Information on the National Future Cities Competition is available at futurecity.org.
A&WMA-NFS sponsors the Buffalo Future Cities Competition (FCC), and our members assist with judging and mentoring FCC teams. In 2022, A&WMA-NFS provided a donation of $200 to the WNT Future Cities Competition. Good luck to all the Buffalo Area FCC students!
2022 Awardee of the AWMA "Pollution Prevention Award" - Presented by A&WMA-NFS to Transit Middle School - "Silvanus"
On Saturday, January 22, 2022, in a feat of amazing technology, the A&WMA-NFS judges were able to participate virtually as Special Award judges for the WNY Future Cities competition. Twelve Middle School teams each had 10 minutes via Zoom to show us their model and explain how they designed their city using a circular system where everything was reused or taken apart and remade into something else. Their goals were to design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use and regenerate natural systems. The winner of the Creative Engineering Award, the team from School 42 even included rentable clothes and a conservation zoo in their city with the manure being available for use in the residents’ gardens. For the AWMA Pollution Prevention Award, our team selected Silvanus, a city located in an Icelandic climate, designed by the team from Transit Middle School. Their city was powered by satellite solar panels. Taking advantage of the location, they used agrivolcanics and vertical farming. They included a circular food supply program where after cows were butchered, the leftover parts were used to raise flies, which were used to feed fish. After the fish were harvested, the fish waste was fed to the cows. For their sanitary wastewater, they filtered out the solids to produce fertilizer (irradiated with UV light to kill disease and other harmful organisms), the water was then treated with UV light and filtered through moss and was ready for reuse. They also grew mushrooms into square shaped molds to produce “bricks” for building houses. The building materials would be biodegradable when the building was demolished. Does your house biodegrade while you are living in it? Exactly what does a house made of mushroom bricks smell like? I didn’t think to ask those questions. While the technology worked smoothly allowing us to click into and out of the presentations (Zoom meetings are the new normal), it wasn’t quite the same as seeing the students’ enthusiasm in person.
Judges: Jill Banaszak, Gary LaLiberty and John Banaszak