Food Waste to Fuel Oslo's City Buses
OSLO, Norway, March 23, 2012 (ENS) - Stale bread, banana peels, coffee grounds and other food waste will be transformed into green fuel for Oslo's city buses starting next year. The Norwegian capital's new biogas plant will supply the fuel and also provide nutrient-rich biofertilizer for agriculture.The plant will be able to process 50,000 tonnes of food waste annually, converting it to environment-friendly fuel for 135 municipal buses as well as enough biofertilizer for roughly 100 medium-sized local farms.
Biogas is a carbon dioxide-neutral fuel produced from biomass such as food waste, sewage sludge and manure.
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Oslo city buses will soon run on biogas produced from food waste. (Photo by ekvator13) |
"Running on biogas will reduce emissions from public transport, which means less airborne particulate matter and thus improved air quality in Oslo. What's more, the biogas buses run quietly," explains acting plant manager Anna-Karin Eriksson of the Oslo Municipality Waste-to-Energy Agency.
Biogas in buses means cleaner air and less noise for Oslo's 500,000 residents. Biogas not only helps to improve air quality, it is meant to be good business as well.
The new plant is slated to produce the energy equivalent of four million liters of diesel fuel annually. The plant is being constructed by the Norwegian company Cambi AS, which won the contract after intense competition with foreign companies.
For over 20 years, Cambi has been developing technology for converting biodegradable material into renewable energy. The biogas production processes were developed through long-term Norwegian research with funding from the Research Council of Norway.
The company has carried out a number of research projects that have received public funding from the Research Council and the former Norwegian Industrial and Regional Development Fund, now part of Innovation Norway.
Cambi's Research Council funding was provided under the Large-scale Research Programme on Clean Energy for the Future. The company is also an industry partner in the Bioenergy Innovation Centre, one of Norway's 11 centers for environment-friendly energy research.
Oslo's new biogas plant will produce the biogas using a method known as thermal hydrolysis, whereby raw materials such as waste or sewage sludge are boiled under high temperature and high pressure. Cambi has worked out a hydrolysis process that yields substantially more biogas than conventional facilities.
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Wojtech Sargalski (Photo courtesy Cambi) |
"We are delighted that Cambi has been awarded the largest biowaste contract in Scandinavia by the city of Oslo. The contract will certainly have a positive impact on Cambi's international performance in this sector, he said.
To date, the company has designed and delivered 28 plants for converting biodegradable material into renewable energy. Their plants are processing waste and sludge from a total of 23 million people in the United States, Australia, Chile, Japan, Dubai and many European countries.
Cambi has installed two plants for the treatment of household waste and industrial food waste - both in Norway.
The residue from the biogas production process may be used as liquid fertilizer with roughly the same nutrient content as compound fertilizer. The new plant, located north of Oslo, will supply both liquid and solid biofertilizer in addition to a liquid concentrate. "We've shown that biowaste has substantial value in itself and is well worth utilizing," said Per Lillebo, chair of Cambi ASA. "The fertilizer produced is a vital part of the biological cycle."
McDonald's 'Mainstreams' Sustainability, Tests Paper Cups to Replace Foam
OAK BROOK, Illinois, March 20, 2012 (ENS) - In response to a 2011 shareholder resolution filed by shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow, McDonald's Corporation confirmed that it is taking a step toward the possible phase-out of polystyrene foam beverage cups.The company has notified As You Sow that, "McDonald's is currently testing a double-walled fiber hot cup, as the company continues to seek more environmentally sustainable solutions. The test is in approximately 2,000 restaurants in the U.S., primarily on the West Coast. The objective of this test is to assess customer acceptance, operational impact and overall performance."
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McDonald's foam cups will be replaced with paper in 2,000 test restaurants.(Photo courtesy McDonald's) |
The shareholder proposal, which asked the company to assess the environmental impacts of different kinds of beverage containers and to develop packaging recycling goals, received the support of nearly 30 percent of total company shares voted, a high result for an environmental issue proposal, and the highest vote to date for any As You Sow proposal on container recycling.
"This is a great first step for McDonald's and we hope it will lead to a permanent switch to paper cups in all of its restaurants," said Conrad MacKerron, As You Sow's senior program director. "Given the company's history of using high levels of recycled content in other food packaging, we hope that it follows suit with its cups, and also establishes a robust recycling program for post-consumer waste left in its restaurants."
In 1990 McDonald's began to phase out foam-based clamshell food containers amid concerns that petroleum-based food packaging persists in the environment for hundreds of years. Over the next decade, McDonald's eliminated more than 300 million pounds of packaging and reduced restaurant waste by 30 percent, saving an estimated $6 million per year. However, the company continued to use billions of foam-based beverage cups.
Styrene, used to make polystyrene, has been listed as a possible carcinogen by both the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the National Institutes of Health's National Toxicology Program. Several epidemiologic studies suggest an association between occupational styrene exposure and an increased risk of leukemia and lymphoma.
Polystyrene cups are not commonly recycled. Foam particles are among the most common items found by environmental groups leading beach cleanups. Carried through storm drains to the ocean, foam containers break down into small indigestible pellets which animals perceive as food, resulting in the death of birds and fish. Due to such concerns, more than 50 cities in California and 100 cities in the U.S. have banned or restricted the use of polystyrene food packaging.
In December, McDonald's Corporation released its 2011 Sustainability Scorecard and reinforced its commitment to "mainstreaming sustainability for customers through the company's actions and collaboration with suppliers, experts and the food industry as a whole."
"We will continue to mainstream sustainability into our day-to-day business, bring value to the communities we serve, and value to our company through efficiencies, innovations and consumer relevance," said Bob Langert, McDonald's global vice president of sustainability.
For example, McDonald's has made a commitment to sourcing all of its food and packaging from sustainable sources over time.
In addition, all fish for McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwich is wild caught, and currently 99 percent is sourced from fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.
On February 13, McDonald's announced that it will require its U.S. pork suppliers to outline their plans to phase out the use of sow gestation stalls, a move supported by The Humane Society of the United States.
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Sows in gestation stalls (Photo by spiltbeans13) |
"McDonald's wants to see the end of sow confinement in gestation stalls in our supply chain. We are beginning an assessment with our U.S. suppliers to determine how to build on the work already underway to reach that goal. In May, after receiving our suppliers' plans, we'll share results from the assessment and our next steps."
"The HSUS has been a long-time advocate for ending the use of gestation crates, and McDonald's announcement is important and promising," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. "All animals deserve humane treatment, including farm animals, and it's just wrong to immobilize animals for their whole lives in crates barely larger than their bodies."
McDonald's actions are backed by leading independent animal welfare experts, including renowned scientist Dr. Temple Grandin. "Moving from gestation stalls to better alternatives will improve the welfare of sows and I'm pleased to see McDonald's working with its suppliers toward that end. It takes a thorough plan to address the training of animal handlers, proper feeding systems, and the significant financial investment and logistics involved with such a big change," said Dr. Grandin.
Gorsky said, "We are pleased to see a number of our U.S. suppliers adopting commercially viable alternatives. For example, Smithfield Foods and Cargill have made significant progress in this area. We applaud these, and future efforts."
Estimated to be the costliest natural disaster in history (to date), the Great East Japan Earthquake took place one year ago. Japan has been dealing with direct quake damage, multiple nuclear meltdowns, tsunami damage, approximately 15,000 fatalities, and social upheaval as a result of the thousands of displaced and evacuated citizens.