In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

IN BUSINESS WORLD

In Business, May-June, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 3, p. 4

SHARED BUS-TAXI RUNS ON USED COOKING OIL,
BOOSTS COMMUNITY INTERACTION
Tottori Ecotown 2020, a nonprofit organization in Japan's Tottori Prefecture, recently conducted a two-month pilot project which provided transportation services using shared bus-taxis powered by cooking-

oil waste collected from households. Japan for Sustainability reports that the bus, called Inaba EcoLimo Waiwai Go-Go, made two round trips a day between Wakaba-dai to Karo via Tottori University, a route not covered by public transportation.
Passengers can ride without charge if they obtain membership in the “Be Nice to the Earth Club.” Membership in this club is awarded to people who bring used cooking oil to collection sites at elementary schools, and to bus passengers who promise to perform ecofriendly activities such as cleanups and buying green products.
The goal is to set up a shared bus-taxi company co-organized by university students, residents and local businesses. The company will own buses powered by biodiesel fuel refined from used cooking oil, and run them in areas with inadequate public transportation. It hopes that local residents will eventually use this ecobus instead of their private cars. It also hopes that the bus service will encourage interaction between passengers.

EARLY RETURNS ARE GOOD AS RECYCLEBANK
PROGRAM CRANKS UP IN PHILADELPHIA
For cofounders Patrick FitzGerald and Ron Gonen, their RecycleBank idea that rewards city residents for recycling is working well. Philadelphia Department of Streets staff are keeping track of how much the 1,200 participating households are diverting - and it's amounting to close to 30 pounds of recyclables per household per week. Test areas have increased rates from 15 to 50 percent, as early projections are exceeded. The RecycleBank concept works this way: The city deposits credits in a bank account based on household performance. Then residents redeem the credits for coupons at participating firms that include Starbucks Coffee and Home Depot, etc. Other cities and states are reported to be interested in setting up similar systems.

BRITISH VILLAGE SEEKS TO BE FIRST IN THE UK
“TO CAUSE NO PLANET DAMAGE”
A community of 1,100 called Chew Magna - south of Bristol in the United Kingdom - hopes to become the first in Britain to cause no damage to the planet by “changing the way they shop, eat, travel and think about rubbish.” Three years ago, their region in the South West UK consumed 48 million metric tons of materials and products, generating 20.3 million tons of waste - just over 4 tons/person. Engineering students at the University of Bath have already drawn up options to power the village using renewable energy, and the villagers are well on their way to buying an old mill to serve as a recycling depot. Commented Ian Roderick, a driving force for the project at a Chew Magna zero waste action day about taking on the ambitious agenda: “If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito,” quoting the late social scientist Kenneth Boulding. “We want to do this in a way that enhances the spirit, to make sure it's an exciting venture and a great challenge for the future.”

OREGON ENERGY PROGRAM TAPS BIOPOWER RESOURCES, SEEKS WAYS TO TURN WASTE INTO MEGAWATTS
A biopower program launched in mid-May by Energy Trust of Oregon, Inc. includes a request for proposals (RFP) to turn organic waste into renewable energy. The program will grant up to $4.7 million in financial incentives for biopower that can deliver electricity to Pacific Power and Portland General Electric, using landfill gas, wood chips, dairy manure, biogas from sewage treatment and other related methods.
Biomass energy resources comprise the third major component of Energy Trust's renewable resource program. Energy Trust's solar program has doubled the number of solar arrays in Oregon in just two years; Energy Trust's wind projects have substantially increased wind energy production in Oregon. “Oregon's biomass resources are abundant, homegrown and tremendously diverse. More important, these are materials that someone usually has to pay to get rid of. We have the opportunity to use them to produce clean, renewable energy,” said Adam Serchuk, biopower program manager at Energy Trust. “We're looking for projects that use tested, commercial technology that can easily be replicated, and that can come on line soon - ideally in 2006.” In some cases, Energy Trust may also be able to share the cost of a feasibility study to evaluate the potential for specific projects.
Energy Trust expects to gain up to 3.9 average megawatts of energy - enough to power over 2,100 homes-from projects funded through this request for proposals. “Biomass already provides a significant amount of energy in Oregon, for instance in the wood products sector, and it will be an important part of Oregon's energy future, as well. The time is right to step up our efforts, and we're looking forward to the response,” said Serchuk. Energy Trust has approved four biomass-fueled projects through its Open Solicitation program. “We receive unsolicited proposals regularly for biomass projects, which reinforces the potential for a more formal program.”
The RFP is available at www.energytrust.org/biopower. For specific questions, call Adam Serchuk, 503-445-7632, adam.serchuk@energytrust.org.

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS NETWORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE
“As I looked around the room during the Closing Product Expo,” writes Leanne Krueger-Braneky about the Sustainable Business Network's Annual Conference in Philadelphia in the Sustainable Business Network Newsletter (June 1, 2005), “I was struck by what I saw - people buying locally-made products, sampling local foods that didn't have to travel very far to get to us, initiating new business relationships, finding out how to make their own business ventures more sustainable. This, I thought, is what a local living economy looks like.” The newsletter lists a number of summer activities, BALLE events and reviews recent publications and developments in the region. Visit www.SBNPhialdelphia.org. Or contact leanne@sbnphiladelphia.org.
There's also a four-week workshop series at the University of Pennsylvania in late June through July that addresses the challenges and opportunities of a triple bottom line approach to business. It includes a business review to provide “a quantitative and qualitative decision-making base for a Strategic Business Plan. For details, contact Allison Fried (215) 898-1062; Or e-mail: allisonj@wharton-upenn.edu.

DOCUMENTING JOBS, BUSINESS GROWTH FROM RECYCLING IN NORTH CAROLINA
A survey by the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance shows that recycling employs approximately 14,000 people across the state - up from 8,700 ten years ago. Recycling jobs as a percentage of the state's total employment has increased 40 percent in 10 years. Fifty-four percent of the businesses surveyed forecast creating more recycling-related positions in the next two years. Other data reported included the following: Recycling employs more people than the biotech and agricultural livestock industries in North Carolina; The number of companies listed in the state's recycling markets directory has increased from 306 in 1994 to 532 in 2004, a 74 percent increase; and Recycling companies in North Carolina range from Fortune 500 manufacturers to single proprietary, family-owned businesses, handling hundreds of different types of materials and products. Some of these companies now occupy old textile factories and other industrial plants abandoned by some of the state's more traditional industries. (See article in this issue, “What's Good For The Planet Is Good For Economic Development” on p.27.)

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF MANAGING MSW AND THE THROWAWAY SOCIETY
A new report by Helen Spiegelman and Bill Sheehan of the Product Policy Institute shows how waste disposal and recycling have failed to promote sustainable production and consumption. In their study, Unintended Consequences: Municipal Solid Waste Management and The Throwaway Society, they suggest that public policies have actually subsidized corporations that make toxic and hard-to-recycle products. “On the other hand, municipal management of 'nonproduct' biowastes has been a success. We conclude that the emerging policy approach known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) may be more effective for sustainable product waste management, and that communities should shift focus to nonproduct wastes (yard trimmings and food scraps).”
Spiegelman and Sheehan analyzed EPA waste characterization data from 1960 to 2001 to compare generation, recovery and discards. The dramatic growth was almost entirely in product wastes, while generation of biowastes grew slowly. While the product recycling rate has plateaued at around 30 percent, yard trimmings recovery is the big “success story.” “Although it did not begin until 1988, it has risen steadily to a recovery rate of 56.5 percent. Food scraps recovery is in its infancy, with less than three percent collected.”
They also point out that despite significant public investment in product recycling and biowaste composting, our waste management system “continues to bury or burn most of the materials and products that enter the system. In 2001, 70.3 percent of U.S. MSW generated was disposed in landfills or waste incinerators.” In their view, waste prevention lies outside of the solid waste management system, actually providing services that acted as a perverse subsidy to production of short-lived products and excessive material flows.
In their list of recommendations, they stress that over time, product wastes should increasingly be managed through infrastructure provided and funded by producers. Meanwhile, municipal solid waste management should focus on environmentally sound management of biowastes and other biodegradable materials. Government at all levels can assist industries to prepare for EPR by sending clear policy signals.
(Bill Sheehan of the Product Policy Institute can be contacted via e-mail at bill@productpolicy.org.)

TRANSFORMING POTATO CULLS INTO HIGH-VALUE PRODUCTS
Of the five million tons of potatoes grown by farmers in Washington State, about 15 percent wind up as culls because they do not meet minimum size, grade or quality standards. Culls are often sent on for further processing - or added to compost piles. Now, reports the American Society of Agricultural Engineers' publication, Resource, Shulin Chen of Washington State University's Biological Systems Engineering Department is using cull potatoes and wastewater from potato processing to make chitin, chitosan and lactic acid.
The second most abundant polysaccharide in nature, chitin and its derivatives can be used for clearing wastewater as well as in manufacturing cosmetics and in medical applications. Lactic acid is used as a food additive and in development of polylactic acid to make biodegradable plastics. As the economics improve for processing, the technology could reduce the environmental impact of potato waste and wastewater. Chen's e-mail - chens@wsu.edu.