[GreenYes] Re: Garbage to energy

["Helen Spiegelman" <hspie@no.address>]

<"Municipal and industrial solid waste turns out
to be one of the most prominent products available. It has the additional
charm of already being collected and transported to central
locations.">

I've heard a theory that the "nuclear threat" of the
1980s was cooked up as a way to distract us from the important work begun
on Earth Day 1970. They got us busy tilting against ABMs and Star Wars
Defense, so global capital could secure its access to every last scrap of
the Earth's resources, accelerating sprawl and big box retail, and
completing the task of divorcing us from reality.

It has to be ulterior motives, not logic, that would make someone miss
the dirty little secret about garbage. It relies on abundant supplies of
the very fuel it is intended to replace. Already the people who supply us
with that "charming" product are engaging in food riots because
we are feeding our cars their grain.

Helen Spiegelman
Zero
Waste Vancouver


At 11:55 AM 4/24/2008, amy perlmutter wrote:
> From oregon
> public broadcasting,
> http://news.opb.org/article/study-finds-garbage-fuel-best-fit-nw/
>
> Study Finds Garbage-To-Fuel Best Fit For NW
>
> By Tom Banse
>
> Olympia, WA  March 17, 2008 8:39 a.m.
>
> Northwest biodiesel and ethanol production is on the rise.  But most
> of the raw materials for our biofuels still come from far away.
>
> Midwestern corn and soybeans, for example, or canola oil from
> Canada.  A new study by the Pacific Northwest National Lab suggests
> the path to truly "homegrown" fuel might lead to the garbage
> dump.
>
>
> Six researchers at the National Lab in Richland, Washington investigated
> how a regional biofuels industry could sustain itself without resorting
> to imported feedstocks.
>
> Dennis Stiles: "We were a bit surprised to discover that the resource was
> a bit smaller than our intuition would have told us."
>
> Lead study author Dennis Stiles says farmers have no incentive to switch
> to oilseeds right now given the current high prices for food
> crops.
>
> Dennis Stiles: "Municipal and industrial solid waste turns out to be one
> of the most prominent products available. It has the additional charm of
> already being collected and transported to central locations."
>
> Stiles says pretty much everything in your garbage except the metal and
> glass can be chemically converted into liquid fuel.  He says the
> technology to do that exists, but needs further refinement.
>
> The study calculated that the Northwest could eventually meet 10 to 12
> percent of its annual fuel demand from garbage we now throw 
> out.