These Young Women Are Being Inspired to Become Firefighters

Chloe Cassar is one of a growing number of women firefighters in London. She is also an accomplished weightlifter and competed at the British Championship in 2019, where she won bronze. After a fire ripped through her father’s business, Chloe witnessed first-hand how firefighters battled to save what they could.

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How Music Therapy is Bringing Joy and Healing to Hospital Patients Through Vinyl Records

At Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas, the warm crackle of a spinning record is doing something no pill or procedure can: it’s helping patients feel human again. Pamela Mansfield, 64, knows this firsthand. Recovering from a string of neck surgeries, she lies in her hospital bed swaying her feet to George Jones’ She Thinks I Still Care. Her hands are numb, her ankles stiff — but her smile grows with each verse. “Music makes everything better,” she says. The music is part of ATX-VINyL, a volunteer-led program dreamed up by Dr. Tyler Jorgensen, an emergency medicine physician turned palliative care fellow, who saw something profound happen when he wheeled a record player into a patient’s room three years ago. “I think of this record player as a time machine,” Jorgensen said. “An old, familiar song starts spinning — and now you're back at home, you're with your family, you're out of the hospital.” That first moment of clarity came with Thin Lizzy’s The Boys Are Back in Town, played for a patient who’d been shut down and struggling. The shift was immediate: he opened up, shared stories, and connected in a way that nothing else had sparked. Since then, ATX-VINyL has grown into a full program with a collection of over 60 records — and counting. The most requested album? Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. Willie Nelson, Etta James, and John Denver are also frequent requests. During the holidays, A Charlie Brown Christmas spins on repeat. Each visit begins with a conversation — nurses recommend patients who might benefit, and a volunteer carefully selects a few records from the cart. Then the turntable rolls in. “There’s just something inherently warm about the friction of a record — the pops, the scratches,” Jorgensen said. “It just feels different.” Mansfield’s pick was country — the music she grew up listening to with her parents. “I have great taste in music. Men, on the other hand… ehhh,” she jokes, laughing as the needle drops. She’s one of many patients helped by the small, intimate power of vinyl. Some are in palliative care, facing the final stages of life. Others, like Mansfield, are fighting to get better. After six surgeries since a serious fall in April, she recently stood for a full three minutes — her best yet. “It’s motivating,” she said. “Me and my broom could dance really well to some of this stuff.” For Daniela Vargas, a UT Austin pre-med student and head of the volunteer team, the program is personal. She discovered music’s therapeutic value while playing violin for isolated patients during the pandemic. “Being able to interact with the patient in the beginning and at the end can be really transformative,” she said. “Even though we’re not there the whole time, it’s a really intimate experience for them.” The idea isn’t to distract from pain or avoid difficult conversations, Jorgensen says. It’s to create new memories — something positive that families and patients can share together, even at the end. “Let’s play something for Mom. Let’s play something for Dad,” he said. “And suddenly, you are creating a new, shared experience in a setting that can otherwise be very sad, very heavy.” Back in her room, Mansfield lets the music drift around her as her feet sway to the rhythm. “Music,” she says again, “makes everything better.”

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Brazil’s rare red-bellied toad survived devastating floods, and its giving scientists new hope

In the quiet forests of southern Brazil, a tiny, brilliantly colored amphibian has once again captured the attention of scientists — and this time, it's for surviving a disaster that nearly erased its only known home. The admirable red-bellied toad, Melanophryniscus admirabilis, is found nowhere else on Earth but a small stretch of the Forqueta River in Arvorezinha, a town nestled in Rio Grande do Sul. Measuring just a few centimeters, the toad made headlines in 2014 when its discovery halted the construction of a hydroelectric dam that would have destroyed its fragile habitat. Fast forward to 2025, and the species faced a different kind of threat: record-breaking floods that swept across the region in 2024, part of a growing pattern of extreme weather events linked to climate change. River flows in southern Brazil are projected to increase by 20 percent, with major floods expected to become up to five times more frequent, according to Brazil’s National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency. Amid fears that the floods might have wiped out the toads or disrupted their breeding cycle — which depends on very specific rainfall conditions — a team of researchers led by biologist Michelle Abadie returned to the toads’ last known habitat, a forested canyon known as Perau de Janeiro. What they found surprised them. Despite the changed landscape — one local described it as “unrecognizable” — the team found more than 100 individual toads over two days, including both adults and juveniles. Tadpoles were also spotted, a sign that reproduction had not been disrupted as feared. “The landscape changed so much that it didn’t even look like the same place,” said Graziela Civa, a local resident and longtime partner in the toad monitoring project. She witnessed the Forqueta River rise by over 20 meters during the floods. The toad’s survival, scientists say, is nothing short of remarkable. Described formally in 2006, Melanophryniscus admirabilis belongs to the Bufonidae family and is known for its striking green back and vividly red belly — markings that serve both as camouflage and a warning. The species uses a toxic defense mechanism known as aposematism to ward off predators, and its unique coloration allows researchers to identify individual toads much like fingerprints. Abadie and her team have spent years trying to locate other habitats that could support the species, but none match the delicate combination of rocky outcrops, forest cover, and constant moisture that make Perau de Janeiro viable. “We looked for places with similar conditions, but didn’t find anything that matched,” Abadie explained. Climate change isn’t the only threat. The toad’s habitat is also under pressure from expanding monocultures and the illegal wildlife trade, which targets exotic-looking species like this one. That makes the need for habitat protection urgent. Today, Melanophryniscus admirabilis is listed as critically endangered and is part of Brazil’s National Action Plan for Conservation, coordinated by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation. Long-term efforts now include monitoring, predictive modeling, and field surveys aimed at protecting this rare species and its unique environment. Despite the good news from the recent fieldwork, researchers warn that the toad’s survival is far from guaranteed without formal protections in place. Currently, the Perau de Janeiro site lies outside any officially designated conservation area. It’s not included in Key Biodiversity Areas or Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, despite meeting criteria for both. Even so, the toad’s continued presence is a symbol of hope — and a call to action. “It’s proof that with the right focus, even species hanging by a thread can still surprise us,” said Abadie. In a world grappling with environmental upheaval, the survival of this little red-bellied toad is a reminder that resilience can still be found — even in the smallest, most unlikely places.

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Teen Activist Against Segregation Honored With Statue at U.S. Capitol

Seventy-three years after she led a student walkout that helped dismantle school segregation in America, 16-year-old Barbara Johns is now forever enshrined in bronze — standing tall in the U.S. Capitol. On December 16, lawmakers gathered in Emancipation Hall to unveil an 11-foot statue of Johns, a teenager whose protest against injustice changed the course of American history. The figure, crafted by Maryland artist Steven Weitzman, shows Johns mid-speech, holding a book aloft beside a lectern. At its base are two quotes: one from the Book of Isaiah — “And a little child shall lead them” — and another from Johns herself: “Are we going to just accept these conditions, or are we going to do something about it?” The statue replaces that of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which Virginia removed from the Capitol in 2020. Under the National Statuary Hall Collection, each U.S. state is permitted to place two statues in the Capitol. Virginia's other is of George Washington. “To pair her with George Washington is a really, really powerful juxtaposition,” said Cainan Townsend, director of the Moton Museum, which is housed in the former school Johns attended. Virginia’s choice to honor Johns over a Confederate figure reflects a broader effort to acknowledge overlooked chapters of its past. “I think Virginia is trying to correct some of its inequities,” said Johns’ sister, Joan Johns Cobbs, earlier this year. “The fact that they chose her was one way they are trying to rectify what happened in the past.” Born in 1935, Johns was just 16 when she organized a school-wide strike on April 23, 1951, at Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. The school’s all-Black students attended class in tar-paper shacks with no heat, no plumbing, no cafeteria, and no gym. Teachers were severely underpaid compared to their white counterparts. Students wore coats in class to stay warm. Meanwhile, students at the all-white school in Prince Edward County had modern facilities, working buses, and new books. Johns rallied all 450 students to walk out in protest. They stayed out for two weeks. The NAACP took notice and filed a federal lawsuit: Davis et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County. That case became one of five combined into Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that ruled school segregation unconstitutional. But the struggle didn’t end there. In defiance of the ruling, Prince Edward County shut down its public schools for five years rather than integrate. Full integration didn’t happen until 1964. Johns’ boldness came at a cost. Her family feared for her safety, and she was sent to Alabama to finish high school. She later attended Spelman College and Drexel University and worked as a librarian in Philadelphia. She died in 1991 at age 56. At the statue unveiling, her daughter Terry Harrison reflected on the quiet strength behind her mother’s public courage. “We knew her as Barbara Powell: minister's wife, mother, librarian,” Harrison said. “But the core of who she was as a 16-year-old remained. She was brave, bold, determined, strong, wise, unselfish, warm and loving.” Harrison added, “We’re truly grateful that this magnificent monument to her story... may continue to inspire and teach others that no matter what, you too can reach for the moon.”

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For 25 years, this Ottawa cobbler has kept government shoes — and hopes — in good repair

Graeme Parker has worn the same pair of Blundstone boots for almost a decade. He credits their long life not to the manufacturer, but to a man working in the basement of his downtown Ottawa office building. That man is Muhamad Merhi, the soft-spoken cobbler behind Merhi Quality Shoe Repair, who has quietly spent the past 24 years keeping the city’s civil servants walking — one sole at a time. “Some magic thing,” Parker says, describing a recent fix that stopped a pair of new shoes from giving him blisters. Years earlier, Merhi had crafted him a new suitcase handle from leather. “It looks and feels better than the original.” Parker isn’t the only one singing Merhi’s praises. Around 75 percent of Merhi’s clientele are public servants working in and around the C.D. Howe Building, where his shop is tucked into the lower-level concourse. Since opening there during the Chrétien years, Merhi has seen staff — and styles — come and go. But his shop has stayed. “I don’t think I would have survived outside,” Merhi admits. “Whenever government is not working, we’re very slow.” Still, the shop endured through government layoffs, seemingly endless construction and a global pandemic. Next year, in 2026, it will mark 25 years in business. A trade learned in wartime, carried into peace Merhi learned shoemaking from his father in Lebanon, alongside his brothers. In the 1980s, as the Lebanese Civil War raged, his family of 11 fled to Canada. He can track his life here by prime ministers: Mulroney was in power when they arrived; Chrétien when he launched his business. Now, decades later, Merhi has become a quiet fixture in Ottawa’s downtown core, even as his trade steadily fades. He calls it “a dying trade.” But he’s not done yet. “I think I’ll keep going another 10 years.” A front-row seat to the shoes of government Merhi’s shop is part workshop, part observation deck. From his small counter, he’s seen the full arc of Ottawa’s fashion choices. Blundstones are still going strong. Zippered half-boots, not so much. “Some people don’t wear a suit and their shoes are beautiful,” he says. “And some people wear a suit and the shoes don’t go with the suit.” And nothing, he says, ruins a good pair of shoes faster than Ottawa’s sidewalk salt. Merhi’s seen it all — including photos of Listerine-blue salt piles outside downtown stores. “That’s like paving the sidewalk,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s a waste of salt. That will kill your shoes.” Knowing when to say goodbye Sometimes, Merhi’s job is as much about honesty as it is about craft. “They bring me shoes that they love, they don’t want to let go, but they’re falling apart,” he says. If he can fix them, he will. But if the repair won’t last? “I tell them it’s not worth it.” He refuses to take someone’s money for a job that might buy them only “a month or two.” That kind of integrity has built him a loyal following. And it’s also what keeps him going. “I like the fact that when somebody brings me something that somebody else told them, ‘That can’t be done,’ they bring it to me and challenge me with it,” he says. Merhi doesn’t expect to get rich fixing shoes. But it’s a good living. And after four decades in Canada, he’s proud of the life he’s built — and the boots he’s helped keep walking. As Parker puts it: “We live in turbulent times, and it’s good to know that no matter what happens, I can get my shoes taken care of.”

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NASA Launches First Scientific Balloon Of 2025 Antarctica Campaign To Study Cosmic Antimatter

While most eyes are on space telescopes, NASA has quietly kicked off another kind of mission — one that floats, not flies. At 5:30 a.m. New Zealand time on Dec. 16 (11:30 a.m. Dec. 15 U.S. Eastern), NASA launched its first scientific balloon flight of the 2025 Antarctic Balloon Campaign from its base near McMurdo Station. The helium-filled balloon reached an altitude of roughly 120,000 feet — about 36 kilometers up — and is now carrying a high-tech instrument called GAPS, the General AntiParticle Spectrometer. The mission’s goal? Find antimatter particles that may hold the key to one of the biggest cosmic mysteries: dark matter. At the edge of space, above most of Earth’s atmosphere, NASA’s high-altitude balloons can carry instruments to do serious science without the cost and complexity of a full satellite mission. The Antarctic summer offers an ideal launch window, thanks to its nearly constant daylight and stable polar wind patterns that allow balloons to float in circles around the continent for weeks at a time. GAPS is hunting for extremely rare cosmic particles — antideuterons, antiprotons, and antihelium — that have never been clearly seen in nature. Detecting just one of these, especially an antideuteron, could point to the existence of dark matter particles, something scientists have theorized about for decades but still haven’t directly observed. The GAPS instrument works using two main systems: a time-of-flight setup that measures the speed of incoming particles, and a tracker that records how they interact. Together, these allow scientists to identify antimatter signatures in the cosmic rays that bombard Earth’s atmosphere. If the mission is successful, it could offer clues about how dark matter behaves, how it might decay, or even what it’s made of — insights that would reshape our understanding of the universe. For now, the balloon is quietly circling high above the icy expanse of Antarctica. But the science it could unlock is anything but quiet.

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World’s Oldest Restaurant Turns 300 — and It’s Still Roasting Pigs in the Same Fire

Francisco Goya may have once worked here. Ernest Hemingway wrote about it. Kings, artists, rebels, and even a ghost have all passed through its doors. But through it all — war, dictatorship, and even a global pandemic — Sobrino de Botín has done just one thing: served food. The Madrid institution, officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest continuously operating restaurant, just celebrated its 300th anniversary. And despite the fame, it hasn’t strayed far from its roots. Botín opened in 1725 on a quiet street just off Plaza Mayor, originally as a casa de comida — a "house of food" where travelers brought their own ingredients for the tavern to cook. Over time it evolved, briefly became a pastry shop, and then eventually a full-fledged restaurant. But while dining customs changed, Botín never forgot where it came from. “Casa Botín is about traditional flavors,” says co-owner Antonio González, whose grandparents bought the restaurant in 1930. “We have lasted this long because we have great respect for authenticity.” That authenticity starts with the food. The menu leans heavily on classic Spanish and Moorish-inspired dishes: garlic prawns, wild partridge, gazpacho in the summer, and the legendary cochinillo asado — suckling pig roasted in a centuries-old wood-fired oven. That oven, fueled by oak and never once extinguished in three centuries, remains the restaurant’s most prized tool. Every day, Botín roasts about 60 pigs and 20 lambs, feeding roughly 800 people. And while the pig might be the headline act, it’s not all about the meat. There’s hake in paprika sauce, creamy scrambled eggs with asparagus, and the impossibly rich tarta de queso — grandma’s cheesecake with blueberry coulis. The focus isn’t on culinary innovation. Botín is the antithesis of foam and emulsions. “If the food is fresh, it doesn’t have to be hidden under other flavors,” says culinary anthropologist Floriana Gennari. That’s what makes it stand out in an era of fusion cuisine. But the food is only half the experience. The building itself, with its narrow staircases, tiny balconies, and low-slung beamed ceilings, is a living museum. The current structure dates to at least 1590. One balcony still bears scars from Spanish Civil War shrapnel. The wine cellar, with its mold-dusted bottles and secret tunnel, once hid liberals fleeing the Inquisition. It’s also — according to legend — home to a ghostly diner condemned to haunt the cellar for smashing dishes in a fit of rage. History is everywhere. You can sit at Hemingway’s table upstairs, the very one he wrote into The Sun Also Rises. Or you might find yourself next to a framed letter from Nancy Reagan. Kings, queens, diplomats, and celebrities from Catherine Zeta-Jones to King Hussein of Jordan have dined here. Even the paintings tell stories — like the rare depiction of Madrid’s Royal Alcázar before its destruction in 1734, hanging in the main room. Behind the scenes, the operation is intense. Ingredients are inspected three times — first by González’s nephew, then by the kitchen, and finally by the servers. The staff, who often begin at 18 or 20, learn every detail of the restaurant over decades. Some spend their whole careers here, moving through the ranks, always in white jackets and bow ties. “This is a huge responsibility,” González says. “Botín has its own personality, and it has to stay that way.” To mark its 300th year, the restaurant has added a few modern touches — a new website, a revamped logo, and a special anniversary menu with cocktails and classic dishes like baby eel. But don’t expect radical change. The fire in the oven is still carefully kept at the same temperature, and the menu hasn’t strayed far from what Hemingway ate. When asked how they’ve kept that fire going all these years, González offers only this: “We steal the fire from the gods.” That pretty much sums it up. At Botín, tradition isn’t a branding exercise. It’s the whole point.

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Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library just hit 270 million books — and it’s still growing

Dolly Parton’s contributions to the world go far beyond country music. Yes, she gave us “Jolene” and helped fund Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. But the project she holds closest to her heart? The Imagination Library. Now in its 30th year, the early childhood literacy initiative has quietly become one of the largest book-gifting programs in the world. As of February 2025, it has delivered more than 270 million books to children across four countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Around 3 million kids now receive a free book every month. Parton founded the program as a tribute to her father, who never learned to read. “He was the smartest man I have ever known, but I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams,” she wrote in a letter reflecting on the program’s journey. What started in her home county in Tennessee has now grown into a global network of partners that includes libraries, nonprofits, school boards and state governments. The mission is straightforward: give every child, regardless of income, consistent access to high-quality books from birth to age five. That vision keeps gaining ground. Earlier this year, New Mexico became the 13th U.S. state to offer the Imagination Library to every child under five, thanks to an executive order signed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. “Today, we’re unlocking the potential of our youngest minds and transforming the future of New Mexico one book at a time,” the governor said in a statement. “Every New Mexican child deserves the chance to grow up with books in their home and stories in their hands.” Ten more states are actively working to roll out the program. Some rely on local nonprofits for implementation; others coordinate through education departments. The Dollywood Foundation handles everything else: managing registrations, book selection, ordering, and mailing. In the U.S., roughly one in seven children under five now gets a book each month through the program. Parton credits local partners with making the scale possible. “The real heroes of our story are the thousands of local organizations who have embraced my dream and made it their own,” she wrote. “They raise millions of dollars each year and wake up every day with a passion to make sure their kids have every opportunity to succeed.” Research backed by The Dollywood Foundation shows that the program is more than just popular. Studies suggest it improves children’s attitudes toward reading, strengthens early literacy skills, and helps build supportive reading habits at home. The benefits extend to parents as well, especially when they read aloud with their kids. Another boost comes from how personalized the program feels. Each book arrives by mail, addressed directly to the child, which researchers say helps create a sense of ownership and excitement around reading. For Parton, that emotional impact matters. “In the beginning, my hope was simply to inspire the children in my home county,” she wrote. “But here we are today with a worldwide program that gives a book a month to well over 3 million children.” She’s not slowing down anytime soon. “It’s been quite a journey, but we have so much more left to do,” she said. “Let’s share this dream that all children should grow up in a home full of books.”

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Bionic Hand Brings Baseball Star Back To The Field

At 18, Jamie Grohsong had everything going for him. He was a standout shortstop, a three-time all-conference selection, and a promising Division I college prospect. Baseball was more than a game. It was his future. Then came the night that changed everything. On the Fourth of July in 2023, a firework exploded in his hand. In an instant, Jamie lost his pitching hand—and with it, his identity as an athlete. The game he had built his life around was suddenly gone. For a long time, Jamie thought that was the end. Two years later, it wasn’t. Jamie returned to the field wearing something he never imagined using: a bionic prosthetic known as the Ability Hand. It didn’t promise to bring his old life back. But it opened a door to something new. “The fact that I can feel and sense everything to the finest details opened my mind to the possibility of everything that could actually be done,” he told CyberGuy. That possibility turned into a challenge—and a collaboration. Engineers from the company PSYONIC, which developed the prosthetic, reached out to Jamie after hearing his story. The question they posed was simple: What if he didn’t have to give up baseball? That question kicked off a journey filled with trial, error and small victories. According to PSYONIC founder and CEO Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, the goal behind the Ability Hand was always focused on real-life use. “While we already put the hand through its fair share of stress tests, baseball is a whole different ball game,” he said. And baseball is brutal on gear. Throwing a ball requires precise timing. Hitting one takes force and stability. Jamie had to relearn everything—not just physically, but mentally. Early attempts at throwing were frustrating. The bionic hand uses sensors that detect muscle movements in the forearm. But a baseball throw involves multiple muscles firing at once, which often caused the hand to open too early. Some throws slipped. Some landed awkwardly. The fix wasn’t to grip harder. It was to adjust the motion. Jamie learned to hold the ball more loosely, using the weight of the throw to let it go naturally. Slowly, the throws got better. Then they became consistent. Each one helped rebuild the confidence that the injury had taken away. Just as he was getting his rhythm back, something unexpected happened. Jamie got a call inviting him to throw the ceremonial first pitch at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. He had barely over a week to prepare. The pitch wasn’t perfect. That didn’t matter. Standing on a Major League mound, using a bionic hand, Jamie showed that the game hadn’t left him after all. “Life does not require perfection to be meaningful,” he later said. Throwing was one thing. Hitting was another. Jamie bats left-handed, which helped. With the prosthetic as his bottom hand on the bat, the impact pressure spread across the fingers instead of concentrating on the thumb. It made swinging less risky. “Swinging a bat was a feeling I didn’t think I’d feel again,” he said. At first, the sensation was strange. Contact didn’t feel right. But slowly, swings got smoother. Balls started flying. And then, one cleared the fence. What happened next might be a first: Jamie is believed to have hit the first documented home run using a multi-articulating bionic hand. He wasn’t chasing a record. He was reclaiming part of himself. His story also raises broader questions about the purpose of assistive technology. The best designs, experts say, aren’t about making someone superhuman. They’re about enabling real people to reconnect with real parts of their lives. Even the best prosthetics are expensive and fragile. They break under pressure. They take time to learn. But with patience and the right support, they can unlock new possibilities—especially when paired with the kind of persistence Jamie brought to the field. He’s not trying to be an inspiration. But what he’s done—step by step, swing by swing—redefines what resilience looks like. Jamie Grohsong’s comeback wasn’t about getting back to where he was. It was about building something new, with the same love for the game that started it all.

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Florida Chef Rescues Loyal Customer After Noticing His Daily Gumbo Order Stopped

For 10 years, Charlie Hicks never missed a day. Twice a day, every day, the 78-year-old walked into the Shrimp Basket restaurant in Pensacola, Florida, and ordered the same thing: a cup of gumbo, light on the rice. He became part of the rhythm of the restaurant — a fixture so consistent that when he suddenly disappeared in September, the staff immediately noticed. “Mr. Hicks don’t miss no days,” said Donell Stallworth, a chef at the Shrimp Basket. “We open the doors up, Mr. Hicks is there to greet us.” Days went by, and Charlie didn’t show. Donell couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. So during one of his shifts, he made a decision — he left work to check on his friend. He knocked and knocked. Just as he was about to leave, he heard a faint voice. “Help.” Donell opened the door to find Charlie lying on the ground. He had broken two ribs and was severely dehydrated. He’d been alone and unable to call for help. Charlie was rushed to the hospital, and while he recovered, the Shrimp Basket team didn’t just visit — they brought his beloved gumbo to him. But their care didn’t stop there. The staff helped move Charlie into a new apartment right next to the restaurant so they could keep an eye on him and make sure he’d never be alone again. “I’m glad to have you back, buddy,” Donell told him on Charlie’s first trip back for gumbo after months away. “He’s that uncle. He’s that grandfather. He’s that best friend. He’s all in one,” Donell said. The story has touched thousands, with viewers praising the Shrimp Basket team for their compassion and going far beyond the call of duty. “Wow — going the extra mile — checking up on him, THEN getting him the apartment and appliances!!” one commenter wrote. “Thank you for your kind acts and generosity and setting the example for us all!” Donell and Charlie are back to their old routine now — one cup of gumbo at a time, and a friendship that means far more than words (or recipes) can say.

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Company Transforms Used Cooking Oil Into Dust Solution For Dirt Roads

A Vancouver Island company has found an unexpectedly green use for a greasy problem — and it could help solve a major pollution issue on British Columbia’s backroads. Ergo Eco Solutions, based in Cobble Hill, B.C., is taking used cooking oil from local restaurants and converting it into a concentrate that can be sprayed on unpaved roads to suppress dust. After a successful pilot project last summer, the company is sharing results that point to a promising new way to reduce road dust while cutting water use and environmental damage. “I think anybody who’s driven on a rural road — especially behind someone and kind of eaten the dust — knows that it’s a problem,” said CEO Brian Roberts. “Both for respiration, for human health, and also for visibility and safety.” More than 90 percent of roads in B.C. are unpaved, and in the dry summer months, they kick up large amounts of fine particulate matter — a known health hazard. The standard methods to control dust include watering the roads several times a day or applying chloride salts, which are known to be corrosive and environmentally harmful. Roberts, who previously worked as an environmental consultant, said their solution does things differently. The company collects waste oil from restaurants like the Cobblestone Pub, then refines it using a proprietary process at a facility just 10 km away. The final product is mixed with water and sprayed onto dirt roads. Once applied, the oil-based solution binds with fine particles in the dirt, holding them down while also reinforcing the road surface to resist erosion. The results have been encouraging. According to data from their pilot program, the cooking oil mixture helped reduce water usage for dust suppression by up to 99.5 percent — a significant gain in efficiency, with less road damage and fewer truck runs. One of the first partners in the pilot was the Malahat Nation, where most roads are unpaved. According to the Nation’s chief administrative officer, Josh Handysides, the impact was immediate. “You could see a clear line between where the product was applied and where it wasn’t,” he said. “It held up all summer, and really helped hold the road surface together as well.” The Cobblestone Pub, one of the restaurants supplying oil to Ergo, contributes roughly 22 litres of used cooking oil each day. Since joining the program, they’ve sent nearly 8,000 litres of oil to the facility. “It’s an easy way for us to be more environmentally responsible,” said pub manager Ashley Carlson. “We’re recycling food waste and supporting green jobs in the community.” Beyond its environmental benefits, Roberts said the project is a local example of a circular economy in action — turning restaurant waste into a useful product, processed and distributed entirely within the region. “There are so few good solutions for controlling dust on roads right now,” said Roberts. “This gives communities a way to manage it sustainably, with materials already on hand.” Ergo Eco Solutions plans to expand the program further this summer, partnering with more communities and restaurants across the island.

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