Biogas from Sewage and Landfills, Glamorous No but a Renewable Yes

In the last of the “Mad Max” movies, the one that prominently featured Tina Turner, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, the post-apocalyptic world depended on “pig sh*t” for energy.

That idea, albeit the invention of a Hollywood screenwriter, may not, however, be as outlandish as it might originally appear. In India, for example, there are myriad small methane producers throughout the country that produce just enough methane for home uses, using small methane generators powered mostly by cow dung.

In September of 2008, San Antonio, Texas set into motion an ambitious plan that would make it the first US city ever to convert sewage into methane gas on a large scale. The plan calls for the complete recycling of at least 90% of the approximately 140,000 tons a year of “biosolids” produced by the citizens of San Antonio into water for agricultural irrigation, solid compost and now, methane gas, which will be used for the generation of electrical power.

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The Campus Green: RecycleMania!

“Leeeeeeeeeeet’s get ready to RECYCLEEEEE!” We’re not talking about wrestlemania, but RecycleMania!

RecycleMania, a competition across the nation, is a benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. After 10 weeks of fierce competition, the results are in! The title of “Grand Champion” goes to California State University, San Marcos. In this short span of time, 510 different schools from all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Canada collectively recycled or composted just over 69.4 million pounds of waste. Now that’s a lot of party clean-ups. With 4.7 million students and 1.1 million faculty and staff participating in the mania, the word is definitely getting out about reducing, reusing, and recycling across college campuses.

So how did the mania begin? In February 2001, Ed Newman from Ohio University and Stacy Edmonds Wheeler from Miami University decided that something had to be done to increase recycling in the residence and dinning halls on their campuses. (Miami won that first year). This friendly competition between rival schools gradually evolved into the national college recycling craze it is today.

RecycleMania is not only a great way to gain bragging rights for your school, but also very important in raising awareness about waste management and recycling. Colleges are basically small cities that consume a lot of resources and generate a lot of waste. RecycleMania helps schools realize their potential to reduce both the amount of resources they consume and dispose of. The competition educates students about campus environmental programs and instills in them a love of recycling they can keep for life! And this just proves that recycling can be super fun. Besides helping the environment, what else could motivate students better than beating their biggest rivals in competition! Ultimately though, every school’s efforts contributed to amazing results for the environment and in the end, we’re all on the same “green-team.”

To see the final results in all categories and learn more about RecycleMania check out http://www.recyclemania.org/

Coors: The Banquet Ethanol?

Molson Coors is brewing more than just beer out in the great Rocky Mountains.  In partnership with Merrick Co., Coors produces some two million gallons of ethanol per year using waste beer and spent yeast from their Golden, CO brewing operation.  The E85-ready ethanol needs no further refining, and is shipped directly to local refineries to be blended with gasoline.

Coors Brewing Co.’s production matches well with Colorado’s thirst for alternative fuels–the state uses about 100 million gallons of ethanol per year.  This is largely because their clean air laws mandate that ethanol be blended with gas during the winter to reduce vehicle emissions.
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Finally, I Can Recycle At Home Again

So I finally have recycling collection at my new home, courtesy of the city of Denver.  But I lived in Denver before this new place, with no pickup…what gives?

Turns out that the city only provides residential pickup for homes with 7 or fewer apartment units.  According to the Denver Recycles website:

Denver Recycles is only authorized to serve residential homes of seven or fewer units, and…not authorized to provide services to commercial properties such as businesses and apartment communities.

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