There are some pretty unusual ways to be sustainable. For example, carpet recycling efforts have saved more than 1.5 billion pounds of waste from going into U.S. landfills. Compost piles can be used to heat showers and greenhouses. London’s Bar Surya has even refurbished its dance floor with springs that, when compressed by dancing patrons, produce electrical current that gets stored in batteries to offset the club’s energy usage.
Recently, Orlando is re-embracing one of its own odder sustainability efforts. City commissioners are making efforts to approve a one-year renewal of the “urban chickens” program, which allows residents to farm fresh eggs right in their own backyards.
The pilot program launched in May 2012 as a response to the growing sustainability and locavore movements, which advocate the consumption of locally farmed foods. Since that time, city officials have reported the participation of 53 households.
Dean Grandin, manager of the Orlando’s planning division, recently recommended extending the program a full year, with an aim of designing an ordinance to make the program permanent.
Commissioner Patty Sheehan, a proponent of the poultry program, also thinks it’s a good idea to make participation available across the city. Currently, only four of Orlando’s six districts are allowed to take part. She also wants to remove the current 75-household-maximum permit limit.
“It’s not like there’s going to be chickens running rampant all over the city,” she said.
However, the program is not without opponents. Critics have voiced their concerns that there may be odor or noise issues. The most vocal critic during the program’s infancy, Commissioner Tony Ortiz, feared the possibility of “roosters all over the place.”
There have been some bumps, too. One participant was caught harboring a rooster. This is expressly forbidden by the program, which also limits participants to four hens. Another resident was also taken to code enforcement for letting her chickens run loose, too.
Then again, a memo to the City Council from Grandin revealed that there have been very few chicken-related complaints since the program launched, none of which were made in regards to the participants.
