start small composting places at our every building sites . If it was a campus style development or a housing scheme where wet waste generated could be massive amount, a Net Zero Energy Architect would design for generating biomass renewable energy from the wet wastes.
Consideration by Green Architects in Construction waste disposal
Construction waste should be minimize by using construction systems that reduce wastes such as IBS system or waste is recycled within the site, ensure the contractor reduces waste in the first place. As architect it is our responsibility to design buildings as a waste sorting, reducing and recycling at the source than to shove the problem to city municipalities to solve green and sustainable issues before the waste sites swallows our living spaces.
