Creating a Soft Coastal Environment for the Harsh Concrete Waterways

Creating a Soft Coastal Environment for the Harsh Concrete Waterways | Allison Scollar
By Allison Scollar, Board Member of RETI CENTER

The reality of our urban coastlines is that they are lined by hard concrete. The Marshlands were replaced by hard-edge concrete slabs, which are not only significant pollutants but also a poor substitute for the marshlands that were replaced in terms of tidal safety.

The RETI Center, a school based in Red Hook, Brooklyn, is developing design techniques to reintroduce the softer coastline using fully recycled materials. 

First, there is cork. RETI CENTER collects corks from local restaurants, bars, and individuals to build the floating gardens. The corks are assorted from the synthetic to the natural. The natural is used to float our gardens. Over 50% of its volume is air, which makes it very light – it weighs just 0.16 grams per cubic centimeter and can float. Cork is a raw material that is so perfect that no industrial or technological processes have yet been able to replicate it. It is highly sustainable and durable.

Every year, cork oak forests are estimated to retain up to 14 million tons of CO2, a sizeable contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Manufactured cork products also continue to ensure this function absorbs CO2, and each cork can retain as much as 3.95 ounces of CO2. This performance contrasts significantly with alternative closures – plastic stoppers and metallic screw caps – which generate 10 times and 26 times more CO2, respectively.

So not only are the corks we recycle used to float our floating gardens, but they also help reduce our carbon footprint.  

The RETI Center uses recycled natural corks very innovatively. We receive the donated corks and recycle them to be our flotation device for our gardens.

 Floating Gardens is a modular system inspired by lily pads. It is built entirely from reclaimed and recycled materials and floats on a bed of recycled corks. 

The lily pads are then seeded with grasses and anchored with weights that have mussel beds and oysters attached to them. We connect the lily pads and plant kelp, creating an aquatic ecosystem. New York City has over 500 miles of coastline that used to be marshes but now is mostly a concrete jungle. These gardens can give back a greener, softer coastline. 

We need your corks. Please contact me, and I will be happy to send our team to rescue them and put them to good use.