- Technological curiosities from the world
Paper roads .Waste from the pulp and paper industry has long been perceived as potential fillers for building products, e.g. cement, but usually ended up in landfills. Scientists from the University of British Columbia have developed a solution that will allow the use of this waste in road construction in an environmentally friendly way. Researchers were particularly interested in wood pulp mill fly ash (PFA). The North American pulp and paper industry produces over one million tonnes of ash annually. It costs anywhere from $ 25 to $ 50 per tonne to landfill, so plants are looking for alternative ways to use this waste. A new study looked at the use of untreated PFA as an economically sustainable, low-carbon binder in road construction. - Photovoltaic installation in a landscape park
Question: Can installations and devices using solar energy be located in a landscape park? - The importance of viruses in life on Earth and in our human life
We perceive viruses as very dangerous to our health, while the vast majority of them are not pathogenic for humans. At the ecological level, viruses perform a basic task of regulating populations of host species and ensuring their balance in ecosystems. They are of great importance in the evolutionary processes on Earth and are judged to be the most genetically creative of all known factors. Endogenous viruses in our DNA are one of the key elements that control our immunity. They are today one of the most promising therapeutic agents for the treatment of certain diseases, including cancer. Without viruses, life and the planet as we know it would cease to exist. - Bignonia catalpa , enchanting with the beauty of flowers
A tree with impressive size, heart-shaped leaves and charming flowers, which are a real decoration of summer. - Booties
They do not agree to solutions that will save the budget money and will allow people in the Włocławek region to live safely and in harmony with nature. Poland is perceived as an oasis of greenery. And it's hardly surprising. After all, it has great potential - 9 million hectares of forests, 23 national parks, over a hundred landscape parks, and numerous nature reserves. Between them there are extensive "corridors", which by nature should be an image support for green areas. Unfortunately, they are not. The boots do their job - they surround numerous towns, villages and tourist routes with ugliness and trash. They build shabby houses and farms, kitschy fences, sloppy roadside buffets, ugly banners and advertising posts. - More on Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is one of the most popular concepts analyzed in the social sciences and in the language of politics. However, popularity does not go hand in hand with a solid understanding of it. Meanwhile, there are many types of farming sustainability, including the so-called his "weak" and "strong" versions, which somehow already managed to spread in the economy. However, another aspect deserves attention as well, namely breaking the stereotype linking development with an increase in material consumption. As long as people associate the concept of progress with an increase in the consumption of materials, the pressure on the natural environment has no chance to be alleviated. Only directing ingenuity and entrepreneurship to maximizing the utility effect achieved from a limited pool of natural resources would ensure sustainable prosperity. - Lichens in Krakow's city parks
In recent years, in Krakow, great importance has been attached to the protection and monitoring of the quality of the environment. The bioindication method is used to assess air quality, which allows for the estimation of pollution. By identifying the morphological features of the lichen, it is possible to classify it into a given group, and then determine the maximum value of air pollution with sulfur oxides. The article presents the results of field research carried out in July 2020 in city parks in Krakow. - Pro-ecological action to reduce waste
Global warming is a global problem that will be difficult to counter without local, bottom-up initiatives. For five years I have been observing pro-ecological activities carried out in Graz in cooperation with the authorities, the private and non-governmental sectors ( NGOs , foundations, associations). Joint actions can bring many tangible benefits not only to the natural environment, but also to businesses and society. A comprehensive approach to environmental protection - developing and supporting public and private initiatives at the same time - allows to build awareness and pro-ecological attitudes among the local community. In the article I will present examples of such actions. - Waste management in Poland in the light of statistical data
The May issue of Aura is devoted to waste management and that is why we are changing the order in presenting the yearly "Environmental Protection", going to chapter VI, entitled "Waste". This chapter in each year of the Central Statistical Office is extensive, but in our series we present it in an exceptionally limited form. We deal with waste almost every day, not always being aware of it. At first, this problem was mainly seen as a factor of environmental pollution, followed by programs to reduce their quantity and management methods. When assessing waste per capita indicators, it was found that they are a measure of the wealth of society ("welfare waste"), but recently the decline in this indicator also turns out to be a measure of technological progress and the pursuit of a circular economy. Waste segregation and recycling leads to a new issue - the use of waste as secondary raw materials (in place of primary raw materials, mainly fossil ones). - Designing public space and municipal waste management
The current practice of designing public space in the context of municipal waste management raises many doubts. Small spaces of municipal waste collection sites, difficult access to them, ineffective communication systems in newly built housing estates are nowadays everyday life. The article shows the complexity of this problem. Attention was drawn to the need to take into account environmental protection, health and safety regulations and local law when designing. Innovative solutions in waste management were also presented. The presented solutions result from the desire to create such a system that there would be no problems with transporting waste from the public space. - Possibilities of assessing the implementation of the assumptions of the circular economy in municipal waste management systems
The circular economy is a new challenge for waste management, aimed at maximizing the use of raw materials and energy. The article presents the possibility of balancing the municipal waste management system in such a way that the streams generated in the recovery and recycling processes constitute the input material for subsequent production processes.
AURA Ochrona Środowiska (AURA Environmental Protection) - the whole list