Waste Reduction through on site Management

(two above) Sylvester the Digester is a composting unit in the Sydney Botanical Gardens Australia. Workers can deposit clippings and other botanical waste here, and with some time and compaction, it is turned into compost on site. This can then be used to fertilize and stabilize the gardens. This reduces the environmental costs of transporting the waste to another facility and buying compost or fertilizer elsewhere.

My father is currently building a house in Southern Vermont, and in an effort to reduce consumption, pollution, and cost, he mills the wood he needs from trees he collects from our property. This picture (bottom) shows transportation of timbers from where they were dropped to the mill, a distance of under a mile for the most part. Having everything from resource (trees for timber) to final product (the barn and house) in the same location reduces transportation and makes the process much more sustainable and efficient.