#2 Generating Green Spaces & Minimizing Microplastics

Second newsletter and I already failed on the alliteration...

Morning Jo(k)e

Rainforest Café has committed to their theme more than any other restaurant out there. At first it was the animatronics but now they've taken it to a whole new level. Just the other day, I saw one get knocked down by a bulldozer!

Greening Pastures

To the dismay of every disgruntled teen who thinks it’s cool to say they “don’t like going outside”, nature provides a plethora of benefits and opportunities to people and communities (shocking revelation, I know!). Nearly four decades of research shows green spaces improve the human experience through strengthening social connections, decreasing crime rates, improving mental functions, and promoting exercise (no longer will you need those Richard Simmons tapes!).

Urban areas have understood the value for green spaces like parks for many years, but the disparities in green spaces between urban communities are stark. In fact, while wealthier and whiter communities usually have a higher rate of access to green spaces, more disenfranchised communities not only have less access to green spaces, they are disproportionately more likely to live near brownfield sites. 

A brownfield site is a property or facility where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by environmental contamination, whether that be a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contamination (i.e. a hazardous building/property). Currently, there are more than 450,000 of these sites in the U.S., a great amount of which are located in urban areas near disenfranchised communities. Needless to say, these areas are public health and safety hazards which should be dealt with immediately, but, because *circle your favorite answer!* (capitalism/ classism/ negligence/ racism) they have persisted and continue to cause harm in the communities they occupy.

Fortunately, many cities, communities, and organizations have worked to rectify this injustice, and one organization is a beaming example: Groundwork USA.

Groundwork USA is a network of local organizations whose goal is to transform the natural and built environments of low-resource communities (basically, do “the work”). Their six main focus areas are equity and inclusion, healthy communities, climate resilience, urban waters, youth development, and, you guessed it, transforming brownfields. Their organization has expanded across the U.S. for the past 22 years to provide assistance in 21 different cities.

This organization provides so much assistance to communities across America, but one of its shining programs are the community benefits they provide by transforming brownfields areas (trash into treasure vibes). 

Their Hudson Valley location has been working on an incredibly empowering project called the Yonkers Greenway (hold for laughter). This project first began in 2008 as an effort to transform an abandoned, hazardous park and has evolved into a fantastically ambitious effort to create community gardens, a playground, and 2.4 miles of a walking and biking trail connecting downtown Yonkers (shorter pause for you to laugh) all the way to the Bronx by way of a second transformed brownfield site, an abandoned railway line.

As of today, the park has been revitalized, the playground is complete, and an art installation was just unveiled along the Greenway. With funds secured and the design finalized, groundbreaking for the Greenway is imminent. This has been an incredible achievement for this community and will provide safe access to the subway system as well as reinvigorate the communities alongside the abandoned railway.

Groundwork USA isn’t just focusing on structural improvements, though. In every project, they take a holistic approach to uplift the community as a whole. Groundwork’s efforts with the Yonkers Greenway involved the community heavily throughout the entire process, and, more importantly, it has involved the youth within these communities. These kids have actively participated in the planning process, providing unique insights and experiences and have even led visioning sessions for designing the Greenway.

While this is an incredible achievement, this isn’t the only brownfield site Groundworks USA has transformed. Projects like the Platte Farm Open Space in Denver, Colorado, the Hope Tree Nursery in Providence, Rhode Island, and many more have been completed or are ongoing. This organization’s initiative and commitment to providing these imperative services have and will continue to make huge differences in improving under resourced communities.

Budding Hope

Imagine a future where plastic pollution doesn’t exist. I bet you can’t, and that’s not just because you have a terrible sense of imagination (~*release your inner child*~). Plastic has become so integral in our society that it’s nearly impossible to go a single day without encountering it. 

The whole world relies on plastic for so many things: medicine, food storage, construction, and he who shall not be named-- the straw (eek!). We all know plastic is piling up, literally, creating devastating consequences for wildlife, but those are just the consequences we can see. There’s a whole other invisible threat which can’t be visualized by those sad pictures of turtles entangled in plastic rings: microplastics.

Microplastics are miniscule pieces of plastic which originate from many different sources, but a great deal come from the health and beauty industry (why do they keep coming up in my writing?). They’re in everything from exfoliants to cleansers to toothpastes and have become the most prevalent debris in oceans and lakes because most water filtration systems can’t catch microplastics. 

As microplastics circulate and build up in the ecosystem, they are slowly ingested by animals. As if consuming them through drinking water and god forbid even just breathing wasn’t bad enough, microplastics slowly migrate up the food chain until they reach humans, concentrating the most plastic us.

While we may not know the exact ramifications of microplastics on our health yet, we do know a little of what microplastics can do. Evidence shows microplastics can be transferred to a mother’s fetus and can also move through the blood-brain barrier, which is meant to protect the brain from anything bad.

Now that I’ve told you all the horrible things happening which are out of your control (OK, I’m messy and live for drama?) I guess I’ll swoop in and save the day. 

*WARNING: SCIENCE AHEAD!*

Fortunately, there was a recent breakthrough in a method for eliminating microplastics. Previously, reactive oxygen species (a molecule containing oxygen which easily reacts with other molecules) were found to break down organic pollutants in water. 

As a quick chemistry lesson (I’m metaphorically putting on my lab coat), plastic is an organic material, though not in the produce sense. More in the “made-of-carbon” sense.

However, creation of reactive oxygen species used to require using heavy metals (iron, cobalt, and lead-- oh my!), making them less than desirable.

A team of researchers recently tested a method of creating these reactive oxygen species using manganese carbide nanocomposites within helical-shaped carbon nanotubes. Or, if you’re not a nerd, they found a better way which doesn’t require heavy metals (yay!).

After testing their new nanocomposites on microplastics derived from facial cleansers, the researchers found they were able to remove a significant amount of plastics by breaking them into smaller pieces (sub-polymers). Those smaller pieces are then shredded by the reactive oxygen species into even smaller pieces which are harmless and dissolve in water.

What’s further “exciting” about these nanocarbon structures is their strength and stability while destroying the microplastics. After the carbon structures are done destroying microplastics, they can easily be removed and reused. But wait, there’s more!

The researchers discovered an unexpected consequence. After testing for possible toxicity issues on algae (none were found *wipes sweat from brow*), the algae used the microplastic byproducts to grow. This implies the process may be able to plug into the carbon cycle of the ecosystem, making it more sustainable than originally thought. 

Rather than just eliminating microplastics and creating dissolved carbon chains in water, the byproducts could actually be utilized and incorporated into the natural carbon cycle of aquatic life. If improved upon to a usable scale, this technology could become an incredibly important and sustainable tool in fighting against the increasing threat of plastic pollution.

Feeling Inspired?

If you’re feeling inspired by the incredible work Groundwork USA is doing every day, they are taking donations today and every day you feel weighed down by all that cash in your wallet. As a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, your donation will be used to help under-resourced communities such as the one in Yonkers, New York. 

While I hope it is not the source of your generosity, this donation is tax deductible to the full extent provided by the laws which further the wealth gap in America. So, please, buy this organization a coffee with a $5 donation or a house with a $300,000 donation, if you’re feeling fancy today.

Branch Out

Overheard by National Geographic

A story-telling podcast about the incredible things their explorers, photographers, and scientists have experienced. Below is an episode I recommend in particular.

The Towers of Ladakh: A mechanical engineer teams up with an unlikely band of students who use middle school math and science to create artificial glaciers which irrigate Ladakh, a region in India hit hard by climate change.