On Tuesday (July 20, 2010) the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA) and the City of Colorado Springs Street Division will be placing a one-inch layer (about 390 tons) of “Permeable Friction Course Terminal Blend Tire Rubber Asphalt” (TBTRA) on Voyager Parkway as part of a comparison test of the durability and ride characteristics of two kinds of 3/8-inch aggregate.

The two kinds of aggregate to be tested are slag, produced as by-product from steel production in Pueblo, Colo; and traditional granite, produced by Front Range Aggregate near Canyon City, Colo.

The test sections will extend along Voyager Parkway from the south side of the Ridgeline Drive intersection (extending south 1,000 feet) and from the north side of the Jet Stream Drive intersection (extending north 890 feet).

Slag is an extremely hard aggregate that is a 100-percent recycled material.  Combined with TBTRA, which uses recycled tires blended into the asphalt oil, the material uses 96 percent recycled components overall.  Slag is a reasonably priced alternative to traditional rock.  Slag may also have the potential benefit of a longer life cycle due to its durability.

Since 2005, the City of Colorado Springs has used a total of 226 tons of liquid tire rubber from approximately 45,500 waste tires in its various paving programs.

The overlay contractor for this project is LaFarge North America. This will be their second season working with TBTRA for the PPRTA.  The PPRTA Street Division program manager is Bob Syme.
For more information, please contact Alicia Archibald, BETTR Recycling, at alicia.archibald@gmail.com.

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This article was originally printed in the City of Colorado Springs Green Greetings.

On June 8, the City of Colorado Springs Street Division received an Excellence in Recycling award for their leadership role in recycling waste tires. Starting in 2006, the City began an experimental resurfacing program using Permeable Friction Course Terminally Blended Tire Rubber Asphalt (TBTRA) that to date has used a total of 226 tons of liquid tire rubber from approximately 45,500 recycled tires. Over the last four years, 78 lane miles of roads in Colorado Springs have been paved with TBTRA. Beginning in 2010, the City’s TBTRA paving program is planning to exclusively use waste tires generated in Colorado. Not only has the City’s TBTRA program been well received by local citizens, the positive buzz has led other communities across the state to try incorporating TBTRA into their paving programs.

Even in tough economic times, the City Street Division and Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA) have continued to support the use of TBTRA as part of the City’s street maintenance program. While the primary user benefit of TBTRA is extending pavement life, the product has also proven to have significant safety and other benefits, including improved road conditions in rain and snow storms, noise reductions of up to 3 decibels, ability to filter out of contaminants from storm water runoff, and an exceptionally smooth driving surface.

The Colorado Springs Street Division changed its experiment in 2007 from using mixes with 10 percent tire rubber content in the oil to 15 percent tire rubber content. This further increased the amount of waste tires that could be used by the program. On average, 2.1 waste tires are used per ton of asphalt mix; 291 tons of TBTRA are typically used per lane mile.

Within Colorado, tire rubber asphalt historically had a poor reputation due to durability issues and environmental pollution in the manufacturing process. Street Division Manager Saleem Khattak, assisted by Bob Syme of the PPRTA maintenance program and the Arizona Department of Transportation, researched these problems and found ways to mitigate them. When challenges arose in the field, City staff and their partners identified the causes and documented them with pictures, turning the lessons learned into a technical presentation now used to help their staff and contractors, as well as other communities, develop best practices for the application of TBTRA in Colorado. This proactive information sharing has increased the chances that others will experience positive outcomes when trying TBTRA, further encouraging its use.

One of the unique elements of Colorado Springs’ use of TBTRA has been extensive scientific documentation and testing. By investing in noise studies, pavement condition analysis, and testing of TBTRA over a long period of time using different percentages of rubber, various rock sizes and underlying surface conditions, the Street Division has quantifiably demonstrated TBTRA’s benefits. This testing and documentation has helped to overcome industry hesitation and has changed the perception of TBTRA’s viability in our state.

The City plans to continue using TBTRA where appropriate and economically feasible, as it has shown to be good for the City, the environment, and the roads that the Street Division safeguards for our community. However, building an economy of scale through multiple users is critical to the future development of regional manufacturing of the terminally blended oil, more tire recycling plants in Colorado, a subsequent reduction of costs for the product, and the overall reduction of waste tire stockpiles in the state.

The Colorado Association for Recycling brings together individuals and leaders in business, education, nonprofits, and state and local government to take action to turn greater amounts of waste into resources. Their annual award program recognizes governmental entities, individuals, companies and organizations for their excellence in recycling. The Outstanding Government Recycling/Diversion category is awarded to a public agency that leads by example, creating programs that efficiently increase recycling and waste diversion.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -  The Southern Colorado Clean Cities Coalition continues education and preparation for electric vehicles with its Electric Vehicle Showcase on Friday, June 25th.  This event is the 2nd in a series of electric vehicle topics that Southern Colorado Clean Cities has brought together this year.
Clean Cities members may join in the regional collaboration on planning for electric vehicle (EV) plug-in infrastructure, EV funding initiatives, current projects and grant proposals from 10:00am – noon.
The public is welcome to the electric vehicle demonstration from noon – 2:00pm.  Exhibitors include Duke’s Garage with their 1957 Porsche Speedster converted to EV; charging station demonstration; Boulder EV’s all electric delivery and work vehicle; hybrid vehicles from Phil Long Ford; neighborhood electric vehicles from Perkins Motor Company; electric bicycles & more.
Sponsored by El Paso County and Phil Long Ford, the event will be held at the El Paso County Department of Transportation, 3275 Akers Rd., Colorado Springs.  While the EV Showcase is open to the public and free to attend, you must be a Clean Cities member to attend the collaborative meeting.  BBQ lunch will be available for purchase.
The Southern Colorado Clean Cities Coalition works to advance economic, environmental and energy security by supporting local decisions to adopt practices that contribute to the reduction of petroleum consumption.  The Southern Colorado Clean Cities Coalition is one of 87 U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities programs throughout the nation.  Clean Cities programs develop public/private partnerships to promote alternative fuels and advanced vehicles, fuel blends, fuel economy, enhanced air quality and idle reduction.
For more information visit:  Southern.CleanCitiesColorado.org.  To become a member or RSVP for the event, contact Dianne@CleanCitiesColorado.org.

The program is authorized through the 2008 Farm Bill and will help small, start up businesses build a sustainable rural community.  The program will provide access to capital, business-based training and technical assistance to the smallest of small businesses.  Funding for this program may include loans and grants to Rural Microenterprise Development Organizations (MDOs).

MDOs may utilize the funds for microloans to rural microenterprises and microentrepreneurs (business generally with 10 employees or less and in need of financing of $50,000 or less); business based training and technical assistance to rural microborrowers and potential borrowers.

For Fiscal Year 2010, $45.1 million is available nationwide.  Eligible MDOs are required to provide a match of not less than 15% of the total amount of the grant.  Awards will be made on a competitive basis each quarter.  Applications are due no later than July 16, 2010 to be eligible for funding this fiscal year.  Applications received after July 16, 2010 will be reviewed and evaluated for funding beginning October 1, 2010.

For more information in Colorado contact April Dahlager, Business & Cooperative Programs Director, (720) 544-2931, april.dahlager@co.usda.gov.

Want sustainable and environmentally friendly wiping/cleaning rags and absorbents?  You need American Wiping Rags!

Visit American Wiping Rags and Shelley the Rag Diva HERE!

By: Tisha Casida

They are everywhere.  The water you drink, the bed where you sleep, the clothing you wear, and in all parts of a modern household.  They are toxic.  Seeping into one’s skin, lungs, blood, and vital organs.  They are making people sick.  Cancer, sexual problems, and behavioral issues are a part of that list of sicknesses.

Five chemicals have been researched and evaluated for their effect on a human being.  These chemicals include:

-       Bisphenol A (BPA)

-       Phthalates

-       PFOA

-       Formaldehyde

-       Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PDBEs)

David S. Martin, a senior medical producer at CNN, summarized these in an article (Martin, 2010).  Since learning about the dangers of many chemicals in our food supply and general environment, I have been relatively aware of the potential dangers of these to the human body.  What is exciting, and equally frustrating, is that there is finally some body of research to back what should have been understood about these chemicals in the first place – before they became so rampant in our daily lives.

Bisphenol A (BPA)

This chemical is a component of a plastic called polycarbonate, and would be found in products like: water bottles, food storage containers (reusable plastic), and electronics.  Naturally, if we are consuming foods or handling these plastics, then we are being exposed to them.  This is especially important to remember for infants and toddlers, who put everything into their mouth.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found, when testing the urine of people for exposure, that 93% of those tested had some level of BPA in their system (Bucher & Shelby, 2010).  The folks at the National Toxicology Program (NTP) warranted “some concern” for adverse effects from BPA.  If you would like to see what “some concern” equates to, I encourage you to look at the actual report (see references below).

Potential adverse health risks that have been expressed but not proven (and will likely never will be because of the ties between industry and politics) include: reduced male sexual function, potential cancer risk (by mimicking estrogen and causing chemical reactions in the endocrine system), and negatively affecting the development of fetuses, infants, and young children.

Let me point out a small link here – BABY BOTTLES AND INFANT FEEDING CUPS – made out of plastic, will likely have BPA in them.

The Food and Drug Administration allows BPA in flexible food packaging (Martin, 2010).  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called for more rigorous testing of BPA and finds it a “chemical of concern” (EPA, 2010).

Tisha’s suggestions, which are not proven, peer-reviewed, or tested (except on myself of course) include:

1. Do not drink water bottled in plastic, ESPECIALLY if that plastic has gotten hot – use glass bottles, or stainless steel bottles.
2. Do not use reusable plastic containers – use glass.
3. Do not EVER heat up food or water in plastic containers in the microwave
4. DO NOT heat up baby bottles or ANY of baby’s food in plastic containers in the microwave.

You are what you eat.  Don’t make one of those things BPA, which is obviously having negative impacts on the health of our country and kids.

Next time, we will look at: Phthalates

References:

Bucher, J., Shelby, M. (2010). National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences – National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/media/questions/sya-bpa.cfm

Martin, D.S. (2010, May 21). 5 toxics that are everywhere: protect yourself. CNN Health.  Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/31/chemical.dangers/index.html?hpt=Sbin

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2010). EPA to Scrutinize Environmental Impact of Bisphenol A. Retrieved on May 31, 2010 from http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/eeffe922a687433c85257359003f5340/78110048d7f696d1852576f50054241a!OpenDocument

I stopped eating conventional red meat about 7 years ago (by conventional I mean from a producer that I cannot know, i.e. Tyson).  When mad cow disease (aka: BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, CJD) became an issue, I decided that I did not want to have my brain turn into mush, and that I would rather not eat beef.

But I LOVE A GOOD HAMBURGER AND STEAK, so that led me on a quest to find great beef products produced by farmers and ranchers that I trusted.  Luckily, in Colorado, there are several.

In a recent article I found on Mike Callicrate’s No-Bull website, it became apparent, again, that many people in the United States are still eating and cooking meat that is subpar and even dangerous.  Being a food-snob myself, I still refuse to eat beef from even nice restaurants because they are usually not tasty and the meat comes from huge food conglomerates that use growth hormones, large amounts of antibiotics, and new drugs like Optiflex and Zilmax, which (IN MY HUMBLE OPINION) can have untested and could have unknown results on the body of a human being.

Do you ever feel like a guinea pig?  That is because if you are not becoming more aware of your food supply – YOU ARE.

Never has it been more important to be more sustainable – find ways to purchase food from local farmers and ranchers who you trust, and grow your own food.

Read more about what is happening to beef HERE!

- Tisha Casida

Beltsville, MD – Years ago, Indiana farmer Brian Churchill won a grant from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program to experiment with new pest management strategies on his 100 acres of sweet corn, melons, tomatoes and other produce. Scouting for pests, withholding routine spraying and building habitat for beneficial insects cut his insecticide use drastically. He decided to use that as a marketing hook by inviting chefs to an “expo” and opening a now-thriving farm stand.

“We drive the point home about using less chemicals all the time,” he said. “The customers keep coming back and bringing friends with them…Our farm has grown a lot since the grant.”

Marketing Strategies for Farmers and Ranchers, a 20-page bulletin recently revised by the Sustainable Agriculture Network, features innovative SARE-funded research in a range of marketing options, including additional resources for further information. Throughout, farmers and ranchers like Churchill share how farmers markets, CSA, tourism, direct-marketing, season extension, adding value, restaurants, and/or the Internet improved their bottom line.

Marketing Strategies is the latest of a series of publications that feature the most creative research funded by SARE.  Preview or download the entire publication at www.sare.org/publications/marketing.htm.

To order free print copies, visit www.sare.org/Webstore, call 301/504-5236 or email san_assoc@sare.org. Agricultural educators may place orders for print copies in quantity at no cost.

“Marketing Strategies for Farmers and Ranchers” was published by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. SARE is a program of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), USDA, and works with producers, researchers and educators to promote farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities.  SAN operates under a cooperative agreement between CSREES and the University of Vermont and the University of Maryland to develop and disseminate information about sustainable agriculture. For more information about SARE grant opportunities and other SAN resources, visit www.sare.org.