This Building Is Made From Trash. Yes, Really

What’s the best way to build a green building?  Well, for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), the answer is dumpster diving.
Yes, you read that right. For the past year and a half, members of the foundation have been turning garbage bins inside out in search of materials to construct the Brock Environmental Center building in Virginia Beach, Va.
Why are they digging through the garbage? Because the CBF is hoping to earn the highest standard in green construction with LEED Platinum status and a Living Building Challenge Certification.
In order to meet green building standards like LEED, Green Globes or the Living Building Challenge, recycled materials have to be used. And with about 160 million tons of unwanted used materials from home renovations being tossed in landfills every year (according to the Environmental Protection Agency), there are plenty of options in trash bins.
Among the finds? Sinks, doors, mirrors, counters and cabinets. Additionally, the doors and windows of the Brock Environmental Center will be trimmed with old wooden school bleachers, while the floor will be a resurfaced maple floor of an elementary school gymnasium. Old champagne corks will double as knobs and drawer pools, student art tables are counters and the center’s cabinets will be made from old wooden paneling, according to the Huffington Post.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the building, though, will be the exterior siding. At the bottom of the rivers and bayous of the Deep South are what’s referred to as “old sinker cypress logs.” The Foundation dug up those logs, which will now serve as the center’s siding. The best part? The wood acts as a natural, chemical-free weather proofing material.
While working on the project, Christy Everett, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Hampton Roads Director, has noticed the scalability of dumpster diving to create sustainable buildings.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned from all of this work is that you don’t need new materials to build a new building,” Everett writes in her article for the Huffington Post. “The Brock Environmental Center not only raises the bar on smart buildings; it can serve as a replicable model for raising community awareness in localities around the country and the world.”
And with that, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is finding that all you need is something old to make something green.
MORE: The Giant Seawall That Will Protect New York City

Why This Man is Dumpster Diving for His Meals

Did you know that about 40 percent of the food in this country is completely wasted to the tune of $165 billion a year? After hearing that, does it make you wonder why 1 in 6 Americans don’t have enough money to put food on their table? Or why 46.2 million individuals rely on food stamps? Where does all this food even go?
The answers are multi-faceted (and you can read why here). But one reason why a mountain of waste piles up every day is because grocery stores dump perfectly edible food.
Environmental activist Rob Greenfield is trying to bring awareness to this troubling practice by biking across the country and solely eating out of the dumpsters of supermarkets and convenience stores. With a solar generator, his bamboo bike and $2,000 in cash that he earned through his marketing company, the 28-year-old started peddling from San Diego on June 2 and hopes to reach New York City by Sept. 26.
Trust us, even though he’s eating “trash,” the pickings aren’t slim. “The most surprising thing is the quantity of food I find,” Greenfield tells NationSwell, during a stopover in northern Baltimore. “Time and time again, it’s full to the brim of perfectly good bread, fruits and vegetables. [It’s food like] packaged rice and oatmeal — things that never go bad and don’t get people sick.” Recently at a local dumpster, he found unopened Sunchips and Oreo cookies along with meat that was still cold, including chicken breast and steak. He even found a pack of vitamin supplement Emergen-C with a Feb. 2015 expiration date.
He also shares an experience at a CVS drugstore in Mays Chapel where he found boxes of feminine pads, toothpaste and diapers. “That stuff women’s shelters could use,” he says. “There is no excuse to throw away diapers.” After confronting the drugstore chain on Twitter, the store responded, “We have a product donation policy that our stores follow for unsold products that are being removed from our stores,” adding, “Occasionally there are products that seem ‘perfectly good’ but are in a condition that wouldn’t allow them to be donated.”
MORE: How Much Food Could Be Rescued if College Dining Halls Saved Their Leftovers?
Following that exchange, Greenfield noted that the date of expiration for the products wasn’t for months.
It’s time this country gets smarter about food — and an easy way to do so is to start with where we shop. “The purpose of all of this is to motivate and encourage grocery stores to stop dumping food and start donating it [to] food rescue programs and food banks that exist already across America,” Greenfield writes on his blog. “There is a huge misconception among many people that grocery stores are either not allowed to donate excess food or would be liable for lawsuit but the law is actually on their side.”
Greenfield himself lives an extremely modest lifestyle. His 4,700-mile solo trip, dubbed “Off the Grid Across America,” is removed from all our modern comforts, including electricity and showers. That $2,000 he initially started out with dwindled down to $420, which he ended up donating to charity. (“I found that when you don’t have money you’re forced to be part of your community and you’re a problem solver and not a consumer,” he says) As for where he sleeps, Greenfield crashes at a friend’s home or sets up camp at a public park, the desert or the woods.
Greenfield has stayed remarkably positive throughout his journey, especially when he finds that so many people he’s met along the way support his mission: “It’s mind-blowing how many people care. No one thinks food should be in the dumpster in the first place.”
“It’s going to take a lot of changes to completely solve this, but definitely the most important is that everyone in America knows the problem,” he adds. “Awareness comes first.”
So how else can we help Greenfield’s cause? “Take out your smartphones, walk behind your grocery store, and open up the Dumpster,” he tells TakePart. “If you see food inside, take a picture or video and tweet it at the store, telling them to #DonateNotDump.” Greenfield also suggests asking store managers if they’re donating unwanted edible food to shelters or food banks (such as Feeding America).
Even if we don’t have the stomach to eat food out of a dumpster like Rob Greenfield, together we can help make sure this food doesn’t get there in the first place.
[ph]
DON’T MISS: NYC’s Solution for Food Waste Should Happen in Schools Everywhere