Nestled in the heart of Waco, Texas, amidst a lush landscape teeming with wildlife and framed by towering trees, the Cameron Park Zoo serves as a hub for families seeking to explore the natural world.
But the zoo’s mission extends beyond animal conservation; it also emphasizes the pressing need for sustainability within the lives of its visitors, and in the city in which it resides.
HOLLEY DAY: “We want to talk about that green mission that we have at the zoo, but even with different units around our community that you wouldn’t even think about.”
Holley Day, Education coordinator at Cameron Park zoo, has spearheaded the “Sustainable September,” event.
HOLLEY DAY: “People can come and enjoy half of the zoo but really engage with some community leaders about sustainability and what they are doing in Waco.”
Many local organizations and city leaders will be in attendance at the event to spread awareness about how Waco is working toward a more eco-conscious future.
Ashley Millerd, a solid waste administrator for the city of Waco, believes family events like this allow for early conversations about sustainability within the family unit.
ASHLEY MILLERD: “It’s creating a habit early. It’ll stick with them for a lifetime. Also, if we create habits now, with the booming population and, you know, just everything growing, and we’re a nation of consumerism, what we’re doing now will affect their future. So just being proactive instead of reactive would actually help them in the long run.”
Styrofoam, a non-biodegradable material, contains styrene, which is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. When Styrofoam breaks down, these chemicals can be released into the environment, negatively impacting wildlife and air pollution.
One initiative the department of solid waste has set in place includes Styrofoam collection at the Cobbs recycling center in Waco.
ASHLEY MILLERD: “We installed a cold-pressed densifier. So it takes a lot of Styrofoam to put through this machine but it pretty much compacts it into this large block. So being able to find the economic value and doing something great by reducing and reusing and recycling, it's on its way up and up in Waco.”
And the Waco solid waste department isn’t alone in their sustainability efforts.
Urban REAP, short for Renewable Energy and Agriculture project, educates community members on sustainable practices such as composting and gardening. One unique initiative Urban REAP has adopted is aquaponics, a method of growing plants in water that has also been used to cultivate fish.
Emily Hills, Director of Urban Reap, says the fish help to create a nutrient-dense fertilizer that supports plant growth.
EMILY HILLS: “So the aquaponics itself is a large system, we can grow up to over 3,000 plants in the system. It’s pretty compact, we have about 500 to 600 fish swimming around in the tank. Right now we are growing a lot of leafy greens and basil because that’s what is really making it in the summer, but in the fall we try to expand. We sell to restaurants but the goal is to actually sell produce at Jubilee.”
Jubilee is a food market developed by the non-profit organization, Mission Waco, who partners with Urban REAP. Their goal is to provide healthy food to individuals in North Waco who were previously living in a food desert, having to walk over two miles to the nearest grocery store.
Urban REAP also assists low-income community members who face sustainability and climate issues. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the most severe impacts of climate change and environmental injustice disproportionately hurt underserved and low-income communities.
EMILY HILLS: “Our motto is loving our neighbor by loving our earth, so really recognizing that we can’t help our neighbors if we aren’t thinking about things like air quality, water quality, access to food, tree coverage. One of my preferred definitions of poverty is a lack of options, so one of the things that we are trying to do is improve options and increase the amount of options that actually exist around this.”
Community leaders and environmental advocates are hopeful that events such as Sustainable September will spark widespread conversations surrounding sustainability and inspire practical changes in the lives of community members.
EMILY HILLS: “Just bringing up the existence and the topic, to be able to talk about things like clean air, clean water, the importance of it, the value of it, bringing people together that agree with that to reinforce the message is really important. I think Sustainable September aims to bring a lot of them together to showcase to the community. It’s a fun experience. You definitely don’t want to talk doom and gloom when you try to convey a message to people, and so it is a fun way to talk about the positive things that are actually happening in our community.”
The Sustainable September event is happening tomorrow night from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at the Cameron Park Zoo.
For 103.3 Waco Public Radio, I’m Autumn Jones.
