Have you ever wondered what exactly happens to your garbage after you get rid of it?

In Seattle this month a group of MIT researchers will be attaching electronic tracking tags on about 3,000 pieces of trash.  They want to find out and get people thinking about what they throw away and where it ends up.

I am a techie at heart and I must say, this is pretty cool.  Reading about this research my mind quickly races to the use of Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) tags on every product and how we could theoretically track everyone’s garbage.  Maybe in the future when we purchase a product the RFID tag gets registered to the purchaser and they are charged for the expense of having to handle that trash if it is not disposed of properly?

Ok, so that idea is wrong on so many levels, not only would it add cost to the process, who would want to be tracked that closely?

The way it will work is that researchers will visit the homes of hundreds of Seattle volunteers to affix electronic tags on about 10 to 15 pieces of their household trash, such as pizza boxes, Styrofoam cups, slippers and scrap metal. The volunteers will dispose of the item as they normally would.

The electronic tags use GSM technology to send information back to MIT computers, allowing researchers — and the public — to monitor the trash in real-time as it moves through the waste stream to its final destination.

The program is designed to answer many questions about the efficiency, or inefficiency of the waste removal system.  Does recycling end up being recycled rather than in the landfill? Does it take weeks rather than hours or days for trash picked up from the neighborhood to get to the transfer station?  These are just some of the questions hopefully to be answered by the research.

Seattle was chosen based on its high recycling rates and subsequent general knowledge of disposal methods.  The program is being called SENSEable and will be on exhibit at Seattle’s Central Library Sept. 18.

I look forward to seeing the data and analyzing what it means.  I am really hopeful that the information gathered from this research will help improve recycling throughout the nation.

ENSO Bottles encourages recycling and are doing what we can to improve the recycling rates of the nation.

By

Danny Clark

ENSO Bottles, LLC
866-936-3676
Web: www.ensobottles.com

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The United States is the world’s number one producer of garbage: we consume 30 percent of the planet’s resources and produce 30 percent of all its wastes, but we are just 4 percent of the global population. These are staggering numbers which I personally find incomprehensible. I’m guessing that this is one of the reasons why more people do not get involved in this issue. We have implemented over 5,000 recycling programs throughout the country which are more of a means to helping us feel better about the massive amounts of garbage being created. There is no real global plan for stewarding the earth, which is one reason we created the company ENSO Bottles, to address the plastic bottle pollution on the planet.

Chapter 2 of the book, titled “Rubbish Past” was an eye opener for me.  I was born in the 1960’s; my first encounter of the garbage problem was during the 1980’s when the major concern at that time was the filling up of our landfills.  It was believed that our cities would soon be buried in huge mountains of garbage.  What I didn’t know was that most of the methods for disposing our garbage was unregulated at the time which resulted in massive pollution of the environment.

There is a lot of concern about ocean pollution and there are a number of organizations taking a stand to address this issue.  I’ve heard and read stories about the pacific gyre and what is called the “great pacific garbage patch”, which is a floating island of garbage about the size of Texas located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  I never understood how so much garbage could end up in the oceans until I read that many states such as California and New York practiced ocean dumping of their garbage for many years.  This has no doubt contributed to the ocean pollution problem we face today.

Although some may believe that processing garbage is a relatively new thing, a point I took away from the book is that we have always had a problem with dealing with our garbage.  Even in the late 1800’s there were issues of polluting rivers and city streets with garbage, manure and animal carcasses.  There were major outbreaks of disease in the late 1800’s which resulted in millions of people dying and was a direct result of filth and pollution from garbage.  It is true that those in our past did not have the abundance of commodity products (and associated packaging) available to purchase however, they still dealt with and had to get rid of garbage and waste.  Archeologists have found garbage and waste processing systems from civilizations from hundreds and thousands of years ago.

The United States first sanitary landfill was constructed in 1934 on the outskirts of Fresno, California.  This marked the end to scavenging and the incineration of garbage and is the method practiced in many landfills today.  It is amazing to think that only in the last five years have we developed techniques that will allow us to process our garbage with better environmental outcomes.  Such as collecting the methane gasses which is the result of naturally occurring microbial digestion and using that gas as a source of clean and inexpensive energy.  An energy source that is not only green but is the least costly of the green energy we can produce today (solar, wind, hydro).

So what about recycling?  In the book, the author quotes a study which shows that 87% of garbage can be recycled with only 13% needing to be disposed of.  It is estimated that the energy conserved through recycling is about five times as valuable as the average cost of disposing.  As of 2000, U.S. recycling rates were surprisingly low:  54% for aluminum, 26% for glass, 40% for paper, and 5% for plastics.  Bottle bills have been shown to be a method for improving the recycling rates for plastics.  For example, the state of California claims a recycle rate for plastics of 65%.  This rate sounds really good, which it is, when it comes to beverage bottles only.  It is an example of how bottles bills can improve recycling.  However, this number does not include the hundreds of millions of plastic bottles which are used for non-beverage items such as shampoos, oils, food items, etc.  If we are truly looking at environmental solutions we would require the recycling of ALL materials that can be recycled.

Another interesting fact that I learned from Gone Tomorrow is that the United States has become the world’s largest exporter of garbage.  With the large volume of container ships coming to America to bring us our inexpensive commodities from China, India and other parts of the world where there is inexpensive labor, the ships unload their cargo and returning to their ports empty.  To fill this void, an opportunity was created to ship back our garbage (and recycled materials) very inexpensively.  So now our garbage is becoming someone else’s problem, which I’m only guessing will become our problem again sometime in the future.

One last point that was covered in the final chapter of the book is the misguided thought of creating plastics and packaging from food sources such as corn, soy and hemp.  These plastics are also called bioplastics and are being push today by the large agriculture companies such as Dow and Monsanto.  The author points out the problems with bioplastics; “they are also likely to promote monocropping and increased use of chemical fertilizers to ensure a uniform and reliable feedstock.  This would also wipe out biodiversity and pollute water and soil.  Additionally, increased demand and higher prices for crops to feed the plastics sector could impact the food supply, since those with the strongest purchasing power get the goods.”

Journalist George Monbiot argues: “Those who worry about the scale and intensity of today’s agriculture should consider what farming will look like when it is run by the oil industry.”

I recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn about the history of our garbage problem.

Enjoy,

By Danny Clark

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The Ecology of microbes to one another and their surroundings is extraordinary with respect to the diversity of chemical and physical conditions that can be tolerated. Microbes thrive in extreme environments with regards to temperatures, high concentrations of salts and sugars, relative acidity, and with or without the presence of oxygen.

I’ve had a few conversation and read comments by scientists, individuals and organizations who promote the PLA industry claiming that biodegradation does not happen in landfill environments. One person I met while attending NPE2009 in Chicago was so bold as to make the statement that biodegradation does not happen anaerobically. I thought this was very interesting as the process for producing lactic acid (which is a required process for PLA – Polylactic Acid) is through the fermentation of corn starch. Fermentation is the biological process in which sugars and starches are converted into cellular energy in anaerobic conditions (a.k.a. anaerobic biodegradation). In fact, found on the BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute) website is an explanation on biodegradation. BPI quotes the following”.

“Myth: Biodegradable products are the preferred environmental solutions because waste simply biodegrades in the landfill.

Reality: Nothing biodegrades in a landfill because nothing is supposed to.”

Although some would like to believe we can simply will away microbes from digesting garbage in a landfill we have been unsuccessful up until this point. I think anyone who has attended a high school biology class would know that biodegradation through microbial activity happens basically everywhere on the planet and in either aerobic and anaerobic environments. The environmental laws we have passed requiring landfills to capture and burn the methane generated through the process of microbes breaking down organic materials in anaerobic conditions found in landfill environments is a testament that biodegradation does in fact happen in landfills.

Although it may have seemed like magic to our ancestors and still today to a rare few, the activities from microbes on our planet is so vital to our existence. As we continue to develop and evolve as a species it is hopeful that we can recognize and develop symbiotic relationships with these tiny organisms. One such relationship would be the creation of methane gases by allowing microbes to naturally digest our organic waste which is then used as a source for clean inexpensive energy. Our garbage becomes a source of microbial food which becomes a source for clean energy which reduces our reliance on fossil fuels, which helps to improve the environment.

References:

By Danny Clark

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With the domestic and world markets looking into alternative energy, it is not surprising that the use of biogas created by our landfills are emerging as an easy answer to clean energy (see bioreactor landfill). What is surprising is that this seemingly untapped resource has been available for decades, and is only now being taken serious as a mainstream source for clean energy.

With countries like England adopting a massive effort to capture and utilize methane from waste off gassing from landfills, it is another exciting development towards a green and responsible stewardship of our planet for future generations to come. Here in the US, we are looking to forge ahead in the ambitious challenge to change the way we are consuming our products and resources, and in turn how we dispose of them. There are the “old school” influences that are entrenched in “status quo”, but do not be fooled, change is here, and the scale is tipping towards a healthier way we treat our planet. We are changing mainstream things that could set a new course our children will look back and thank us for. Look at the city of San Jose, CA were this city’s vision has a goal of using 100% of the city’s electrical power from clean renewable sources.

These are exciting times where innovations like our biodegradable bottles are springing up, and alternative sources for clean power are emerging. We are excited about our involvement in this transformational process that is taking place because we can help rid a pollution problem both from a litter perspective, as well as an emission perspective. Our biodegradable plastic bottles will biodegrade to reduce plastic trash in the environment, and in the process create clean energy from the methane off gassing produced by the degrading process in a landfill. We are first and foremost an advocate of recycling; recycling should and must be the goals of everyone within the voice of our message-please choose to recycle! But with the rates of recycling as low as they have historically been in the US, we take solace in that we can still achieve a positive effect by providing clean power through our plastic PET bottle technology made with Eco-Pure.

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I’m reading an interesting book and you might want to take a look.  Its “Garbage Land,” by Elizabeth Royte.

It’s an excellent point of view on what happens to our waste and the consequenses.

Max

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