ACTIVITY: Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse
In this activity: Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse we will create our own chart and system for making maximum use of every resource available to us at Mezzacello. This includes, food, wastes, water, energy, and bio-products. The goal of this activity is to create a better understanding about the relationship between food, water, and energy resources and sustainability.
First The Food
Food is one of the main assets we create as an urban farm. There is some food we simply cannot make here, so we need to optimize the food we can make. We can grow fresh vegetables and root vegetables, berries, herbs and flowers as well as some fruits. Chicken, eggs, meat, and alternative forms of protein.
Savethefood.com
- Here is a very useful guide to do some research on the optimal way to use, store, preserve of revive many different types of food!
Things we cannot grow are grains, dairy, beef or pork. There is insufficient land for grains, it is illegal to grow beef, pork or lamb in city limits. And dairy relies on cows, sheep, goats and such and there is not enough room!
But that does not mean we cannot optimize how we gather and store these resources — both the ones we can grow and the ones we must collect. Food is a valuable resource, whether you grow it not.
Next the Water
Now that we are started on the food storage, preservation, and reviving, we move to water, the other critical and valuable resource we have available at Mezzacello. We have many resources for water here. Rain, the water in the atmosphere, hand-washing water, the pond, water tanks, and even city water. Not all of them are clean and ready to use, but getting them to that place is relatively easy to do.
The best way to recycle, repurpose, and reuse water is not to waste it in the first place. It is frightening to think what a precious resource water is on this planet. Just consider this image:
You are not seeing things. The planet we live on is mostly rock. Relatively speaking, to the scale of the planet, the oceans are mear puddles. That tiny little ball of water beneath the two other balls is the fresh water we have access to ALL OVER THE PLANET.
Now the planet is BIG, but that water is a limited resource! That is why at Mezzacello we spend so much time recycling and storing it for use. We should all get behind not wasting water.
The last thing I would like you all to consider is that every drop of water on this planet is billions of years old. Water is not created spontaneously. It is endlessly recycled and reused.
We can ask ourselves how much water is actually on the Earth?
US geological Services
That means the first humans who over walked upright on this planet drank the same water we do. All the billions of gallons of water in and on the earth is the same water it started with. That is what makes water such a magical resource!
Lastly the Energy
Energy is a no-brainer to try to reuse, recycle, and repurpose. Every day our sun produces enough light to power this planet for 1000 years. But it’s really hard to get that solar energy back as electricity with amperage, voltage and pressure. The same is true of the wind, water, and heat variations in our atmosphere.