How mattresses could solve hunger - BBC News

10,000

mattresses

a warehouse full and it was who we don't know what to do with these nothing goes to waste satur refugee camp in jordan about 80,000 people live here this is essentially a city that emerged in a very short period of time the area is so small and the ground is so salty and we don't have enough water it's about giving people the ability and resources to be able to grow food it turns out what they thought was a problem in

mattresses

just piling up was the way to make everyone have their own garden in refugee camp Tony Ryan's polyurethane foam mattresses I'm a chemistry professor at the University of Sheffield they must be disposed of somehow there was no disposal mechanism and I decide a PhD student is working on how to grow things in polyurethane foam, so I sent the most excited text home.

I know exactly what we can do. We're going to be able to grow things everywhere. We can turn these beds into green beds and everyone can have their own garden I've been to a landfill and seen a tomato plant growing on an old couch yeah yeah yeah and that's why I heard about it at work let's just say we're under the Kappa at the University of Sheffield there's some foam in a box where we can do any weather and any temperature any climate the local farmers have taught us a lot about growing things hydroponic lip the company just holds the plant from shiny so you make the water do the work all the other functions of the soil come from the nutrients in the water, you can use 20% of the water you would use to grow something in the soil because the waters don't run off, they stay where they are needed , the challenge is if you are a farmer who is used to growing things in the ground lead us to growing things in ways a big question hey he was taken by a bur was he and he hi It didn't work then he became the biggest supporter because he's a Syrian farmer and the other Syrian farmers believed him Wow he's taking us for hydroponics my mom is on my side they call you the man with the green hands can you tell me why that's good? buzzer aah we drive the nerve and its half gifts notations a banner under what the camera can be enough authority trouble any out there let me in the horn Adam who am I who am I Basava Padgett left a doctor my lawyer Wow Charlie and Sarah I will marry a jerk with them man ma catcher how many the only one in calm i just talked to you in lahore knee annie why should i have i am not under mode you make me pass in miami its like a base this is one of them just one of the plants and i was whole I don't know how many there are in here hundreds and all the coffee I cooked up some foam there's the old mattress and that just pops up there so it can get all its nutrients it's amazing it all gets recycled my name is Moira Lana Ania I'm here for refugee university chills today we are going to teach a new group of people about hydroponics and we are going to apply the thing with them so they know how to perfect What a light at home, have you seen Or that people respond when you mention an old lady who spent her entire life farming on the land?

It's hard to convince them that this idea really exists, but now when they see it, they get so excited to try it. with a thumbs up everyone gets some sort of starter kit and gets it back. It's spreading so fast and everyone is so interested they used to farm a lot in Syria and hope to have it again labissiere around Israel aha the whatever else I texted you what are your favorite things about this project to have at the old ladies happy to have their home green again and feel so comfortable teaching something new so that the new generation will have their sustainability in the future in case something bad happens more than a thousand people have learned this technique now so we are on our way to meet to someone who is now growing hydroponically at home for you.

I am friends bottles. It

could

be my face. Very good with me. and you, it seems that the garden has made this a more real home, it is fair to say how much pleasure you get from the actual cultivation of flowers and vegetables. I never miss beyond what they call. almond satin that the fountain I think she let me massage hot - it's a very colorful three facade oh wow your house is full of beautiful green things that look is beautiful is I mean it's a full garden oh my and she doesn't like it we have learned both in Sheffield in our investigation of what's been going on here and from the people here that we've learned from us, we just gave them one thing and then they made it blossom, pardon the pun, there are so many things that have benefited. all the research we do we'll be learning from here that in a sub-optimal environment to optimize for high yield and low water use and low nutrient use and low energy use, you mean what's being done here with old mattresses

could

be kind of a breakthrough step for urban farming culture around the world, yeah, and if you can, if you can make it work here, you can make it work.

I think that anyone who lives in an urban environment can learn a lot from this project. It is about extracting value from things that can be reused. and recycling and making the most of very limited space and really limited resources and as urban environments grapple with climate change and those limited resources in the future, that's a reality we're all going to have to face so this is lunch in factory that salad was grown in the hydroponic garden you were OB a teacher how important this work is and in the context of all that career i think when ever and i look back on one done what will stay with me the most it is this.

I have done all kinds of things in my life. I have worked on synchrotrons. The neutron scattering facilities have been at CERN, but what I think I'll treasure for the rest of my life is the difference we've been able to make to people living with a little bit of science and a lot of local ingenuity.