Apr 12: Sustainability Salon on the End of Waste

Anaerobic biodigesters run by the Municipal Authority of Hermitage, PA since 2013.  

Happy Earth Month!  

Global population is on track to peak at over 10 billion later this century.  Food distribution can and should be a lot more equitable than it is, but no matter how you look at it, that's a lot of people to feed.  We need to consider land use -- can we afford to convert more biodiverse ecosystems to monoculture cropland?  Or should we make better use of land already in agriculture, by sustainably nourishing the soil?  And we need to account for the main limiting nutrients for agricultural production: nitrogen and phosphorus.

Most conventional fertilizer includes nitrogen derived from fossil methane, and phosphorus from rock phosphate (often dug from open pit mines).  The ongoing wars at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, are compounding supply problems -- and worsening global food shortages are predicted for the coming year.  At the same time, these very elements are found abundantly in human excreta, and are flushed away every day -- leading to nutrient loss, and also nutrient pollution.  Can we close this loop?

For the 171st Sustainability Salon, we'll have a circular segué into our annual Food feature as we explore the End of Waste:  utilizing organic material (previously considered "waste") to generate soil, fertilizer, and energy.  

Mary Dobbs teaches environmental law and agriculture at Maynooth University (west of Dublin), and serves on a number of advisory groups related to Brexit, the European Green Deal, human rights, and the future of Ireland.  She holds a PhD in the Precautionary Principle as well as various law degrees.  She is part of the Horizon Europe project P2GreeN, aiming for a circular, resilient, and sustainable supply chain.  P2GreeN examines the potential to reclaim nutrients from human waste for use as fertilizer;  Mary is investigating the legal and regulatory framework across the EU -- and discovering challenges around this initiative, despite the EU's ambitions for a circular economy and strong goals around environmental protection.  

Back on this side of the pond, John Stolz is a biologist, a past Congressional candidate (he ran in 2017, inspiring our salon on getting STEM into Congress), and the former director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University.  He is a strong advocate for using biogas, including from human waste, in place of fossil methane;  it can travel in the same pipes and be burned for energy in the same appliances that we already have.  He has proposed diverting Pittsburgh's treated sewage sludge into a municipal-scale multi-stage biodigester facility producing energy and fertilizer. 

Ecotone Renewables is a Pittsburgh-based B-Corp (a public benefit corporation, which expands business priorities beyond mere profit to include the health of people and the planet).  They have pioneered modular biodigesters in use at schools, restaurants, hotels, healthcare facilities, and corporate cafeterias -- turning food waste into renewable biogas and "Soil Sauce", an organic liquid fertilizer.  Co-founders Kyle Wyche and Dylan Lew will share the history and impact of their enterprise on our region and beyond.  

The program is still in development;  as always, the latest can be found here on MarensList.  Please also check out the list below for other important events happening in our region (and online).

This salon will take place on Zoom.  The program will start around 3 p.m.  As always, join us for whatever time works for you!  If you're not already on my salon email list, please email me (maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with "salon" in the Subject line to be added -- and let me know how you heard about salons!  If you RSVP via Eventbrite, you'll receive the Zoom registration link right away. Along about Saturday night/Sunday morning, I'll send it out again, with other information, to all who have RSVP'd.  If you're new to Zoom, you may find my Zoom Reference Guide helpful.  

Note that starting last fall, I shifted salons an hour EARLIER, at least for this fall and winter, and maybe beyond --the program will start around 3 p.m. Eastern.  Why?  During our sabbatical in Ireland last year, I connected with many new friends and enviro-colleagues, some of whom have or will speak at salons, and others who are interested in attending.  And there's generally a five-hour time difference (sometimes 4 or 6 hours because our savings-time shifts are on different dates).  Also, logistics have evolved with in-person salons since 2021, so earlier should also work better here at our Pittsburgh site. 

Other events and whatnot (times are U.S. Eastern) -- quite a few entries this time, for the same reason that MarensList began two decades ago:  it's Earth Month, and there's a lot going on!

•  Mar 28:  The third national No Kings protests -- there will be at least four events in and around Pittsburgh (N hills 10 a.m., Pittsburgh at noon, S Hills 4 p.m., Shadyside 5 p.m.).  More info on the nationwide events here, and here are the deets on events in and near Pittsburgh.  And if you're local, you can connect up with the newsletters mentioned several items down in this list to learn more about opportunities for action and advocacy.  

•  Apr 3:  Health Sciences Sustainability Film Festival.  1:30-3:45 p.m. at Pitt;  more information and registration here. 

•  Apr 11-30:  Community meetings to weigh in on Pittsburgh's Comprehensive Plan -- this round, about the Preferred Land Use Direction. 13 meetings in 13 different neighborhoods!  More info and registration here. 

•  Apr 15:  Virtual roundtable with Indigenous land defenders, scholar-activists, and grassroots organizers will examine how the rapid expansion of AI and cloud infrastructure is driving new waves of fossil fuel depenence, mineral extraction, land dispossession, and environmental injustice -- and how communities are fighting back.  1 p.m. via Zoom;  register here.

•  Apr 18:  Concerned by what you've heard in the media and at our two (so far) salons on data centers?  Join community members, students, and advocates for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Data Center Community Organizing Summit.  Panels, workshops, networking, and organizing tools.  10 a.m. - 3 p.m. at Cooper-Siegel Library in Fox Chapel.  More info and RSVP here.

•  Apr 18:  VegFair showcases veg food, small businesses, and animal welfare organizations.  Free to attend; 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Rockwell Park in Point Breeze.  More information here.

•  Apr 18:  The Frick Environmental Center is celebrating a Decade of Discovery -- ten years since this fantastic facility opened to the public!  Enjoy animal encounters and other educational activities, music, community, and workshops on myriad fascinating topics.  11:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the FEC (natch).  More info and registration here.

•  Apr 20:  Webinar on Policy, Legal, and Organizing Levers -- part of a monthly series by Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services.  12-1:30 p.m.; more info and registration here. 

•  Apr 20:  When Air Kills:  Pittsburgh's Hidden PM2.5 Toll, another in the Gressroots Resident-Led Town Hall.  Featuring Dr. Philip Landrigan,directorof the Global Public Health Program and Pollution Observatory at the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College. (7 p.m. on Zoom; more info to come).

• Apr 22:  Sierra Sessions streamed concert -- celebrate Earth Day with an evening of music, storytelling, and climate action!  5:30-8 p.m. at Hazel Grove Brewing (4609 Irvine St. in Hazelwood).  Parking is limited.  More information here.

• Apr 22:  Earth Day celebration at the Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship.  An opportunity to see Ecotone's ZEUS biodigester in action, and learn about InvolveMINT's Community Credit system. 6:30-8:30 p.m.; more info and registration here. 

• Apr 25: Join the Sierra Club Allegheny Group and the Hazelwood Urban Ag Team for an Earth Day celebration with music, art, and action for the Earth.  Live music (on a solar-powered stage!), free workshops, arts & crafts, local food and other vendors.  Noon to 6 p.m. at Blair Street Park 5133 Blair St. in Hazelwood).  Parking is limited.  More information here.

•  Apr 30:  Join GASP, the Allegheny Land Trust, and the Friends of Churchill Valley Greenway for an air quality hike, talking about how past land use affected the area, how climate affects seasonal changes, and pollution-sensitive organisms like lichens, amphibians, and plants.  6-7:30 p.m., $10, registration required here.  

•  Jun 1-5:  Three city-wide workshops about Pittsburgh's Comprehensive Plan -- more details will appear here.

•  To find ways to get active in our region, I encourage local folks to sign up for the Indivisible Grassroots Pittsburgh email list, which will bring you lots more listings, more frequently -- email Debra.  There's also Fighting Back, by Alison, with up-to-date emails on lots and lots of protest actions and other events.  Nobody can be everywhere, but all of us should be somewhere!  

•  And for valuable perspective on the day's news, consider following Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Reich, Rebecca Solnit, and/or Robert Hubbell.  In our own region, folks like Patricia DeMarco, John Russell, and Susan Kaye Quinn are worth your time.  Their work can be found variously in places like Substack, YouTube, BlueSky, Mastodon, Instagram, Facebook, and their own books, blogs, newsletters, and/or podcasts.  This list is hardly comprehensive, but these links can connect you with some of our time's leading thinkers, writers, and speakers.  

•  Concerned Health Professionals of NY recently released the 9th Edition of the Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas & Oil Infrastructure.  Check it out!  

•  We know that only a tiny fraction of plastic has ever been recycled.  And yet, NPR has been airing sponsorship messages for the American Recycling Council, which is continuing to perpetrate the "recycling" hoax.  Does that make your blood boil?  The national group Beyond Plastics has a petition/sign-on letter to get them to stop -- please sign, for yourself or for an organization you represent!

•  It's been well over two years now!  You can support striking Post-Gazette workers here (and consider signing up for the alternative online publication, the Pittsburgh Union Progress -- and maybe even cancel your P-G subscription until they start treating workers fairly!).  This strike has garnered national attention;  one recent picket even made it into Teen Vogue.

•  PRC continues to hold online workshops about composting, rainwater harvesting, and waste reduction.  They have several Hard-to-Recycle events each year; upcoming events are listed here.  For household chemicals, here's the link.

•  The Rachel Carson EcoVillage is still looking for a few more members.  Curious?  You can sign up for an introduction session or sign up as an “inquirer” to have more information sent to you.

•  Have you seen the film Single-Use Planet (hopefully soon to appear on PBS), or The Story of Plastic, or the PBS docs Plastic Wars, Fenceline, and We're All Plastic People Now?  (and/or join us for Plastic Paradise at a winter film salon seven years ago?)  ...What if you could bring up imagery of the toxic impacts of plastic production, and commentary by the people and communities living with them, over the world?  You can do all that with the interactive Toxic Tours tool.  Check it out!  

•  Mask update:  Breathe99 masks (featured in a 2020 salon on Pandemics and Air (video), and one of TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2020) are now being distributed by Our Children Our Earth, a local purveyor of alternatives to disposables (as well as classy wooden toys).  Contact Dianne via OCOE's Facebook page, or call (412) 772-1638 to coordinate a curbside pickup (or you can still order online).

For the uninitiated, a Sustainability Salon is an educational forum;  it's a mini-conference;  it's a venue for discussion and debate about important environmental issues (and often health, and justice, and politics);  it's a house party with an environmental theme.  Each month we have featured speakers on various aspects of a particular topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, and (when in person) delectable potluck food and drink and music-making through the evening.   Beginning in early 2012, salons were originally a potluck mini-conference;  the event has been either on Zoom or outdoor/hybrid since March 2020.  This event series was featured in the Pittsburgh Media Partnership's Pittsburgh Story project on Civic Catalysts -- here's a piece by The Allegheny Front. 

Past topics have included data centers (Part I & Part II), policy advocacy, greener buying, local environmental authors (Part I & Part II) honey forests & friends, air science into policy, air quality education and engagement,  farming and succession, building with wood, food justice, Mutual Aid networks, activism in the coming years, COVID caution and community care, nature education/volunteer programs, air quality, stories that inspire, forest protection, a celebration of the 150th salon, a closer look at our quarter-acre, reducing single-use plastics, water campaigns, climate campaigns, consumerism, air quality campaigns,  movement-building and sustained campaigns, abandoned oil and gas wells, hope (finding it, creating it, using it), addressing environmental causes of cancer, a development proposal for Frick Park, single-use plastic legislation, home energy efficiency (and legislation to help fund improvements), the UN's COP process for climate negotiations, alternatives to single-use packaging, our region's air (part I and part II), activist art and America's Energy Gamble, advocacy opportunities, social justice games, fixing Pennsylvania state government, climate action, forest restoration, the history of American consumerism, regional air quality, preserving Pittsburgh's forests, climate modeling, approaches to pipelines, pipeline hazards, the legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the judiciary and fair elections, consumption, pandemics and air,  election law and activism, air quality and environmental justice, social investment,  local economies, the economics of energy, mutual aid networks, ocean health, the rise of the radical right, the back end of consumption, approaches to activism on fracking & climate, air quality, technology, and citizen science, single-use plastics, election activism, election law, whether to preserve existing nuclear power plants, advanced nuclear technologies, passenger and freight trains, consumption, plastics, and pollution, air quality, solar power, youth activism, greening business, greenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/people, fracking, health, & action, globalization, ecological ethics, community inclusion, air quality monitoring, informal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakers, getting STEM into Congress, keeping Pittsburgh's water public, Shell's planned petrochemical plant, visualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiatives, fossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politics, community solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (before, during, and after), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalization, solar power, climate change, environmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projects, environmental journalism, grassroots action, Marcellus shale development and community rights, green building, air quality, health care, more solar power, trees and park stewardship, alternative energy and climate policy, regional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food Systems, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, Plastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One Voice, Triple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous Game, A Fierce Green Fire, Sustainability Pioneers, films on consumption, Living Downstream, Bidder 70, YERT, Gas Rush Stories, and food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, and more food (a recurrent theme;  with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).