First Project in The Books

So we're about two weeks into the program at this point and on Monday afternoon we presented our first group projects to the class. Our topic focused around the handling of construction and demolition waste in the EU and how it compares to the US. I was a bit surprised by how little this topic has been mentioned historically and currently in EU environmental regulation given how substantial of a portion construction and demolition waste make up of all of the EU's solid waste. Though there may be a lack of detail in their regulation the EU has set the impressive and ambitious goal of recycling 70% of this type of waste by the year 2020. By contrast the US has no common goal for the reuse and recycling of construction and demolition waste, and individual states are free to set their own standards. This results in lots of non-uniformity in sustainability throughout the country which in my opinion holds the nation back as a whole. I believe that for the progression of sustainable waste management in the US the federal government must begin to impose nationwide regulation pertaining to the management of construction and demolition. 

After our presentation my fellow group members and I went out for a celebratory meal at a local restaurant. We ordered a few liters of wine and two sampler type appetizers to start us off and were caught completely off guard by what was eventually brought to our table. A fleet of waiters brought 3 or 4 trays full of plates of native Sardinian foods we otherwise would have never ordered on our own. There was so much food coming to us the waiters had a grab another table to add alongside ours just to have enough room for all of the plates. Various types of seafood like sea snail and octopus were brought out alongside various cheeses and breads. Some more exotic foods made an appearance as well, such as what was apparently cow knuckle and liver. This was gesticulated to us by our enthusiastic waitress who pointed to her hand to indicate the knuckle dish and said "when you drink too much" and pointed to the mid-chest region for the liver. All hope of ordering a main course was eliminated once we finally finished the mountains  of delicious appetizers, concluding one of the most enjoyable meals I have had thus far on the island. I really liked having no idea what it was that we ordered and eaten until we had already had it all and would like to do that again. On a side note I ate horse for the first time today, in the form of a generously sized steak accompanied by french fries. It was very good and surprisingly similar to steak from a cow, though just a little bit tougher. I will never look at a horse the same way again.      

Our most recent technical field trip was to a large Sardinian landfill about 45 minutes from Cagliari. I had seen landfills from a distance before but this was my first time seeing one in the process of being operated and maintained. The property the landfill occupies is absolutely massive and it took us an additional 10-15 minuets just to drive from the front gates of the property to the actively maintained portion of the landfill. I had no idea how huge and complicated it was to handle the systems involved with landfill operation and maintenance. Surprisingly though, this was definitely the least smelly of all of the sites we have visited this far and there was quite a nice view from the landfill. We also visited the co-generative power portion of the site, where captured biogas from the landfill is used to generate both heat and electricity sustainability.