BioCycle World

BioCycle December 2004, Vol. 45, No. 12, p. 6

RESOURCE RECOVERY FORUM IN UK PROVIDES WORLD VIEW OF RECYCLING
As Director of the Resource Recovery Forum in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, Kit Strange assembles a huge array of information on all kinds of recycling - which he then communicates via email throughout the world. Here are samples of what's arrived within the past two weeks:

About the increasing amount of food residuals in MSW - “We are increasingly leading a very frenetic lifestyle. Two out of every three couples are now working couples,” reports a professor of organizational psychology. “People don't have time to do shopping, so they go once a week and buy all their groceries at once. But they don't have time to cook, so they just eat a portion of the food they buy and throw away the rest.” In Britain, that thrown-out portion amounts to L865 million a year ($1.64 billion U.S.) (Yubbies - Young Urban Bin Baggers - is the name given the disposers.)
Seventy percent of household waste can be turned into compost, but Britain is near the bottom of the recycling league. “The Netherlands is top with 59 percent of MSW recycled or composted compared with a paltry 14.5 percent in the UK,” notes Strange.
About new ways to make the most of waste, a program to begin April, 2005 called BREW - Business Resource Efficiency and Waste - will use about $570 million of landfill taxes to provide businesses with practical ways to minimize wastes as well as use recycled products. Concurrent with that objective, two groups - London Remade and London CRN - will help firms access new markets. Another London group called The Laundry collects from small businesses in central London to recycle paper and cardboard.
Latest reports from RRF also reveal these happenings worldwide: Japan - Matsue City in Shimane Prefecture has launched a “Let's Carry Our Own Chopsticks” campaign to help stop deforestation. Meanwhile the Lagos State Government in Nigeria has started to work with private collection firms to collect and utilize its waste. Based on littering behavior studies, Brisbane is declared Australia's cleanest city; the Katong neighborhood of Singapore (28,000 households) recycled more than 80 percent of its garbage, while the national average is 51 percent; and Kansas City, Missouri has begun a “Recycle First” program giving residents free, unlimited recyclables collection as part of its “hybrid” pay-as-you-throw arrangement. Website address for the Resource Recovery Forum is: www.resourcesnotwaste.org.

FOUR GREEN BUSINESSES WIN WRI COMPETITION IN MEXICO
A company that restores previously unusable land for aquaculture, another that helps replenish water supplies, a third that sells Mexico's first organic chicken and a fourth that uses sustainable technology to produce tortillas have been announced as winners of the World Resource Institute's (WRI) New Ventures Investor Forum in Mexico. A Washington, D.C.-based environmental think tank, WRI convenes the forum twice a year in Latin America to provide entrepreneurs with a venue to showcase their businesses and to facilitate the transfer of venture capital to sustainable enterprises. The winners announced in late November are:
- Aires de Campo creates a specialized and alternative commercial channel for organic products, based on sustainable exchange, with innovative advantages for both producers and consumers. It currently sells over 120 products, including Mexico's first organic chicken, in 11 “BioCenters,” or small stores, in Mexico.
- AquaConsult Internacional promotes the diversification of Mexican aquaculture in a way that helps improve the profitability for producers while using previously unusable lands through the production of a sustainable crop of specialized algae.
- EcoCreto Internacional is a leader in permeable concrete, which helps replenish underlying aquifers and deters runoff. The wide acceptance of EcoCreto will help reduce the increasing water scarcity for people and ecosystems.
- Nixma is the leading company is Mexico for a new technology to produce corn flour dough for tortillas that dramatically reduces water inputs and eliminates residues common in traditional methods.
“All of our finalists at this forum have the potential to drastically change their industries. We can be inspired by the innovation and dedication of our entrepreneurs to produce goods and services, through viable business models, that are forward-thinking for populations and our environment,” said Luiz Ros, director of WRI's New Ventures program.
During the November 18-19 forum at the Hotel W, the other finalists named were AdobeTerra, Bioplaneta, Energía MP, Nova Energía, and Sustenta Soluciones. In addition, Dr. Herbert Kohler, chief environmental officer of DaimlerChrysler, delivered the forum's November 18 keynote speech.
New Ventures started working in Mexico in 2004 to create tools to foster the development of sustainable enterprises. After four years of operation, New Ventures entrepreneurs have attracted more than $10 million in investments. New Ventures Mexico is a collaborative program of the Mexican Nature Conservation Fund and WRI.

STARBUCKS GETS FDA APPROVAL FOR USE OF RECYCLED PAPER FIBER CUPS
The Starbucks Coffee Co. has received approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to use recycled content in food packaging - specifically its hot beverage cups. Following successful testing, Starbucks plans to start using 10 percent recycled paper fiber, an industry first. By using that percentage in hot beverage cups, the Seattle-based chain with thousands of locations nationwide expects to replace five million pounds of virgin fiber every year. Testing will begin early in 2005.
Mississippi River Corp. will supply the recycled content pulp to be processed by MeadWestvaco Corp. along with virgin fiber to produce paper for conversion into cups by Solo Cup Company. “Our goal is to convert hot cups in our U.S. company operated retail stores by the end of 2005,” explains Jim Donald, who will soon become CEO of Starbucks. As of early November, the company has 4,325 stores in the U. S. and will be exploring ways to include recycled paper content in other goods. Postconsumer fiber is currently used in other Starbucks paper products such as napkins, shopping bags and shipping containers. The company reports that it wants to raise recycled fiber content in its paper products from roughly 28 percent to 30 percent.

MINISTER IN WALES, UK REPORTS DRAMATIC INCREASES IN RECYCLING
AND COMPOSTING
According to Carwyn Jones, Minister for Environment, Planning and Countryside in Wales, the proportion of municipal waste being recycled or composted has risen from 12.7 percent in 2002-03 to 17.6 percent in 2003-04. Comments Jones: “With material and energy prices likely to rise, it is more important than ever. To build even further, the Welsh Assembly Government will continue to provide generous funding to make our ambitious target of 40 percent recycling by 2010 a reality.”
The targets for Wales for local authority recycling and composting are:
25 percent combined recycling and composting by 2006-07 with a minimum of 10 percent each of recycling and composting;
40 percent combined recycling and composting by 2009-10 with a minimum of 15 percent each of recycling and composting.
Since 2001-02 the Welsh Assembly Government has provided an additional £42 million in funding for local authorities to enable them to meet the recycling and composting targets. A further £63 million of funding will be provided from 04-05 to 06-07. Local authorities are using this funding to expand the curbside collection of recyclable and compostable materials from households. They can also use the funding to improve household waste recycling centers and promote activities such as home composting.

VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS ARE BACKING THE RENEWABLE ENERGY INNOVATORS
Recent reports show an increasing involvement of venture capital investors in entrepreneurial companies breaking new ground in renewable energy technologies. “We're one of a few investment banks in North America that has amassed substantial experience in the renewable energy industry sector,” writes CEO Bruce Woodry of the Sigma Capital Group in Harbor Springs, Michigan. “Our company is gearing up to meet the substantial demand which we see in renewable project finance. ... With oil in excess of $45/ barrel and upward pressure continuing, we believe that more of the alternative energy/renewable energy will become economically viable. There will be no single solution in the energy market. All options need to be considered and used.”
In related developments,the Minneapolis Star-Tribune recently reported how “venture capital investors are discovering clean tech companies.” This is a sector that, “if it isn't already exploding, it's about to explode,” observes Daryl Erdman of Aavin Venture Capital of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Adds Nick Parker, chairman of CleanTech: “When energy prices are as high and as volatile as they are now, you have to go hunting for alternatives. That benefits a whole range of companies that make products for the energy sector.”

CLIMATE CHANGE STUDY FORECASTS CALIFORNIA WATER SHORTAGE
California will experience significantly hotter summers by 2100, with impacts on human health and water availability, according to a study by 19 scientists reported in California Agriculture. “These new predictions illustrate more than ever the urgent need to control greenhouse gas emissions now,” says study coauthor W. Michael Hanemann, professor of agricultural and resource economics and director of the California Climate Change Center at UC Berkeley. “Because of lags in the natural system, what we do today will affect climate 30 years from now.”
Using the most sensitive climate models to date, the researchers studied two scenarios. One assumes a business-as-usual approach to the use of fossil fuels, while the other factors in lower emissions when switching to alternative energy and more fuel-efficient technology. Under the lower emissions scenario, summer temperatures in California would rise 4°F to 5°F by the end of the century; if nothing is done to curb the use of fossil fuel, summer temperatures would rise a dramatic 7.5°F to 15°F.
Statewide, the length of the heat-wave season could be dramatically extended from an average of 115 days per year to 178 to 204 days by 2100, while the Sierra snowpack could decline by as much as 90 percent if fossil fuel use isn't curbed, the study finds.
“Increases in temperature decrease water availability while increasing demand,” Hanemann says. “It will no longer just be a battle among the farming industry, the environmental groups and the cities, but those within each interest group will be competing with each other for water.”

BIODIESEL PROGRESS REFLECTS WORK OF WOMEN PIONEERS
“While women may not have been among the 19th century oil wildcatters who drilled the ground for black gold,” writes reporter Kristin Bender of Women's eNews, “they are getting in on the ground floor of the biofuel industry in a big way.” A century later, she writes, women from Berkeley, California to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are pushing biodiesel that shows motorists how to recycle the vegetable oil that cooked French fries. They are running cooperative biodiesel businesses which buy the fuel from a central distributor such as Yokayo Biofuels in Ukiah, California and sell it to the public. Five women even made a movie, “Fat of the Land,” about the stranglehold of petroleum and the frying oil alternative. The women drove from New York to San Francisco stopping at “greasy spoons” along the way and asking for leftover frying oil to fuel their vehicle. SaraHope Smith and Jennifer Radtke are cofounders of BioFuel Oasis, a retail cooperative in Berkeley. “In biodiesel, there is a feeling that we are doing the right thing for the greater good,” says Smith.
Bender also describes The BioFuel Station, cofounded by Kimber Holmes, in northern California's Laytonville. The BioFuel Station has a 1,500 gallon tanker that is used to make deliveries to those using biodiesel in the rural agricultural community. As planned now, customers will soon be able to drive into a “fill and go” station and pump veggie-oil into their tanks.

AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY LAUNCHES “CITY TO SOIL” PROJECT BASED ON HOUSEHOLD SOURCE SEPARATION
Australia currently spends around $3 billion/year to landfill 24.5 million tons of waste. Approximately one-third of those residuals - 60 percent of which is organic - is landfilled in New South Wales (NSW). Gerry Gillespie - manager in the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation office in Queanbeyan - sends information on a source separation/collection/composting program launched by his community to change MSW practices.
In early 2000, a composting program to collect and compost residential green waste began operating in Queanbeyan. The City Council provides collection (every two weeks), and a 2001 study found that the composting program saved the community $35 to $46/ton. In 2003 and 2004, a research project was started on a property called “Mooncoin” to demonstrate the improved marketability of source separating household organics. A field trial at a vineyard evaluated the benefits of soil organic matter, moisture holding capacity, stability, soil biodiversity and net growth of vines.
“The project also involved modifying the existing household garden organics collection system,” explains Gillespie. “The project - called City to Soil -showed that rewarding householders for uncontaminated green waste could impact positively on behavior. On-average contamination rates were lower by 40 percent (by weight) and 64 percent (by volume) in the trial area. Community awareness and understanding increased from December 2003 (before the trial) to May 2004. Considerable system and social change were achieved at very little cost during the City to Soil project. Given an appropriate level of commercial support, such a system could achieve a great deal, both in terms of community participation and agricultural economic outcomes.” More details of the program and results will be published in a future BioCycle. Gerry Gillespie can be contacted via email at gerry.gillespie@resource.nsw.gov.au.

HIGH GAS PRICES IN BRAZIL LEAD DRIVERS TO ETHANOL
Dr. G. B. Moreira, an oral surgeon in Sao Paulo, Brazil, spends much time in his Volkswagen TotalFlex traveling to hospitals. His car runs on either gasoline or ethanol - or any combination of the two. But with ethanol (also called alcohol by Brazilians) selling at half the price of gasoline, it's a simple choice. “I only use alcohol, and I'm probably spending 40 percent less a month on fuel,” Dr. Moreira told a reporter for The New York Times. Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians are driving “flex-fuel” cars like the VW Fox - almost 220,000 of these hybrid vehicles were sold in the first nine months of 2004, representing 24 percent of all new car sales. Other makers of hybrids sold in Brazil include Fiat, General Motors and Ford; Renault and Peugeot are expected to have models, although VW has the lead with 36.5 percent of total sales.
Brazil first started using nongasoline-powered cars during the global oil crisis in the 1970s, aided by government subsidies and tax breaks. Sugar millers also benefitted, getting funds to refine sugar cane into ethanol. After an ethanol shortage in the 1990s, fewer than 20 percent of Brazil's autos run exclusively on alcohol, but all gasoline in the country has a 25 percent mix of ethanol, the Times reports. According to analysts in Brazil, ethanol consumption is expected to reach 3.58 billion gallons this sugar harvest season. A fuel mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, known as E85, is available in at least 22 states of the U.S., mainly Minnesota and midwestern states. By contrast, in Brazil, ethanol is available at almost every service station. Notes an auto sector analyst: 'It may take a while, but there's no doubt that flex-fuel technology will eventually be used in other countries. It's too good an idea not to be exported.'”
A coming issue of BioCycle will have a detailed article on how straw and other plant wastes are being processed into cellulose ethanol - reported to have a net energy content eight times higher than corn ethanol with a low emission level of greenhouse gases. Major companies are predicting that the global market for biofuels such as cellulose ethanol “will grow to exceed $10 billion by 2012.”

COMPOSTING AND SUSTAINABLE WASTE MANAGEMENT HELP SOLVE CLIMATE CHANGE PROBLEMS
A recent report by Enzo Favoino of the Working Group on Composting and Integrated Waste Management at the Agricultural University in Monza, Italy includes findings on how composting and anaerobic digestion reduce “the net flux of greenhouse gases.” The researcher emphasizes how proper use of composted organic residuals will mitigate nitrous oxide emissions from farm soils as well as displace chemical fertilizers and pesticides whose production generates greenhouse gas release. Explains Favoino: “Organic matter is an emerging issue for its connection with soil fertility, stability and structure, etc. It is emerging as one key issue in European Union policy terms. Looking at carbon stored in farm soils, it is very easy to make a link with the organic fertility.” What compost and organic fertilizers can do is reverse the decline in soil organic matter, build up the stable soil organic fraction - and effectively lock up carbon. In summation, Favoino and his colleagues stress that use of composted products will mean reducing the problems from greenhouse gases through various mechanisms.

Copyright 2004, The JG Press, Inc.