South Africa celebrated National Arbor Week
Urban greening while urban composting
We all know that planting trees is great for the environment and the air that we breathe, but how dirty have you gotten your hands recently? With the first week of September being Arbor week, it’s the perfect opportunity to get your hands dirty by taking some time to plant an indigenous tree.
While we focus our time on planting trees this week, BiobiN recommends going a step further and supporting the shopping centres and food outlets that compost their food waste. As the majority of our food waste volumes comes from retail within urban areas, it is important that retail chains avoid sending this waste stream to landfill. An in vessel composting solution such as BiobiN allows for on-site processing of food waste and is the best and most efficient way of returning our food waste back to nature in the form of compost. There is no better time to support the retailers that compost, than during Arbor week!
National Arbor week aims to raise awareness around the value that trees have in society, not just their value in nature. This is particularly important as most of our population (66%) reside within urban areas1 where the concentration of commercial activity has a negative impact on the air quality that we breathe. In response to poor air quality in urban areas, more attention has been put on the idea of ‘urban greening’ over recent years. The concept of urban greening not only recognised the ecological importance of trees, but also the role that trees play towards our health and boosting morale. Yes, an abundance of research in fact, has suggested that trees reduce stress and anxiety, and improves our mental cognition2.
“Greening our cities has many benefits; we should also be addressing the issue of high food waste volumes that are produced on a daily basis,” says Brian Küsel from BiobiN South Africa. “While we all should be planting trees during Arbor week, we should also be supporting the retailers and food outlets that are processing and composting their organic waste, rather than sending it to landfill.”
To find out more, visit www.biobin.co.za
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