Regional Roundup :: BioCycle, Advancing Composting, Organics Recycling & Renewable Energy

Regional Roundup

BioCycle October 2004, Vol. 45, No. 10, p. 18

Lynden, Washington
FIRST COMMERCIAL DAIRY BEGINS OPERATING
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION SYSTEM
The Vander Haak Dairy in Whatcom County, just south of the U.S., Canadian border, will be generating electricity from its 1,500 cows in an anaerobic digestion system. "If dairy farming is to survive in the West," says Darryl Vander Haak, "we need to move ahead with projects like this." Two neighboring dairies are also supplying the digester with manure. Seventy percent of the $1.2 million cost will come from Vander Haak, with the balance coming from grants like the USDA’s Rural Development Renewable Energy Systems program and assistance from Washington State University Climate Friendly Farming Project.

The Andgar Corp. of Ferndale, Washington is managing and building the project, which uses a digester design from Steve Dvorak of GHD, Inc. Marlin Statema, Andgar president, explains that his company started looking at methane digesters when "drought pushed power rates through the roof three years ago." Agriculture, he stresses, "is a major part of the economy, and dairying is the lion’s share of it. For the economic well-being of the state, agriculture has to succeed." A report on the Lynden project will appear in a coming issue of BioCycle.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
DEP CONGRATULATES NEW YORK FOR SHIPPING
LESS WASTE TO STATE LANDFILLS
Kathleen McGinty, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, sent these comments at press time on New York City’s plans to revive its recycling program and the status of recycling in the Keystone State:
"Pennsylvania created the nation’s largest curbside recycling program 16 years ago. Today, the state’s recycling industry comprises more than 3,247 recycling and reuse businesses and organizations that generate more than $18.4 billion in gross annual sales, pay $30.5 million in taxes and provide jobs for more than 81,322 employees at an annual payroll of approximately $2.9 billion. Our recycling and reuse industry leads the nation in employment, payroll and sales numbers.
"While more than 10 million Pennsylvanians now recycle on a weekly basis, Pennsylvania’s landfills continue to take in more than 12 million tons of out-of-state waste each year. Our largest waste importer is New York, so we in the Keystone State congratulate New York for moving ahead with renewed recycling efforts. The environmental benefits certainly are as clear as the economic opportunities are plentiful.
"Since 1989, the primary measure of recycling in Pennsylvania has been the number of tons recycled. In 2001, 3.9 million tons, or 36.1 percent of our waste, went to create new products such as carpets, mats, clothing, playground equipment, wallboard, partitions, tiles, furniture, fencing, reflective paints, traffic signs, decks, office products and casings for electronic products. Through these expanding market opportunities, the importance of recycling is no longer evaluated on just how many tons are collected and counted. The economic value of remaking waste into new and useful products cannot be overlooked.
"Governor Rendell recognizes that for recycling to be successful, there must be viable markets for the products created by recyclers. The governor directed the Department of Environmental Protection to create the Recycling Markets Center. The mission of the center is to expand and develop more secure and robust markets for recovered secondary materials, stimulate demand for products with recycled content, and research and maintain up-to-date market trend data. The center will be the lead organization for the development of recycling markets in Pennsylvania, providing support to generators, haulers, processors, manufacturers and end-users of recycled materials and products.
"In addition, DEP is offering grants to both for-profit and nonprofit organizations for equipment costs associated with increasing the use of Pennsylvania-generated recycled material content in products. And we are offering composting infrastructure development grants for equipment costs associated with increasing the use of food, yard and certain types of residual wastes.
"We look forward to working with New York City, local governments and other states in making Pennsylvania’s success story a national one in the years to come."

Albert Lea, Minnesota
WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT
GETS AWARD FOR METHANE RECOVERY
After installing microturbines last year as part of its energy recovery program, the Albert Lea Wastewater Treatment Plant this year received an award from Minnesota Government Reaching Environment Achievements Together (MNGREAT). The project uses methane generated during the treatment process to power four microturbines that produce electricity. The exhaust heat in turn warms the water that is used in biogas generation. According to the Albert Lea Tribune, the project is currently saving six therms (a measure of heat) of natural gas per hour or 52,560 therms/ year. The project will pay for itself in 3-1/2 years. Points out Steve Jahnke, the city’s manager: "It gives us the ability to use the methane gas already generated at the plant. We are able to take a waste product and use it for something beneficial."

Davis, California
AIR QUALITY CONCERNS LEAD TO
"BOVINE BUBBLES" TO MEASURE CATTLE EMISSIONS
"We will be measuring nutrients fed to and excreted from cows and all the related emissions released into a closely monitored atmosphere," explains Frank Mitloehner, a University of California extension specialist who is monitoring several dozen heifers in airtight bovine biobubbles. What prompted the research project is concern over air quality in the San Joaquin Valley, reported in Resource to rank among the worst in the nation. In addition to emissions, animal scientists will monitor ambient air and surface temperature, surface moisture, relative humidity, static pressure, and volume of air moving through the greenhouse-like structures. Methods to reduce dust will also be investigated. "Rice straw bedding, for instance, is believed to reduce ammonia emissions — keeping livestock pens dry in winter and dust-free in summer while creating a new use for a waste product," notes the report in the American Society of Agricultural Engineers publication. For more details, contact the researcher at fmmitloehnder@udavis.edu.
Oak Park, Illinois
DEVELOPING A PERMANENT ELECTRONICS
RECYCLING COLLECTION PROGRAM
Starting this year and continuing through 2005, the Illinois Recycling Association (IRA) — in partnership with the state commerce department — will develop a pilot to promote permanent electronics recycling collection programs. Writes IRA executive director Mike Mitchell: "Many local recycling coordinators have established excellent, effective one-day e-waste collection events once or twice a year. A typical event will generate 50 tons of material from 1,000 cars. Inevitably, we get a call the Monday after the event from a resident asking where they can recycle their old computer or TV. Our goal now is to improve frequency of service, convenience to residents, while increasing materials. collected, at lower costs." For the project goals, he defines "permanent" as at least once a month collection service.
The plan involves placing promotion flyers or "shelf talkers" on shelves of major electronics retailers to alerting new purchasers of computers to where they can recycle their old ones. Five communities in different parts of Illinois will be included in the first stage of the pilot program. "Our goal is to expand recycling opportunities by giving residents as many options as possible," adds Mitchell who can be contacted at: executivedirector@illinoisrecycles.org.

Puget Sound, Washington
REGIONAL ELECTRIC UTILITIES SUCCESSFULLY
PROMOTE GREEN ENERGY PROGRAMS
After market surveys revealed that customers of electric utilities had high interest in clean, renewable energy from biomass, wind and solar sources but low awareness of where and how to get it, utility companies got busy. Three Puget Sound, Washington electric companies — Puget Sound Energy, Snohomish County Public Utility District and Tacoma Power — launched green power media campaigns that used TV, internet, bill inserts and product offers. Campaign results show more than 4,300 new customers joined programs, representing a 272 percent increase in enrollment rate over the same period last year. Commented an official with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which pioneered the sale of Green Tags and helped to establish national standards for their certification and trading: "Participants in these voluntary program, pay a modest premium of $3 to $6 per month to support generation of new projects in the Pacific Northwest. The impact of just these 4,300 additional participants is equivalent to not driving a car nearly 21.4 million miles a year." The Bonneville Environmental Foundation — a nonprofit supplier of green energy resources to utilities — was also a partner in the recent campaign.

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF WASTE MANAGEMENT
The history of waste generation and its management during the last 100 years — its technological as well as its environmental and social aspects — will be the topic of a conference being organized by the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence. A call for papers has been issued for the sessions on "Waste — The Social Context" to be held May 11-14, 2005 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Suggested topics include the following: Attitudes and behavior (public perceptions, changing attitudes and actions); Stakeholder participation (public decision-making process); Environmental policy (multilevel governance); Economics (trade with waste and recycling products); Sustainability of waste management (urbanization and developing countries); Environmental justice and ethics (culture and ethics of waste). Abstracts can be submitted to Daryl McCartney, University of Alberta, Edmonton —daryl.mccartney@alberta. ca; For other details, contact Jerry Leonard at the Edmonton Centre of Excellence — jerry.leonard@edmonton.ca or visit www.ewmce.com.

Sacramento, California
SPECIAL GRANT PROGRAM FUNDS SMALL-SCALE ENERGY SAVING PROJECTS
Ten small-scale projects from around the nation were awarded funds through the California Energy Commission to conduct research that will reduce costs of producing electricity, saving energy and improving the environment. Each project is eligible for a grant of up to $75,000 from the Energy Innovations Small Grant Program — serving small businesses, academic institutions, nonprofits and individuals who would not normally qualify for the larger Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. Started in 1999, the program is administered by the San Diego State University Foundation.

Mississippi State, Mississippi
CALLED "CROP OF FUTURE," ALGAE IS GROWN IN FERMENTERS
A recent report in the Delta Farm Press describes how algae is being grown in huge fermenters and, after oil is extracted and purified, it is used in many bioproducts including biodiesel. "Algae may well be a ‘crop of the future,’" explains Mark Zappi, Mississippi State University chemical engineering professor about its potential as an oil crop. "We’ve got the waste lagoons (and perfect climate) to support algae growth. It can produce twice as much oil as soy for making high-dollar nutraceutical products."
Zappi also notes that manure is becoming a competitive industrial commodity, crediting digesters for making the biogas that can generate electrical power. He relates how a Mississippi poultry farmer is processing litter to heat his poultry houses. "Solids and liquids left from the process have a high nutrient value for crops," Zappi continues. "The poultry litter is about 40 percent protein, and he’s looking at ways to recover that, perhaps to grow algae. It’s a simple operation, a technology that’s ready for Mississippi, and it’s economically viable when it’s used to offset on-farm power costs." As an example of the economic potential, the researchers point to a new $140 million plant built in North Carolina to grow algae.

Woodbridge, New Jersey
EDUCATING DRIVERS TO USE RECYCLING DRUMS
AT TURNPIKE STOPS
For the first time, motorists along the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway can recycle cans and bottles. In mid-September, HMS Host — a company that operates most of the service areas — installed 160 recycling drums at service areas. McDonalds, which runs three service areas, also installed bins. Though contracts have been extended several times, Turnpike and company officials report that the issue of recycling "had simply never come up. For the first time in the highways’ half-century history, motorists now have an environmentally friendly way to dispose of their bottles and cans," notes the Associated Press which adds: "The initiative comes as officials are trying to reverse a statewide decline in recycling. Recycled materials represented 44.5 percent of the state’s overall waste stream in 1995, and that dropped to 33.6 percent in 2002. One reason for the decline, recycling proponents said, was that public awareness campaigns encouraging recycling have faded as funding for them dried up."

Vacaville, California
VINEYARDS ARE MAKING GOOD USE
OF FOOD RESIDUALS COMPOST
"Using compost made from food residuals from San Francisco Bay Area restaurants, bakeries and residences has definitely revitalized our vineyards," says Remi Cohen of Napa’s Bouchaine Vineyards. "The 2003 vintage year will be the first time Bouchaine has an estate-bottled Pinot Noir and estate Chardonnay, and I attribute the quality to our composting program. We’ve seen noticeable improvement in our vines, enhanced water retention and increased microbial activity. And we’ve done this without using synthetic fertilizers because of the high quality of nutrients in the compost."
Bouchaine is one of about 30 vineyards in Northern California that has been using Four Course compost made available through the collection programs of Golden Gate Disposal & Recycling Company and Sunset Scavenger Company; Jepson Prairie Organics (www.jepsonPrairieOrganics.com) receives the organic feedstocks at its Vacaville site and produces the finished compost. All three are subsidiaries of Norcal Waste Systems, based in San Francisco.
Adds Mark Houser, vineyard manager for Hoot Owl Creek and Alexander Valley Vineyards (as well as past president of the Sonoma County Grape Growers Association): "Microbial activity in the compost is high, and the roots are able to carry nutrients to the plants. All our young vines are happy and healthy, and they look terrific."
Details of the food residuals collection and composting program will be given at the 21st Annual BioCycle West Coast Conference 2005 in San Francisco March 7, 8, 9, 2005. Visit www.biocycle.net.

Portland, Oregon
DEQ CONDUCTS STUDY TO EVALUATE RECYCLING DATA
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is conducting a year-long, statewide study to help get more accurate recycling data on issues like special curbside programs and recycling depots. "We’re hoping information gained will help cities improve their programs," says Peter Spendelow, solid waste specialist.
Samples of recycled materials will be collected throughout the state from single-family residential homes, multifamily buildings, commercial locations and depot collection sites. Collection locations will be selected at random from around the state, based on population and quantity of materials recycled at different locations. DEQ expects to release preliminary results in January 2005 and conclude the study in June 2005, issuing a report summarizing study findings later that year.