Bono Helps Tokyo Turn Landfill into a Forest

Tokyo is in the process of turning a former garbage-covered artificial island into a vast new “Sea Forest”, an 88,000-square-meter park connected to the city center by a road tunnel. Architect Tadao Ando devised the project as a way to aid in Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics. The transformation has been underway since 2007 and is expected to be ongoing until 2016.

Rock-star-slash-activist Bono is among those who have planted trees at the site, along with Nobel laureates and a Japanese astronaut.

From AFP, via Google:

The mega city of Tokyo, the world’s largest with 36 million people, long ago ran out of space for the mountains of rubbish it was producing and had used millions of tonnes since the 1970s as landfill to create the artificial island.

Looking down at the 88-hectare (217-acre) wasteland of garbage and dirt, fenced in and criss-crossed by bulldozer tracks, Ando instead imagined an oasis of natural beauty on the edge of the Japanese capital.

“I wanted to convert the landfill space into a forest,” the renowned architect told AFP. “Japan in the past was covered in forests. But because we have burnt so much, these forests have started to diminish.”

Ando said he wants to send a strong environmental message with the “Umi-no-Mori,” or “Sea Forest”, landfill project — for a return to nature and to boost efforts to counter global warming.

See, Bono’s not so full of crap after all. Yeah yeah yeah!

Link [Google AFP]

Related Posts:

Mexico City Will Green its Garbage Dumps
Holy $#@%! The Average American Family Wastes 122 lbs of Food Every Month
High School Student Finds a Way to Biodegrade Plastic in 3 Months
Japan Harnesses Energy from Commuters’ Footsteps
Businesses Turn to Dumpster Diving to Save Money