Getty Images / Joanne Dugan
READ MORE ABOUT:
As Greensburg rebuilds their city from the ground up, they're realizing that just about every element of the city has the capacity for greater greening. Even the roads they drive and walk on. Sure, cars are the hot topic in countless environmental debates, but how about the streets stuck beneath them? Turns out, not all roads are created equal. The way a road is constructed can have a pretty significant effect on the ecosystem it runs through.
Many roads are ‘impervious’, and cause rainwater and leaking car oils to collect in pools of runoff at its sides, which can cause severe damage to adjacent plant and animal life. It also deprives the soil below the road of groundwater, harming the root structures of plant life. The trade journal Stormwater advocates using an eco-friendly porous pavement, which allows liquids to seep into its surface and prevents runoff.
Another way to add some points to your road's greenness tally is to find out whether it was made from recycled parts. A recycled road, you say? Preposterous! Not so, as many cities in Calif. are creating new long lasting roads from recycled tires. And with 40 million disposed tires a year, the state should have plenty for recycling.
-
- {}
