REGIONAL APPROACH TO ORGANIC RESIDUALS RECOVERY IN WISCONSIN

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 58

Feasibility study in Green Bay is evaluating how a regional composting plant can provide long-term solutions for local dairy and meatpacking industries.

Brad Holtz

IN BROWN COUNTY, Wisconsin, the Land Conservation Department (BCLCD) and the Green Bay Metro-politan Sewerage District (GBMSD) are partnering with the local meatpacking, animal by-products recycling, and dairy industries to determine the feasibility of establishing a regional composting operation. The

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ODOR MANAGEMENT STRATEGY MEETS NEIGHBOR APPROVAL

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 50

Biosolids composting facility in Utah uses combination of tools — including odor modeling and field measurement equipment — to help guide operational changes and improve neighbor relations.

Leland Myers

THERE is an old Irish limerick that goes something like this:

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UTILITY TURNS BIOMASS INTO RENEWABLE ENERGY

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 34

Central Vermont Public Service Corporation creates a two-pronged strategy to expand renewable energy supply and meet customer demand through cow-powered generation.

David Dunn

WE FIRST imagined the idea of creating both the supply and demand for a new renewable energy supply in Vermont over two years ago at Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) Corporation. While there are a few very innovative utilities across the country (Alliant Energy and East Central Energy are two leaders) that include some farm methane generation in their power supply mix, CVPS wanted to take that idea one step further and create a direct link between electric customers and Vermont dairy farms. CVPS’s current power supply mix is about 50 percent renewable, but our customers told us they want new renewable choices. From that interest, CVPS Cow Power™ was born.

The use of an anaerobic digester to produce energy on a dairy farm is not a new idea, just an evolving idea.

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Business Trends

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 14

ELECTRIC UTILITIES LAUNCH RENEWABLE PROGRAMS FROM BIOMASS
As described elsewhere in this issue, several generators of electricity are using biomass as a source of renewable power. One example is Dairyland Power Cooperative of LaCrosse, Wisconsin that was formed in 1941 and will this year produce electricity at dairy and swine farms using anaerobic digestion to generate power from manure. Each farm will generate 750 kilowatts as part of the process. Dairyland provides the wholesale electrical requirements and other services for 25 electric distribution cooperatives and 20 municipal utilities. These cooperatives and municipals, in turn, supply the energy needs of more than half a million people. Its electrical output is transmitted via 3,128 miles of transmission lines to 284 substations. The first of the farms will be online by the end of 2004.

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Regional Roundup

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 18

State College, Pennsylvania
THIRD MANUFACTURED SOILS CONFERENCE FEATURES
"TOOLS FOR THE TRADE"
Cosponsored by Penn State and the Professional Recyclers of PA (PROP), the Third Annual Manufactured Soils Conference will be held November 17-18, 2004 at the Penn State Conference Center. Following the opening keynote address by BioCycle editor Nora Goldstein, two sessions will address Marketing Tools to "understand customer needs and opportunities." Other sessions around the conference theme, "Tools for The Trade," will cover managing feedstock and product quality; review of equipment; understanding public perception; gaining regulatory approval; and establishing specifications for alternative materials. For registration information, contact PROP, PO Box 25, Bellwood, PA 16617. (800) 769-PROP. Visit www.proprecycles.org.

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BioCycle World

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 6

ECONOMIC DATA ON NORTHEAST RECYCLING INDUSTRY
PREPARED BY NERC
The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) has prepared a comprehensive review of the region’s recycling and reuse industry titled the Recycling Economic Information Study. The ten states covered are: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Key findings showed that annual revenues are $44 billion, with $6.8 billion in annual payroll. The companies in the recycling and reuse industries employ 206,000 persons, and there are "13,000 recycling and reuse establishments. Of the 1,844 manufacturers identified in the region, compost producers comprise 584.
The Recycling Sector was divided into 19 distinct categories by type of

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WHERE WE ARE GOING

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 70

William F. Brinton

IMAGINE you are reading this 50 years from now. It is autumn across America and farmers are preparing their fields for next spring. It has been a dry year and the heat and winds have relentlessly torn at the soil’s living fabric. The extreme cyclical pattern in the weather of recent decades, with overly moist years followed by dry, parched conditions, has caused radical shifts in farming practices. With pressure to conserve moisture and humus in hot years, and protection of soil and water movement in wet years, modern society has become fully soil and water aware.

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POSTPETROLEUM AGRICULTURE

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 67

Farm in upper New York State takes steps to become fossil fuel free — including using biological heat from composting in a solar greenhouse.

Robert F. Young and James Quazi

OF ALL the constituencies concerned about global climate change, farmers should be at the top of the list. And as the keystone in human food production, whatever threatens farmers should, in turn, be everyone’s concern. Conservation biologists are outlining the damage to global biodiversity that climate change will wreak. Yet the ecosystems described as endangered in these (probably truthful) jerimiads are thousands of times more complex and therefore resilient than the simple monocrops that represent contemporary agriculture.

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DIGESTING AND COMPOSTING TEAM UP IN CALIFORNIA

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 64

An organization called Sustainable Conservation facilitates cooperation between municipalities and farms on organics reuse projects.

Allen Dusault

FOUNDED in 1992, a San Francisco-based organization, Sustainable Conservation, has combined business strategies with environmental priorities to advance specific projects. Our Dairy Program has had tremendous success in the last couple of years in promoting better manure management — focusing on management practices, regulations and policy, and new initiatives.

With a $43,000 grant from EPA, Sustainable Conservation began an innovative

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Green Roofs Grow ... With Brown Compost

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 55

Benefits include runoff reduction, storm water flow mitigation, extended roof life, improved air quality and better insulated buildings.

Ron Alexander

LONG USED for aesthetic reasons in the landscaping industry, rooftop gardens are increasingly recognized for their environmental benefits. Regardless of the reason, composters are benefiting — because compost is a popular component of green roof media.

Green roofs are typically classified into two categories: intensive (traditional rooftop gardens) and extensive gardens. Generally, extensive gardens use a more shallow layer of growing media (2 to 4 inches), while intensive gardens use media over 6 inches in depth. Some even add a third category — semi-intensive gardens which use media 4 to 6 inches in depth. Traditional rooftop gardens are more expensive to construct than are extensive gardens, and usually establish larger plant materials. Extensive gardens often use a lighter weight media and establish specialty plants that are more self-sustaining (e.g., sedums).

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EXPANDING PARTICIPATION IN FOOD RESIDUALS RECYCLING PROGRAMS

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 43

Experiences in Berkeley and San Francisco provide data on materials handling methods, performance, prices and availability of compostable bags.

Larry Kass and Steven Sherman

IN the California cities of Berkeley and San Francisco, commercial food scraps, food-soiled paper, waxed cardboard, and plant materials are turned into soil amendments for use by farmers, private landscapers, and community beautification projects. These programs rely increasingly on biodegradable bin liners to: (A) broaden participation, and (B) reduce contamination of organics by nonbiodegradable plastic bags. The bags have the potential to make food scraps collection more acceptable to more businesses, but price, availability, and performance are still major impediments to adoption. These challenges appear in varying degrees in Berkeley and San Francisco, because the two cities and the compost processors they use have different environmental standards for acceptability of biodegradable bags.

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WOOD RECYCLERS DIVERSIFY MULCH PRODUCTS

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 37

Processing wood and green residuals generates five different colors of mulch, several topsoil grades — recycling more than 4,000 tons each month from land clearing, construction and curbside collection.

Larry Trojak

WHEN Dave Smith and three co-owners started Florida Recyclers of Brevard, Inc. five years ago, it’s unlikely any of them envisioned the breadth of products they would one day be offering. Nevertheless, today they find themselves grinding massive volumes of wood materials and green residuals, generating no fewer than five different colors of custom mulch, offering several different grades of

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PAY-AS-YOU-THROW TRASH PRICING

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 30

Study illustrates the dynamics of managing the solid waste stream, and how increases in collection costs impact generation rates and other variables.

Shanna Hallas-Burt and John M. Halstead

MOST local governments in the United States are facing severe fiscal management crises. Stresses caused by national and regional economic downturns, a steady decline in state and federal support, and opposition to traditional revenue sources like the local property tax have all negatively affected cash flows. Nonetheless, local government continues to bear the responsibility for providing solid waste management, education, police and fire protection, and other services. This has forced public managers to consider new policies which incorporate not only innovative means of waste disposal, but also innovative approaches to funding this expensive service.

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BUILDING CARBON CREDITS WITH BIOSOLIDS RECYCLING

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 25

Using biosolids is a logical way to increase soil C reserves. Add in energy recovery from digester methane, and production of fuel crops fertilized with biosolids and the C02 credits/dry ton grow. Part II

Sally Brown and Peggy Leonard

THE total carbon (C) content in soil comprises a large portion of total sequestered carbon. However, reserves of C in agricultural and nonagricultural soils have been depleted over time. A large portion of the CO2 in the atmosphere originated from the mineralization of soil organic carbon (Lal et al. 1997). Factors responsible for this include urbanization, land use changes, conventional agricultural practices, open pit mining and other activities that degrade soils. As a result of these factors, more C entered the atmosphere from soils than from fossil fuel combustion from the 1860s until the 1970s. The total C currently sequestered in soils and vegetation is estimated to be 1555 Pg C with an annual release of 53.3 Pg C from vegetation and 22.4 Pg C from soils (Lal et al., 1997). U.S. agricultural practices currently account for the release of 2.7 Tg C annually (Robinson et al., 1997).

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IN COMPOSTING AND RECYCLING, WSU GETS "A" FOR EFFORT

BioCycle September 2004, Vol. 45, No. 9, p. 22

One of the greenest universities in the nation, Washington State University continues to ramp up its composting and recycling activities involving staff, faculty and students.

Dan Emerson

SINCE 1994, Washington State University has operated a major composting facility, processing 12,000 tons of collected organic material annually. Much of that material is generated by the school’s two largest academic entities: College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS) and College of Veterinary Medicine.

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