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Kesehatan Lingkungan
Disusun Oleh :

Elizabeth Anastasya 1261050181

Kepaniteraan Klinik Ilmu Kesehatan Masyarakat

Periode 27 Februari - 6 Mei 2017

Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Kristen Indonesia

2017
 Apa Yang Dunia Usaha Bisa Lakukan Untuk Membantu Kesejahteraan
Mental Pekerja?

Kamis, November 3rd, 2016

By dr. Laila Aidi

Di awal pekan bulan September, The Conference Board of Canada merilis sebuah laporan
yang menyatakan bahwa produktivitas yang hilang karena pekerja yang mengalami depresi dan
kecemasan menelan biaya ekonomi hampir $ 50 miliar Canada per tahun. Kerugian ini tidak
hanya disebabkan jumlah absensi, namun juga abstinensia: pekerja,yang ketika mereka hadir di
tempat kerja, tetapi dengan produktivitas yang menurun.

Wakil Presiden lembaga tersebut menyebutkan, laporan ini seharusnya menjadi sebuah wake-up
call bagi para pengusaha, pemilik bisnis dan asuransi untuk perlu bertindak lebih strategis
tentang isu kesehatan mental. Saat ini, pemerintah masih menjadi satu-satunya agen yang fokus
berurusan dengan masalah kesehatan mental, sementara perhatian tidak biasanya diberikan oleh
dunia usaha.

Penyakit mental dan kecemasan memang tidak seharusnya menjadi tanggung jawab penuh
pengusaha. Akan tetapi, jika lebih pengusaha akan mengambil waktu untuk benar-benar berpikir
tentang bagaimana berINVESTASI terhadap karyawan mereka melalui kesehatan mental maka
tentu return of investment (ROI) yang didapat bisa sangat besar.

Mitra untuk Kesehatan Mental (Partner for Mental Health) meluncurkan kampanye Not My
Self beberapa tahun yang lalu. Sejak diluncurkan, mereka telah memiliki lebih dari 320
perusahaan dan organisasi yang mengambil bagian dalam kampanye ini.

Sementara itu The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) membuat sebuah program
yang disebut The Working Mind sebuah program edukasi yang dirancang untuk
mempromosikan dan menghilangkan stigma terhadap kesejahteraan mental di tempat kerja.
Lembaga dan usaha ini patut dipikirkan hadir di Indonesia dengan tujuan dapat mendukung
kesehatan dan kesejahteraan mental pekerja, mendorong produktivitas penuh pekerja,
memastikan tempat bekerja adalah sebuah tempat yang aman dengan suasana saling menghargai
termasuk terhadap pekerja yang mengalami permasalahan mental, serta mendukung agar pekerja
mencari pertolongan untuk mengatasi permasalahn mental dan penyakit mental.

Mari melihat pada kampanye ini atau bahkan mungkin menjadi tuan rumah sebuah acara di
kantor anda. Satu pertemuan sederhana mungkin saja bisa mengubah tidak hanya satu kehidupan
karyawan, tetapi bisnis anda juga. Rencanakan program promosi kesehatan mental. Lakukan
Mental Health Screening dengan provider kesehatan kerja yang Anda percayai. Bicarakan hal-
hal yang berhubungan dengan kesehatan mental, Bullying, misalnya. Jika anda seorang pemilik
bisnis, luangkan waktu untuk berpikir tentang karyawan anda dan bagaimana organisasi anda
mungkin dapat meningkatkan kesehatan mental mereka.
Children should be taught how to wash hands, says watchdog

Good hygiene techniques could help prevent illness and slow use of antibiotics, says national
health institute.

Children and young people need to be taught how to wash their hands properly to reduce the risk
of infection, a UK medicines watchdog has advised.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said good handwashing and drying
techniques should be encouraged to help lower the likelihood of spreading germs and therefore
limit the use of antibiotics.

The guidance also calls for teenagers attending university to be taught how to care
for themselves if they contract a self-limiting illness such as cold or flu.

The charity Meningitis Now warned that first-time students, who were often vulnerable to
contracting the potentially deadly illness, must be vigilant over their symptoms because
meningitis could easily be mistaken for cold or flu.

Health authorities across the world are trying to reduce antibiotic use to slow the growth of
antimicrobial resistance.

The Nice guidance says university students should be shown how to identify illnesses that will
get better on their own. They should also be encouraged to use pharmacies, the 111 helpline and
the NHS Choices website, it said.

The watchdog recommends that posters be displayed around campus explaining how to wash
hands effectively.

Similarly, children at nurseries and schools should be taught good hygiene, particularly after
going to the toilet, before eating and after being in close contact with people with colds or other
infections, Nice said.

Liquid soap and tepid running water should be used to clean hands after touching a bin.
Other measures to reduce the risk of illness include ensuring food and leftovers are stored in the
fridge, cooked at the right temperature and properly heated through.

Prof Dame Sally Davies, the governments chief medical officer, said: We need to address the
growing problem of drug-resistant infections as the global medicine cabinet is becoming
increasingly bare.

Preventing infections is key and so is education on how to use antibiotics appropriately. This
guidance provides important information on how we can keep these important medicines
working.

Rachel Robinson, acting chief executive at Meningitis Now, said good hand hygiene was needed
to combat disease but warned of the dangers of self-diagnosis.

Asking people to self-diagnose and take a view on the seriousness of their illness is a difficult
area, she said. While meningitis is a relatively rare disease, its early symptoms, such as fever,
headache or vomiting, can easily be misdiagnosed, even by medical professionals.

People with meningitis can get a lot worse very quickly and we know rapid diagnosis and
treatment significantly improve outcomes. We wouldnt want people to think they should try to
manage this themselves.

ScienceDirect
 Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine

Volume 6, Issue 6, June 2016, Pages 468471

Spread of Zika virus: The key role of mosquito vector

control
Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) represent a key threat for millions of humans and
animals worldwide, since they act as vectors for important parasites and pathogens,
including malaria, filariasis and a wide number of arboviruses. The recent outbreaks
of Zika virus infections occurring in South America, Central America, and the
Caribbean, represent the most recent four arrivals of important arboviruses in the
western hemisphere, over the last 20 years, namely dengue, West Nile virus, and
chikungunya. Since there are no specific treatments for Zika virus and the other
arboviruses mentioned above, it should be highlighted that the eco-friendly and
effective control of mosquito vectors is of pivotal importance. Besides radiation,
transgenic and symbiont-based mosquito control approaches, an effective option
may be the employ of biological control agents of mosquito young instars, in
presence of ultra-low quantities of green-synthesized nanoparticles, which magnify
their predation efficiency. Furthermore, behaviour-based control tools relying on the
employ of swarming behaviour manipulation (i.e. the lure and kill approach),
pheromone traps, sound traps need further research attention. In particular,
detailed basic information on the physical and chemical cues routing mosquito
swarming and mating dynamics is urgently required.

Anopheles;

Aedes;

Culex;

Arbovirus;

Chikungunya;

Dengue;
 GuillainBarre syndrome;

Microcephaly;

Natural product research;

Nanoparticles

Arthropods are dangerous vectors of important pathogens and parasites, which may
hit as epidemics or pandemics in the increasing world population of humans and
animals [1]. In particular, mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) represent a key threat for
millions of humans and animals worldwide, since they act as vectors for important
parasites and pathogens, including malaria, filariasis and important arboviruses
such as dengue, yellow fever, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, St. Louis
encephalitis viruses (Flaviridae, genus Flavivirus); chikungunya, Eastern equine
encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Western equine encephalitis, Ross
River, Sindbis, Mayaro, and Getah viruses (Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus); Potosi,
San Angelo, La Crosse, and Jamestown Canyon viruses (Bunyaviridae, genus
Bunyavirus); Rift Valley fever (Bunyaviridae, genus Phlebovirus) and Orungo viruses
(Reoviridae, genus Orbivirus) [2] and [3].

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites, mainly Plasmodium falciparum,

Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae. Notably, periodic
reports highlighted the presence of simian malaria parasites found in humans, most
of them implicating Plasmodium knowlesi. Plasmodium parasites are vectored to
people through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes, which bite mainly
between dusk and dawn. There were about 198 million cases of malaria in 2013 and
an estimated 584 000 deaths. However, malaria mortality rates have fallen by 47%
globally since 2000 and by 54% in the African region. Most deaths occur among
children living in Africa, where a child dies every minute from malaria. Malaria
mortality rates among children in Africa have been reduced by an estimated 58%
since 2000 [4]. Besides the fall of malaria infection rates worldwide, with special
reference to sub-Saharan Africa, 2015 was an annus mirabilis for malaria control,
due to the Nobel Prize to the Chinese scientist Youyou Tu for the discovery of
artemisinin and the development of the first vaccine against Plasmodium
falciparum malaria [i.e. RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S)] [5].

Concerning arboviruses of public health relevance, the occurrence of Zika virus

outbreaks have been recently highlighted [5]. Zika virus was first identified in
Uganda in 1947 in Rhesus monkeys, within a monitoring network of sylvatic yellow
fever. Then, Zika virus has been identified in humans in 1952, in Uganda and the
United Republic of Tanzania [6]. In latest years, several important outbreaks of Zika
virus have been reported from the Pacific (i.e. Yap Islands, 2007; French Polynesia,
2013), as well as from the Americas (Brazil and Colombia, 2015) and Africa (Cape
Verde, 2015). Moreover, thirteen countries more in the Americas have registered
sporadic Zika virus infections, highlighting the rapid geographic expansion of this
arbovirus [7] and [8].

Notably, the recent outbreaks of Zika virus infection occurring in South America,
Central America, and the Caribbean, represents the most recent of the four key
arrivals of arboviruses in the Western Hemisphere over the last 20 years
[9] and [10]. Indeed, Zika virus follows dengue, West Nile virus, which emerged in
1999, and chikungunya, which emerged in 2013 [10] and [11]. The Zika virus
belongs to the genus Flavivirus, and is mainly vectored by Aedes mosquitoes [12],
which are constantly spreading over the continents [5], [13] and [14].

Zika symptoms last from two to seven days, and are comparable to those
characterizing other arbovirus infections, with special reference to dengue. Zika
virus symptoms include fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain,
malaise, and headache [8]. However, the surveys conducted on the high numbers of
cases of Zika virus infections in French Polynesia (2013) and Brazil (2015)
highlighted potential neurological and autoimmune complications. During the Zika
virus outbreaks in French Polynesia, a concomitant epidemic of 73 cases of Guillain
Barr syndrome and other neurologic conditions was observed in a population of
about 270 000 people [15]. In Northeast Brazil, during 2015, the increase in Zika
virus infections has been reported in close concurrence of an increase in babies
born with microcephaly [16]. World Health Organization [8] pointed out that further
research is urgently needed to shed light on the relationship between these
potential complications and Zika virus infections [5].

Mosquito population control is a crucial tool in the fight against Zika virus infections.
Recently, renewed interest has been devoted to the potential of sterile insect
technique (SIT) for suppression of mosquito vectors, even if with special reference
to the genus Anopheles [29] and [30]. Notably, SIT has been recently combined with
auto-dissemination (i.e. adult females contaminated with dissemination stations of
juvenile hormone to treat breeding habitats), a technique recently proved efficient
to control Aedes species but that cannot be used at large scales. This has led to
formulate a new control concept, named boosted SIT that might enable the area-
wide eradication of mosquitoes and other vectors of medical and veterinary
importance [31]. Lees et al. [32] also pointed out that, until perfect sexing
mechanisms exist, combination of Wolbachia-induced phenotypes, such as
cytoplasmic incompatibility and pathogen interference, and irradiation may prove to
be the safest solution for population suppression. To enhance the success of these
control approaches, detailed basic knowledge about Culicidae mating ecology, with
special references of exact behavioural quantification of the events leading to
mating success, is urgently needed.

Biological control programs against mosquito young instars are based on the
release of predatory aquatic organisms, and this strategy is frequently not suitable
in the majority of urban environments exploited by larvae of some Aedes species,
therefore further research is required [33]. However, the employ of biological control
agents of mosquito young instars in presence of ultra-low quantities of plant-
synthesized metal and carbon nanoparticles, may lead to the successful reduction
of vector populations, since the sub-lethal doses of these nanoformulations are toxic
towards the Culicidae, but not to their natural enemies. Notably, they are also able
to boost the biocontrol agent predation rates [34], [35], [36], [37], [38] and [39].

Overall, since there are no specific treatments for Zika virus infection, as well as for
other emerging arboviruses of public health relevance, the effective control of
mosquito vectors with eco-friendly tools is of crucial importance. Besides the use of
synthetic and plant-borne repellents to avoid Culicidae bites, as well as the classic
pesticide-based control programs targeting mosquito young instars, further effective
options will include radiation, transgenic and symbiont-based control approaches. In
addition, the employ of biological control agents of mosquito eggs, larvae and
pupae, in presence of ultra-low quantities of bioreduced nanoparticles, which boost
their predation rates, seems promising.
 Permasalahan Perumahan dan Permukiman di Indonesia

Written By Tasrif Landoala on Jumat, 06 Desember 2013 | 06.15

Permasalahan secara umum bidang perumahan dan permukiman di Indonesia

yang ada pada saat ini adalah sebagai berikut:
1. Belum terlembaganya sistem penyelenggaraan perumahan dan permukiman.
a. Secara umum sistem penyelenggaraan di bidang perumahan dan permukiman
masih belum mantap baik di tingkat pusat, wilayah, maupun lokal, ditinjau dari segi
sumber daya manusia, organisasi, tata laksana, dan dukungan prasarana serta
sarananya.
b. Belum mantapnya pelayanan dan akses terhadap hak atas tanah untuk perumahan,
khususnya bagi kelompok masyarakat miskin dan berpendapatan rendah. Kapasitas
pemerintah daerah juga masih relatif terbatas untuk dapat melaksanakan secara
efektif penyelenggaraan administrasi pertanahan yang memadai, yang dapat
menjamin kecukupan persediaan lahan, yang dapat mengembangkan pasar lahan
secara efisien dan pemanfaatan lahan yang berkelanjutan, yang dapat mengurangi
 hambatan hukum dan sosial terhadap akses yang adil dan seimbang kepada lahan,
terutama bagi penduduk yang difabel, perempuan, dan kelompok yang rentan, dan
yang mampu memfasilitasi akses kepada lahan dan keamanan status kepemilikan
bagi seluruh kelompok masyarakat.
c. Belum efisiennya pasar perumahan, seperti ditunjukkan melalui kondisi dan proses
perijinan pembangunan perumahan dan sertifikasi hak atas tanah yang masih
memprihatinkan, relatif mahal dan kurang transparan; belum adanya standarisasi
dokumen KPR, seleksi nasabah, penilaian kredit, dan dokumen terkait lainnya; dan
proses sita jaminan yang masih berlarut-larut. Kondisi ini ikut mempengaruhi
ketidakpastian pasar perumahan, serta sistem dan mekanisme pembiayaan
perumahan. Untuk lebih menjamin pasar perumahan yang efisien, perlu dihindari
intervensi yang mengganggu penyediaan dan menyebabkan distorsi permintaan
akan perumahan, dan membuat instrumen yang fleksibel untuk regulasi
perumahan, termasuk pasar sewa perumahan dengan mengingat kebutuhan khusus
dari kelompok masyarakat yang rentan.

2. Rendahnya tingkat pemenuhan kebutuhan perumahan yang layak dan terjangkau.

a. Tingginya kebutuhan perumahan yang layak dan terjangkau masih belum dapat
diimbangi karena terbatasnya kemampuan penyediaan baik oleh masyarakat, dunia
usaha dan pemerintah. Secara nasional kebutuhan perumahan masih relatif besar,
sebagai gambaran status kebutuhan perumahan pada tahun 2000 meliputi: (i)
kebutuhan rumah yang belum terpenuhi (backlog) sekitar 4,3 juta unit rumah, (ii)
pertumbuhan kebutuhan rumah baru setiap tahunnya sekitar 800 ribu unit rumah;
serta (iii) kebutuhan peningkatan kualitas perumahan yang tidak memenuhi
persyaratan layak huni sekitar 13 juta unit rumah (25%).
b. Ketidakmampuan masyarakat miskin dan berpenghasilan rendah untuk
mendapatkan rumah yang layak dan terjangkau serta memenuhi standar
lingkungan permukiman yang responsif (sehat, aman, harmonis dan berkelanjutan).
Hal ini disebabkan karena terbatasnya akses terhadap sumber daya kunci termasuk
informasi, terutama yang berkaitan dengan pertanahan dan pembiayaan
perumahan.
c. Belum tersedianya dana jangka panjang bagi pembiayaan perumahan yang
menyebabkan terjadinya mismatch pendanaan dalam pengadaan perumahan. Di
samping itu, sistem dan mekanisme subsidi perumahan bagi kelompok masyarakat
miskin dan berpengahasilan rendah masih perlu dimantapkan, baik melalui
mekanisme pasar formal maupun melalui mekanisme perumahan yang bertumpu
pada keswadayaan masyarakat. Mobilisasi sumber-sumber pembiayaan perumahan
masih harus diefektifkan dengan mengintegrasikan pembiayaan perumahan ke
dalam sistem pembiayaan yang lebih luas dan memanfaatkan instrumen yang ada
sekarang atau mengembangkan instrumen baru untuk lebih memperhatikan
kebutuhan pembiayaan bagi penduduk yang mempunyai keterbatasan akses
kepada kredit.

3. Menurunnya kualitas lingkungan permukiman

a. Secara fungsional, sebagian besar kualitas perumahan dan permukiman masih
terbatas dan belum memenuhi standar pelayanan yang memadai sesuai skala
kawasan yang ditetapkan, baik sebagai kawasan perumahan maupun sebagai
kawasan permukiman yang berkelanjutan. Masih terdapat banyak kawasan yang
tidak dilengkapi dengan berbagai prasarana dan sarana pendukung, seperti
terbatasnya ruang terbuka hijau, lapangan olah raga, tempat usaha dan
perdagangan secara terbatas, fasilitas sosial dan fasilitas umum, disamping masih
adanya keterbatasan di bidang prasarana dasar perumahan dan permukiman,
seperti air bersih, sanitasi, dan pengelolaan limbah.
b. Secara fisik lingkungan, masih banyak ditemui kawasan perumahan dan
permukiman yang telah melebihi daya tampung dan daya dukung lingkungan,
menghadapi dampak kesalingterkaitannya dengan skala kawasan yang lebih luas,
serta masalah keterpaduannya dengan sistem prasarana dan sarana baik di
perkotaan maupun di perdesaan. Dampak dari semakin terbatas atau menurunnya
daya dukung lingkungan di antaranya adalah dengan meningkatnya lingkungan
permukiman kumuh pertahunnya, sehingga luas lingkungan permukiman kumuh
seperti pada tahun 2000 telah mencapai sekitar 47.500 ha yang tersebar tidak
kurang dari sekitar 10.000 lokasi. Adanya perubahan fungsi lahan untuk
mengakomodasi kebutuhan perumahan dan permukiman serta proses urbanisasi
 juga tidak selalu telah memperhatikan dampaknya terhadap lingkungan, termasuk
dari segi keanekaragaman hayati. Secara non-fisik lingkungan, pertumbuhan
kawasan perumahan dan permukiman juga tidak selalu telah mengantisipasi
potensi timbulnya kesenjangan dan kerawanan sosial.
c. Secara visual wujud lingkungan, juga terdapat kecenderungan yang kurang positif
bahwa sebagian kawasan perumahan dan permukiman telah mulai bergeser
menjadi lebih tidak teratur, kurang berjati diri, dan kurang memperhatikan nilai-nilai
kontekstual sesuai sosial budaya setempat serta nilai-nilai arsitektural yang baik
dan benar. Selain itu, kawasan yang baru dibangun juga tidak secara berlanjut
dijaga penataannya sehingga secara potensial dapat menjadi kawasan kumuh yang
baru. Perumahan dan permukiman yang spesifik, unik, tradisional, dan bersejarah
juga semakin rawan keberlanjutannya, padahal merupakan asset budaya bangsa
yang perlu dijaga kelestariannya.

Berbagai perkembangan, isu strategis, dan permasalahan perumahan dan

permukiman tersebut tidak terlepas dari dinamika dan kemajemukan perubahan-
perubahan di dalam pembangunan ekonomi, kesejahteraan sosial, dan
pembangunan lingkungan, yang tidak saja mengikuti perubahan berdimensi ruang
dan waktu, tetapi juga perubahan kondisi khususnya bidang ekonomi, sosial, dan
budaya. Kemampuan pengendalian pembangunan perumahan dan permukiman
yang masih relatif terbatas dan mulai bertumbuh-kembangnya peran dan potensi
masyarakat di dalam mengatur dan melaksanakan sendiri kebutuhannya akan
perumahan dan permukiman, juga sangat mendasari kebijakan dan strategi
penyelenggaraan perumahan dan permukiman.
Rumusan kebijakan dan strategi tersebut diharapkan realistik, dengan
mengkaitkannya dengan kebijakan ekonomi makro, sosial, demografi, lingkungan,
dan kebudayaan. Disamping itu, implementasinya dapat mendorong pendekatan
pemberdayaan masyarakat dalam pembangunan, pemeliharaan dan rehabilitasi
perumahan dan permukiman di perkotaan dan perdesaan, serta telah mengadopsi
dan melaksanakan pendekatan lintas sektoral dan desentralisasi.
How to Stop Humans From Filling
the World With Trash
The future of garbage

ALANA SAMUELS JULY/AGUST 2015

WHEN THE $20 BILLION HUDSON YARDS development is finished on Manhattans Far West
Side in 2024, it will have six skyscrapers, 5,000 apartments, more than 100 stores,
and a public school. One thing it will not have is municipal garbage trucks. Related
Companies, one of the developers working on the project, plans to install pneumatic
tubes that will whisk trash to a sorting area. The system should decrease the
amount of garbage that ends up in landfills: residents will be able to drop
recyclables and compost into designated chutes right outside their doors. By
replacing trucks, the tubes will also cut down on noise and pollutionand, hopefully,
on rats.

New York has experimented with pneumatic tubes beforethe citys

Roosevelt Island has used them for trash since the 1970sbut they
may become more common as cities struggle with the acres of trash
their residents create.

The average American produces about 130 pounds of trash a month,

and an article in the journal Nature estimates that global solid-waste
generation will triple, to 11 million tons a day, by 2100. Meanwhile,
were running out of space for landfills, especially in Japan and
Europe. Here, drawn from interviews with scientists,
environmentalists, and sanitation experts, are ideas for how to
tackle this looming problem.

One way to get people to produce less garbage is to charge them for
it. So-called pay-as-you-throw programsin which municipalities bill
residents for their garbagehave been around for decades but are
becoming more widespread. And they work: since beginning a pay-
as-you-throw program in 1993, Worcester, Massachusetts, has seen
a 53 percent drop in waste, from 43,000 tons a year to 20,000. It
really does change behavior, says Mark Dancy, the president of
WasteZero, a company that runs similar programs in hundreds of
municipalities. Now that [people] are aware that trash has a cost,
they begin looking for all the alternatives to putting things in a trash
can.

Of course, people will try to cheat by putting their garbage in

someone elses can. (Some towns employ inspectors to follow up on
reports of illicit dumping; they search trash for identifying
information and write tickets.) But technology could combat this,
says Bryan Staley, the president of the Environmental Research and
Education Foundation, which funds research on waste management.
Companies could attach radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags
which cost as little as 7 cents apieceon trash bags, he says, so
that an RFID reader on a truck could reject any bags that dont
belong to that household. RFID readers can also reward good
behaviora New Jersey trash-collection company called Sanico uses
RFID chips on recycling bins to give people discounts when they
recycle.

Americans are pretty bad at composting and recycling: by some

estimates, up to three-quarters of the material in U.S. landfills could
have been diverted. Some experts think we should just collect
everythingglass, paper, half-eaten Twinkiesin one bin and leave
the messy work of sorting to robots. Certain municipalities that no
longer require residents to separate paper from plastic and so forth
already use machines to do much of this work. Eventually, Staley
says, technology akin to facial-recognition software could further
automate sorting by helping machines distinguish, say, a peanut-
butter sandwich from a peanut-butter jar and send them along for
composting and recycling, respectively. You in essence remove this
element of human behavior that requires people to make a decision
about whether to throw something in the bin, Staley says.

We already turn water bottles into fleece, plastic bags into deck
material, roofing into pavement. But ideas abound for more-
futuristic forms of recycling. Mitchell Joachim, a co-founder of
Terreform ONE, a design firm based in New York, proposes crushing
trash and molding it into Tetris-esque blocks that we could use to
build islands and skyscrapers. Joachims firm has created
architectural plans for a 53-story tower made with the waste New
Yorkers produce in 24 hours. A group in Guatemala called Pura Vida
is already working on a low-tech version of the same idea; it
promotes the use of a building material it calls an eco-blockjust
a plastic bottle stuffed with trashthat it says makes for excellent
insulation and is safe in earthquakes.