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By Lisa Sibley, Cleantech Group, Dec. 9, 2009
What began as research project to produce biodegradable plastics from waste has evolved into a company that now has large scale ambitions.
Ireland-based Bioplastech is converting waste, agricultural byproducts and petrochemical products into value added biodegradable plastic polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), Kevin O’Connor told the Cleantech Group today. PHAs are linear polyesters produced by bacterial fermentation of sugar or lipids, according to Wikipedia, and can store carbon and energy.
O’Connor, who heads the company’s management team, is a senior lecturer in microbiology at University College Dublin, Ireland, which developed the technology and is collaborating with Trinity College Dublin.
Started in 2008, Bioplastech is also looking at waste food oils and biodiesel, though the main driver to begin the 10-employee company was waste plastic, O’Connor said, comparing it to most companies which are going the biomass route. The company is looking to test its lab-proven technology on a larger level.
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Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Irish startup turns waste plastic into biodegradable products
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Drive for 'zero waste zones'
Restaurants unite with businesses for greener disposal of garbage.
By Meridith Ford Goldman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dec. 1, 2009
Stop. Wait a minute. Did you just throw out that dryer lint? Think of all those Thanksgiving leftovers that might make your garden grow. Did you know that they — along with a multitude of other garbage such as coffee grounds, tea bags, yard trimmings and that apple core you were just about to throw away — are all compostable?
Steve Simon of Fifth Group Restaurants knows. In a move toward helping Midtown become a “zero waste zone,” he’s leading restaurants such as Ecco, La Tavola Trattoria and South City Kitchen into a new era of composting and recycling.
Industry and the private sector setting an example for saving the planet? Did we hear that right?
“As recently as a year ago,” Simon says, “I was the poster child for what not to do.”
Now, he and other members of the Green Foodservice Alliance (an environmental affiliate of the Georgia Restaurant Association, but working to be its own association) are helping restaurants and businesses work to produce “zero waste.” The goal is to recycle, compost, reuse spent grease for biofuel and donate consumable food to charity.
“I don’t know if the restaurant industry is the largest producer of trash, but it’s certainly a possibility,” Simon says. Ecco, Fifth Group’s flagship restaurant in Midtown specializing in Mediterranean cuisine, no longer dumps waste into the garbage — kitchen workers and servers scrape scraps into a compost heap. Fifth Group restaurants no longer have garbage Dumpsters on their restaurants’ sites.
So did big business suddenly get a conscience?
“I think what’s happened over the last few years is that the collaboration between government, the private sector and trade associations has helped get the kinks out of a very kinked-up system,” says Holly Elmore, the founder and executive director of the alliance. Ten years ago, just getting a trash or recycling hauler to come to your business on a regular schedule was a “nightmare,” according to Simon. Now, entrepreneurs such as Farmer D Organics are actually making money from trash and waste.
The bottom line was a motivating factor. “When businesses in Georgia, particularly Atlanta, started losing conventions because the city and state aren’t perceived as ‘green,’ it got business owners’ attention,” Simon says. “It’s really an ‘oh, by the way, this is the right thing to do’ kind of thing.”
Trash as a moneymaking investment aside, why are composting and recycling so important?
Well, let’s go back to environmental protection 101: landfill use would be tops on the punch list. Producing less waste creates smaller landfills. Composting and recycling properly are the way to start. Methane emissions at landfills are contributing factors to global warming, and Americans, according to the EPA’s Web site, produce 4.4 pounds of garbage per person, per day — a figure that has nearly doubled since 1960. Simon’s research estimates that 80 percent of what’s in our landfills might have value — in other words, it could be recycled for profit.
So what can this urban tale teach the average consumer? First, it’s up to you to “take responsibility and learn,” Elmore says. Don’t expect your overworked local government or municipality to lead the way.
“Know your city’s plan and regulations. The last thing we want is for contamination to occur in single stream recycling [all recyclables in one bin] — one mistake, and the whole bin could end up in the landfill,” Elmore explains.
She recommends using a compost tumbler (available at Farmer D Organics and most Whole Foods Markets) for composting, and stresses the importance of proper disposal of kitchen grease. “Don’t pour your grease down the drain!” Elmore exclaims.
Follow the restaurants’ lead and recycle it by storing it in a plastic container, then finding a source in your area such as Green Grease, Inc., a business in Clarkston that has just begun consumer-based programs for dropping off kitchen oils for recycling. Entrepreneurs Todd Williams and Warren Brawley will provide a plastic recycling bin for your used cooking oils for $7, and arrange when to pick it up based on the amount of oil generated. Or you can drop it off at Green Grease in a plastic container. Either way, it’s better than eventually throwing it in the trash.
“Everytime you buy something,” says Elmore, “you really should be thinking about how you’re eventually going to dispose of it.”
Not all garbage is suitable for consumer composting. Recycling and composting regulations differ. Know your city and county’s regulations. For more information, go to www.georgia.uscity.net
/Recycling_Centers or www.earth911.com or www.gacompost.org. Contact Green Grease at 678-754-4887 or 404-447-2217.
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Sunday, November 29, 2009
Pipe-clogging cooking oil recycled into eco-friendly fuel
By David Kernodle, News 14, Nov. 27, 2009
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CHARLOTTE -- Black Friday isn't just a busy day for shoppers. Plumbers often spend the day clearing pipes clogged with discarded oil from Thanksgiving dinner.
But there are alternatives to dumping it down the drain. Charlotte Energy Solutions owner Mark Englander collects, refines, repurposes and eventually resells any and all old cooking oil -- most commonly for fuel.
“Five gallon jugs for $1.50 a gallon,” he said.
Englander says demand for recycled cooking oil for fuel purposes is so high he can hardly keep up. One of his customers, Vince DiFrancesco, brought in two containers, about four gallons, of leftover cooking oil from Thanksgiving, and less than 10 minutes later, a buyer was in line to ready to fuel his car.
The Charlotte Energy Solutions cooking oil drop-off site is located at 337 Baldwin Avenue, near uptown Charlotte.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Where To Take Thanksgiving Cooking Oil?
The green way to dispose of used cooking oil
Charlotte Energy Solutions, is accepting used cooking oil for recycling purposes.
Drop it off at our location day or night.
337 Baldwin Ave.
Charlotte, NC 28204
(704) 333-4358 or mark@charlotteenergysolutions.com
Thinking of making fried turkey this Thanksgiving? Thousands of Charlotteans do each year and some would argue it's the only way to go, but clean-up can be troublesome. Luckily, there are many options for how to dispose of the remaining cooking oil.
Cooking oils can usually be used multiple times when used for deep-frying. Simply strain the left-over oil to remove any batter pieces or other debris, place the oil in a clean, sealable plastic container and use it again.
Small amounts of cooking oil can also be combined with organic materials for composting, or soaked into shredded paper and discarded in the trash.
With 3 to 5 gallons of cooking oil, however, it isn't practical to simply toss it into the trash -- and forget about pouring it down the drain!
Cooking oil and grease poured down drains can build up in pipes causing backups at home, in municipal water systems, and wreak havoc on sewage treatment. Dumping into a storm drain is even worse, because all that grime will flow directly into lakes, rivers and oceans and pollute natural habitats.
Instead, large quantities of oil can be recycled and turned into other products -- including biodiesel fuel.
We are centrally located near downtown Charlotte between the two hospitals at
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave,
Charlotte, NC 28204
(704) 333-4358
mark@charlotteenergysolutions.com
www.CharlotteEnergySolutions.com
Carolina Green FoodService Supply - Biodegradable, compostable, & sustainable foodservice packaging & restaurant supplies.
http://carolinagreensupply.com
