Month: January 2017

Greenprint: Striving to be Waste Free

/ detroitzoo / 1 Comment

What is ‘Zero Waste’?

The concept of “zero waste” is one that promotes not only reusing and recycling materials, but more importantly, the prevention of waste and the use of product designs that consider the entire life cycle of an item. Zero waste maximizes recycling, minimizes waste, reduces consumption and ensures that products are made to be reused, repaired or recycled back into nature or the marketplace.

Image courtesy of Ana Wyssmann

It is best to think of zero waste as a goal rather than a hard target, providing guiding principles for continually working towards eliminating waste. An effective guideline for reducing waste is as follows:

  • Refuse what you do not need.
  • Reduce what you do need.
  • Reuse what you can.
  • Recycle what you cannot refuse, reduce or reuse.
  • Rot (compost) the rest.

Why commit to a goal of being waste free?

Increasing diversion and pursuing zero waste allows us to conserve valuable resources and reduce environmental impacts. When materials are not reused or recycled and are instead sent to the landfill, valuable resources are wasted and greenhouse gasses are emitted into the atmosphere. Compostable materials that are sent to landfills, such as food scraps and yard trimmings, produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is up to 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide. By implementing zero waste actions into our daily lives, we can significantly reduce these emissions.

Image courtesy of Alan Levine

How to practice zero waste at home:

  1. Say no to straws.
  2. Use a reusable water bottle.
  3. Use a reusable bag.
  4. Pack your lunch with reusable containers.
  5. Recycle.
  6. Use handkerchiefs/cloth napkins.
  7. Compost food scraps.

Image courtesy of the Toronto Environmental Alliance

There are countless ways to reduce waste; these are just a few examples. The best way is to follow the “refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot” mantra … starting with refusing. Not only will you be closer to your waste-free goal, you will probably feel less cluttered in life.

Join us for our 21-and-older Valentine’s Day event, Love Gone Wild, on February 14, and observe as we demonstrate our commitment to sustainability by making this a waste-free event for the third consecutive year. The event will feature locally grown and sustainable menu options and will incorporate environmentally friendly practices throughout the evening. Perhaps it will inspire you to throw your next party with zero waste!

– Rachel Handbury is the manager of sustainability for the Detroit Zoological Society, and oversees the Greenprint initiative.

Animal Welfare: New Penguin Center is Fit for a King

/ detroitzoo / Leave a comment

The start of a new year is the perfect opportunity to share an update on the penguin welfare project the staff of the Detroit Zoological Society’s Center for Zoo Animal Welfare began in November of 2014. This kind of long-term study is an incredible opportunity for us to examine a variety of factors that affect the well-being of the individual penguins residing at the Detroit Zoo, and to contribute to the body of knowledge on penguin behavior.

Since we began, we have looked at the effect of cataract surgery on the behavior and use of space of the affected penguins, how wearing data loggers – which in our case, track water-related behaviors – impact the penguins, and very importantly, the ways in which moving to the Polk Penguin Conservation Center has changed the lives of the penguins at the Zoo.

If you have visited the new facility – the largest in the world for penguins – then you know what an incredible experience it is. Our research demonstrates that this is also the case for the penguins, a critical goal of the new habitat. Although we are not yet done with the study, we regularly explore the data to see what trends are emerging.

One such finding is the change we’ve seen in the king penguins and their use of water. Long-term data collection allows us to compare changes in behavior and habitat use over time. When we compared water-related behaviors for the king penguins in October of 2015 in the Penguinarium and October of 2016 in the Polk Penguin Conservation Center, we saw that the king penguins increased their use of the water ten-fold! The new habitat has ten times the amount of water available to the penguins, so this is solid evidence that having additional space to perform species-typical behaviors is reflected in their behavior. The king penguins are making great use of the water, and this lets us know that the decisions we made in the design of their new habitat translate into an improvement in their welfare.

king-swimming-jennie-miller

This type of research is imperative if we are to understand what matters to animals living in zoos and how to best meet their needs. We just have to let them “tell” us!

– Stephanie Allard, Ph.D., is the Director of Animal Welfare for the Detroit Zoological Society and oversees the Center for Zoo Animal Welfare.

Education: Inuit Artwork in the Arctic Ring of Life

/ detroitzoo / Leave a comment

The Detroit Zoological Society’s permanent art collection focuses on making people think about their relationship with animals. Throughout history, humans have always been intrinsically linked with animals in many ways. This could be through worshipping animals, hunting them (both as a food source and as a culturally significant event), anthropomorphizing them, and more.

Dancing Walrus - Adamie Alariaq

Dancing Walrus – Adamie Alariaq

The language of art is universal; it is the language that can bind cultures together and can preserve them. It is the language that can strengthen a multi-cultural society without weakening or emboldening any one of its members. The works of art we have in our collection are designed to show the human relationships and interactions with animals in several cultures.

During the upcoming Wild Winter event on Saturday, January 21, we will provide talks on the Inuit art that is displayed in the Arctic Ring of Life at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

The Arctic Ring of Life houses most of our Inuit art collection, which demonstrates many of the different ways and styles that animals can be showcased in art. Art is used for many things in all cultures, including helping to explain the stories of a culture and support understanding of it. In Inuit culture, animals play a vital role, including in significant events and rituals. Due to this, every piece has a distinct, important and personal story that it illustrates.

Sleeping Ptarmigan - Pangnirtung

Sleeping Ptarmigan – Pangnirtung

Come to the Arctic Ring of Life this Saturday to hear more about the Inuit peoples and how art plays into their lives and to hear more detailed information on two pieces we are going to highlight.

– Sioux Trujillo is the curator of fine and performing arts for the Detroit Zoological Society.

Greenprint: Plastic in the Great Lakes

/ detroitzoo / Leave a comment

Approximately 21.8 million pounds of plastic flow into the Great Lakes every year, more than half of which ends up in Lake Michigan, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology. For another way to grasp this fact, think of it this way: The plastic pollution in Lake Michigan is about the equivalent of 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools filled with plastic bottles.

Photo by Rachel Handbury

While this study was the first to document our plastic problem, it is only the first step toward solving it. Perhaps imagining 100 pools full of plastic bottles will inspire members of our community to make the choice to limit their consumption of plastic altogether.

Approximately 80 percent of the litter on the shorelines of the Great Lakes is plastic, researchers estimate. This includes plastics that quickly sink to the bottom, as well as surface plastics like microbeads, fragments and pellets, plastic line and Styrofoam, which is often consumed by wildlife and likely causing harm.

Through our award-winning Greenprint initiative, the Detroit Zoological Society has taken steps to reduce plastic waste by eliminating the sale of bottled water at Detroit Zoo concessions and no longer providing plastic bags for purchases made at gift shops. Affordable reusable bottles and bags are instead available for purchase. We are also currently working on reducing the plastic packaging of items sold in Zoofari Market, Drake Passage Gifts and the Arctic Outpost. Please join us on our Green Journey by making a green New Year’s resolution to reduce your own plastic waste in the following ways:

  • Bring reusable bags on every trip to the grocery store.
  • Drink from a reusable water bottle and fill it from the tap.
  • Store food in glass containers instead of zip-top bags.
  • Pack waste-free meals using a lunch box.
  • Avoid plastic packaging. If the items you currently buy have excess plastic packaging, speak up to the manufacturer.
  • When ordering beverages in a restaurant, request that the server brings them without straws.
  • Avoid using disposable party-ware at your next event.
  • Read labels and do not purchase products containing microbeads.
  • If no plastic alternative is available for purchases, consider buying in bulk to avoid unnecessary plastic packaging.

Let’s keep the Great Lakes beautiful and safe for wildlife!

– Rachel Handbury is the manager of sustainability for the Detroit Zoological Society and oversees the implementation of Greenprint initiatives.