TAKE THE GREEN

TO YOUR CITY

non manageability of waste,

disaster prevention

Agnese Cigliano

Federico II University of Naples,

Italy

Waste Disposal:the situation today

In the consumerism age it may seem normal to use things and produce waste. However, the increase in

production of waste lethally contaminates the Earth.

Every year 4 billion tons of waste are produced in the world. Then only 2,74 billion tons of these are

collected and then disposed of in different ways, through dumps, with recycling and composting or

through energetic enhancement.

It’s easy to understand that we are all in danger, regardless of where we are.

1 Baku Azerbaijan

2 Dhaka Bangladesh

3 Antananarivo Madagascar

4 Port au Prince Haiti

5 Mexico City Mexico

6 Addis Ababa Ethiopia

7 Mumbai India

8 Baghdad Iraq

9 Almaty Kazakhstan

10 Brazzaville Congo

11 Ndjamena Chad

12 Dar es Salaam Tanzania

13 Bangui Central African Republic

14 Moscow Russia

15 Ouagadougou Burkina Faso

16 Bamako Mali

17 Pointe Noire Congo

18 Lome Togo

19 Conakry Guinea Republic

20 Nouakchott Mauritania

21 Niamey Niger

22 Luanda Angola

23 Maputo Mozambique

24 New Delhi India

25 Port Harcourt Nigeria

Why we have to fear.Why we need to rise up.

Anecdote n°1Is not a coincident that I chose this disaster: in

2007 my city, Naples in Italy, was submerged by

waste. There was a national alert for

epidemics and sometimes we return to fear.

Anecdote n°2Stories of waste disasters are lost in

time: one of the oldest is that one of Love Canal. In 1953 Love Canal neighborhood acquired a site from Hooker Chemical to expand the Niagara Falls School Board.

Love Canal had been used to bury 21000 tons of toxic waste by Hooker Chemical:

was sold for only 1$ just for this. The situation was discovered in the 70s but

the history of the neighborhood was marked forever by miscarriages, birth

defects and malformations.

It has already happened that the inability to manage the disposal of waste materials have thrown a whole city in panic. In January 2011 the UNEP released a publication on this topic (Disaster Waste Management Guidelines)

as further proof that the danger is real. It can happen again at any moment.

What can we do? #1Many strategies can be envisaged to prevent waste disasters, we could improve techniques of waste disposal or try to convert the

world to a more green l ifestyle, but I think the most important thing is to educate cit izens.

Many people have no idea of the benefi ts of nature and this happen especial ly in big cit ies where people don ’t have direct contacts with nature. So, in my opinion the fi rst step is just to bring people closer

to nature. But how can we do it?

I think we can develop the idea of bringing trees in cit ies. Today this idea is very rated and there are already some examples: the

Austral ian researcher J im Peacock spoke fi rst of this solution in the Greenhouse 07 conference in Sidney, then the High Line in New

York has become one of the most beautiful hanging gardens in the world and now also the City of Naples is planning the creation of

new parks and the revital ization of existing ones.

What we can do? #2

I’ve talked about very inventive projects, anyhow al l these have a fl aw: these projects are aimed at the reforestation of cit ies and the

increase in the production of oxygen, but don’t care about the education of citizens!

My project concern the prevention of this disaster and is focused just on the education of cit izens. The idea is innovative because the objective isn’t to create new green spaces, but to bring the

green into people’s homes.

Have plants at home, heal and understand them, wil l al low people to think in a more green way and this wil l certainly have

eff ects also on the waste crisis: every cit izen wil l be more aware and careful to the environment and the city where he/she l ives.

The project could be appl ied everywhere, but in the next s l ide I ’ l l draw on data from my hometown, Naples in Italy, to give a real face to the

project.

My plan is to gift trees to citizens. As a guide, an orange tree of 1 m tall costs 7 euros and produce 0,05 kg oxygen per day. In Naples there are 373846 families, and so the

total investment amounts of 2616922 euros for a production of 18692,3 kg oxygen per day.

It may seems a very big expense, but at the same time is a small and sustainable amount for a municipality or a local administration.

Today people imagine this when they think of my city, tomorrow I want they can imagine

this!

The solution

The project is structured in this way: the City of Naples, or any other city in the world, should buy a tree for every resident family and give it to them. I

thought about orange trees (citrus x sinensis) because: 1) they are closer to the Mediterranean culture; 2) if treated in the right way, they produce fruits

that you can eat; 3) are colorful and so shall bring happiness.

At the same time will be created a non-invasive monitoring system and environmental education activities to guide families and track their degree of

satisfaction.

In this way, with low costs, every city could achieve excellent and long lasting results. I think it is a realistic and easily achievable project.

The only variable in this project is the willingness of people, but I would hope in common sense and intelligence of people!

The results

First of all, this project can ensure an increase in production of oxygen, indeed every orange tree produce 18,25 kg oxygen per

year (for a total of 6822689,5 kg oxygen per year).

Moreover the project approaches families to nature and leads people to think in a more green way. People will be able to

understand the benefits of nature.

All citizens, knowing the benefits of nature and seeing their city at risk, will take care of their production of waste in a conscious way

(preferably by recycling) and will also expect by the local administration the protection of nature and best practices in waste disposal. So we would get a double-check and the best solution for

the nature!

DO YOUR BEST: CHALLENGE FUTURE!WE HAVE TO BELIVE IN WHAT WE CAN DO

Main references: www.ecologiae.com, “Disaster Waste

Management Guidelines” by UNEP, “Global state of play

about waste 2009” by Philippe Chalmin and Catherine

Gaillochet

TO BELIEVE IN A BETTER

FUTURE!