How Green is Team Green Fusion?
• Our project addresses the issue of the effects of pollution on ecosystems, and is going green by cleaning them up. The green aspect of our project lies not only in just cleaning up oil spills from the environment, but also the manner in which we create, package, distribute, and advertise our product. Using bacteria, a living organism, to dispose of oil spills itself is eco-friendly and green. Oil spills are harmful to the environment, causing the animals and plants that inhabit the water it is spilled in to die. We have divided the effects to the “green-ness” of our project into four categories:
Human Effect
This also affects people, because when fish affected ingest the oil, the toxins travel up the food chain when we eat them. Also, cleaning up the oil spill creates healthier waters for all walks of life. It will prevent harm to ecosystems and keep them in balance so that food chains can stay intact, and population of animals will not be affected, preserving biodiversity.
Sanus Terra
Common methods of oil spill clean-up already in use include chemical dispersants, which break up the oil, and in-site burning, which ignites freshly spilled oil to burn it off. Chemical dispersants have proved to mitigate the effects of oil on wildlife; however, if not disposed of immediately, they can be just as bad as oil. In-site burning is even worse, because it releases carbon dioxide into the air. Through use of bioremediation, we can clean the oil up the way that nature intends it to be cleaned.
Carbon Cap
Global warming becomes a large concern at this point, because the CO2 traps heat into the atmosphere of the Earth and created large climate shifts, effecting ecosystems. By using a living organism, it eliminates the use of destructive methods of oil disposal, and in addition, the materials that aid oil spills clean up are conserved.
No-Footprint Company
The way that information is conveyed about our project will also be green. Advertising will not be sent through letters, posters, or newspaper ads. Instead, website ads, e-mails, text messages, telephone calls, and out own website will be used to make our service known to the public. Any digital mediums that don’t use paper or plastic is our goal. The bacteria will be tagged in our own Aquaculture lab. This way, there won’t be any unnecessary building construction over land that serves as a habitat for animals. More materials won't be needed to be manufactured for our lab, because we have all of the material necessary to carry out manufacturing of the product Sanus Terra. Glassware will be used to reused instead of throwing away plastics. The bacteria can be stored in ready to use plexiglass containers. After the bacteria are emptied out and used, the containers may be recycled and used for other purposes on the ship. Alternatively, the containers can also be sent back to us so that we can use them again to package the product.
