No. It’s not a misprint. Yes. 5000. Yep. Ducks. Going for a walk, waddling their merry way along the streets of China on a weekday morning. They’re off to a feeding pond, lead by their farmer-owner. If you look carefully, it looks as if there’s someone else helping him control the movement of the ducks. But even with two people, it’s incredible they both manage that feat. It’s 5000 ducks for God’s sake.

So why is he taking them to the feeding pond? Why not feed them on the farm? Well, one of the reasons is to save on food. The other reason is because he believes raising them “in a wild way” will apparently make them taste better.

It looks bizarre seeing so many ducks on a road, with the ducks, the cars and the motorbikes trying to negotiate space, dancing around each other at times. Bizarre and surreal, but on the other hand rather special to see. You don’t see things like that everyday.

The farmer’s hardly ever lost any ducks on his walks. How is that possible? Only he knows. But in any case, there’s something about seeing all those ducks in such an unusual setting that’s made some people smile. Afterall, it’s made the news, hasn’t it?

Coal Ash Laws Beginning to Take Shape

For years the EPA and other environmental agencies have known that coal ash is very bad for the environment but until recently there was no real solution to the problem. Fortunately now some steps are finally being taken by various levels of government to force power plants to deal with coal ash in a more environmentally friendly way.

Coal ash is created anytime coal is burnt; so obviously large coal powered power plants are going to create substantial amounts of coal ash. Recently some power plants have begun selling or giving away the coal ash to paving companies because it makes a great addition to concrete and cement mixed; but in general most coal ash is still just deposited somewhere.

The EPA however is working to fix this through some restrictive laws. The EPA is planning on issuing fines and fees based on how much coal ash escaped from a power plant without being reused or recycled so this is essentially the EPA’s way of forcing power plants to participate in recycling programs.

Fortunately recycling coal ash into concrete and asphalt is not only very simple, it is actually a good thing for the roads. Roads paved with coal ash additives have been shown to last longer and crack less which means the government will have less upkeep to perform on these roads. In the coming years it is probable that significantly more roads and bridges will be paved with coal ash thanks to the EPA regulations.