Victoria making renewable electricity and heat from high strength organic waste

Image: Barwon Water

In south-west Victoria, Barwon Water is building two Renewable Organics Networks which will use high strength organic trade waste from the Australian Lamb Company (ALC) and Bulla Dairy Foods to make renewable electricity and heat.

The organic waste will be treated by Barwon Water to form biogas which will run turbines that create the electricity and heat for water. The waste at this point is used as a soil improver. 

Yes, burning the biogas has waste CO2 but it is CO2 from a renewable source not from fossil fuels - a complete carbon cycle is created. Otherwise the organic waste goes to landfill where it is covered by soil and in that anaerobic environment most of it decays to waste methane which is a 21 times stronger greenhouse gas than CO2.

The electricity will be used by Barwon Water to take it off-grid with the excess going to the main grid. The renewable hot water will go via a special pipeline to ALC where it will offset ALC's gas consumption by 21.4 terajoules per year.

"The project is expected to achieve a net production of 5.5 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity each year – enough to power around 1,000 homes – around half of which will be used “behind-the-meter” to take the Colac Water Reclamation Plant off the grid." The generation of this dispatchable renewable energy in the form of hot water and electricity will result in a reduction in carbon emissions of around 6,300 tonnes each year.

Read more: 

- "Australian first" network to deliver renewable electricity and hot water from organic waste. One Step Off The Grid, June 12, 2020.

 - Barwon Water: https://www.barwonwater.vic.gov.au/

Reusable bamboo facial pads to reduce waste and plastic use

EverEco reusable bamboo facial pads (photo J May)

These soft, reusable bamboo facial pads by EverEco can be washed in the bag provided. Having these reduces the waste of throwaway pads and the use of plastic packaging. In addition, bamboo is an easily replaced fibre as it is a very fast growing plant.

EverEco has many different sustainable products which can be viewed here and ordered online: https://evereco.com.au/.

“Carpet made from fishing nets and recycled plastic”

Source: Wikipedia

A foresighted carpet manufacturer, ege®, from Herning, Denmark, has since 1938 kept up with time, constantly improving production and sustainability practices.  It is now able to produce a 100 per cent recycled carpet. 

The backing layer of the carpet is made from recycled plastic. Water bottles made of PET plastic is broken down into flakes and then fibres used for creating the felt backings ensuring a long-lasting product. The upper layer of the carpet is made from regenerated fishing nets, which can be a hazard to marine wildlife if left abandoned. 

The company aims to foster a sustainable outcome from almost all of its production practices. 2 million litres of residual dye are recycled along with 7,000 kilograms of chemicals, 1,572 MWh recirculated heat from production facilities, 81 per cent recycled cardboard equivalent to 183,000 kilograms of packaging for carpet tiles for example and much more. 

Read more: 

- Carpet made from fishing nets and recycled plastic. State of Green, accessed June 4, 2020. 

- ege carpets: https://www.egecarpets.com/

Can’t buy enough sanitary pads – try reusable MyPads

Reusable MyPads (Source: MyPads)

MyPads are reusable menstrual and incontinence pads made from cotton and/or hemp. They are Australian-made and come from bushfire affected South Coast NSW. You can order them online from www.mypads.com.au and an introductory pack is available. 

Benefits of cloth pads: 
- they are cheaper over time than disposable tampons and pads, 
- they save sending single-use, plastic, synthetic pads to waste, 
- they are breathable and gentle on the skin, 
- the hemp inserts are more absorbent than disposable pads, 
- they are convenient as you never need to run out of pads again, 
- they are comfortable to wear. 

Why Hemp? 
- hemp requires no chemicals to grow so is kinder to the land and to your skin, 
- hemp fabric is antibacterial and anti-fungal, 
- hemp is ten times more stronger than cotton and thus more durable, 
- hemp is more absorbent than cotton so the inserts are thinner and less bulky. 

Read more at: 
- MyPads: www.mypads.com.au
 - MyPads – How Do They Work?: www.mypads.com.au/how-do-they-work/

Food waste eaten by fly larvae is making compost and then stock feed

Black Soldier Fly maggots – the key to solving food waste. CSIRO

It is well known that the life cycle of insects is from eggs to larvae to pupae to adults. It is the Black Soldier Fly larvae (maggots) that are of special interest as they consume food scraps. They are eating machines, turning scraps into compost at a very fast rate.

The start-up company Gottera, based in Canberra, Australia is processing five tonnes of food waste a day with these larvae. Goterra not only manages waste to compost it also sells the mature larvae, a rich source of protein, as stock feed. So far the maggots can be used by chicken and pork producers, zoos, fish bait suppliers and as an ingredient in aquaculture pellets but have much more potential.

Goterra is all about driving Australia towards a circular economy for food production. And breeding insects is critical to their vision. The original breeding research was done in partnership with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Canberra. CSIRO’s research helped Gottera breed the flies for effective results.

References:
- Sex lives of flies could be key to tackling food waste. CSIROscope, August 14, 2019.
- Waste-not the mantra of emerging maggot industry as larvae convert to protein. The Land, January 9, 2019.
- Gottera: https://www.goterra.com.au/.
- CSIRO Insect research: https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Collections/ANIC/Insect-research

Finland is aiming for a circular system for waste by 2025

Street recycling bins, Finland (Source: Sitra: https://www.sitra.fi/)

Finland does not have many natural resources and no fossil fuels. This means the country has to think hard about how to run its economy. Now it is aiming for a circular system where everything is reused and landfill is rarely needed.

In a linear economy we buy items and send waste and unused items straight to landfill. But in Helsinki, for example, the recyclables go to the Ammassuo Waste Treatment Centre and only 1% of that ends up in landfill, the goal is to get that to zero. The majority of the recycled waste is reused or reprocessed. Glass, paper, plastics, metals and cartons are sent to recycling facilities elsewhere. Organic materials are fermented to create methane, which feeds a gas-fired power plant. The leftover organic waste is made into compost.

[N.B. Conversely, organic waste that goes to landfill is buried and in this environment without O₂ it forms methane gas, which then makes it way into the atmosphere. Methane is 21 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO₂ so it is best that it is captured, burnt and used for power. Organic waste can also go to a well aerated garden composting system.]

The waste treatment centre is supported by Helsinki’s excellent recycling system. Householders are given containers for glass, metal, paper, cartons, plastics and biodegradables, what is left goes into general waste. There are incentives to sort, such that householders pay for their waste to be collected and those that sort more pay less.

As reported in 2018, not all householders were cooperating by sorting their waste and a lot of recyclables were still going to general waste. This mixed waste, at 50% of all waste, ends up at a new power station at Vantaa, which burns it to make electricity and heat. Some of this waste is plastics which are made from fossil fuels, so not at all circular.

This reluctance to sort appears to be a worldwide human problem, so it remains to be seen how well Finland educates its people to be more cooperative so it can achieve its goal of a circular waste economy by 2025. If successful, we will need to follow their example!

Reference: Towards a world without landfill. New Scientist, No. 3203, November 10, 2018, p 8.
Read more:
- Circular Economy Breakthroughs in Schools - Business Village Students Learn Circular Economy by Doing It! (in Finnish so translate page) Sitra, August 8, 2019.
- Waste management and recycling. Info Finland.

This spray free Australian coffee is excellent!

Photo: Jullie May

There are a number of Australian coffees that can be ordered online but this Zentfeld’s coffee is my favourite.

In general Australian coffees are:
- chemically free as Australia does not have the common coffee pests;
- overseas coffees travel a long way to get here, so Australian coffees have much lower transport miles; and
- they are of good quality.

I hand grind coffee beans for a fresher brew and use an espresso, stove-top, stainless steel Italian-style coffee maker. The used coffee grinds are spread thinly on the garden. This way you get a lovely coffee; there are no coffee pods; composting occurs; and the only waste is the coffee bag (which in Australia must be recyclable by 2025).

For a list and links to some of the Australian coffees that are available online see: Australian grown coffee for Australians in this blog.

Recycled soft plastics are reprocessed in Australia to make useful products

Soft plastics can only be recycled in drop bins outside participating stores (Source: REDcycle)

In Australia, we can recycle most hard plastics in our recycling bins. But our bins do NOT take soft plastics. We can recycle clean soft plastics at participating supermarkets. You can find the recycling bins (pictured above) near the front of these supermarkets (mostly Woolworths and Coles).

This soft plastic recycling is called REDcycle, see: http://www.redcycle.net.au/ for details of what is (and is not) recyclable in this way. Please note biodegradable plastics are not recyclable.

The recycled soft plastic goes to an Australian company, Repas. The company produces a range of over 200 recycled plastic products in Australia using state-of-the-art machinery and robotics. The range includes bollards, signage, outdoor furniture (including school furniture), fitness equipment and Enduroplank™/Decking as well as products suitable for traffic control, parks and gardens and the utilities industry.

For more information see:

- REDcycle: http://www.redcycle.net.au/

- Repas: http://www.replas.com.au/

Commercialising the production of compostable plastics from seafood waste

Tiger prawns Source: Sea-Ex

A team of post-graduate students from the University of Sydney comprising of a chemist, plant pathologist and business student are looking to launch a pilot study to make biodegradable strawberry packaging from waste crustacean shells and other all-natural ingredients. The students co-founded the company, Carapac, and are seeking funding for the pilot study.

A range of plastics can be made from crustacean shells, which do not biodegrade on the shelf but do when they reach soil which contains bacteria that break down the plastic. The students claim the compostable plastic improves the overall quality of the soil by releasing nutrients plus acting as a slow release nitrogen fertiliser.

Such sustainable, biodegradable plastics have huge potential to replace current single use plastics, particularly food packaging and plastic bags.

Reference: Idea for new plastics falls on fertile ground. The Weekend Australian, September 1-2, 2018 : https://www.theaustralian.com.au › business

Can we replace plastic or steel with bamboo products?

A bamboo tray at the Eden Project, Cornwall, UK. (photo Julie May)

There are over a thousand species of bamboo (Gigantocholoa), a primitive grass growing in a variety of forms from tiny dwarfs to towering tropical giants. The tropical giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper) is the fastest growing plant on the planet, recorded growing 1.2m skywards in 24 hours! Not only does bamboo grow fast, it begins growing again immediately after harvesting. A sustainable product easily replaced.

Gigantocholoa is a tropical to subtropical plant. The distribution of bamboo in general ranges from 50°N of Sakhalin in north Japan to 47°S in Chile. It occurs in altitudes up to 4,000m, from the warm humid tropics to the cold areas of northern Japan.

Common Uses:

• Bamboo is one of the most versatile plants on earth, useful for its lightweight strength, which comes from its hollow stems, for its ease of working and for its simple beauty.
• It is used by half the world’s people in thousands of products from huge skyscraper scaffolding to tiny gramophone needles and from slide rules to skins of aeroplanes. It can be used to start a cooking fire in a wet rainforest and its ashes can be used to polish jewels and manufacture electric batteries. It has made bicycles, windmills, musical instruments, kitchen utensils, paper, clothing, scales and walls strong enough to resist flood and tide, and bridges up to 260m long in China.
• Bamboo is suited to low-technology processing, as well as industrial manufacturing techniques. It is an ideal building material for low-cost, low-impact, earthquake-resistant housing projects.
• Within its stem walls short, tough fibres sit in a resilient softer matrix providing nature’s version of fibreglass. It has great tensile strength, splits straight and is very hard. You can grow your own house from bamboo every five years.
• The young shoots of Gigantocholoa are eaten as a vegetable.

Read more: Bamboo. The Eden Project: https://www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/plant-profiles/bamboo

Paper straws in the UK: we can turn back the clock!

Black and white paper straw (Julie May)

The rejection of some plastics is happening quickly with single-use plastic items being banned in many places. In the UK recently, I found two examples of paper straws being used instead of plastic ones.

The black and white paper straw, above, comes from the cafe at the Tate Modern in London. It seems that some, if not all, UK National Trust cafes also use paper straws.

It was pleasing to see this sustainable and biodegradable product return. It takes me back some years when these straws were once common.

Australia’s first lithium battery recycling plant launched together with e-waste processing plan

Officials at the opening (Source: RenewEconomy)

Australia’s first lithium battery recycling plant has been officially opened in Victoria, in conjunction with the launch of a state government e-waste processing plan. The plant, established in New Gisborne by Victorian company Envirostream Australia, is the first in the nation to recycle lithium batteries. Only 3 percent of Australian batteries are currently recovered - the lowest rate in the OECD.

The e-waste processing plan, which is being rolled out by Sustainability Victoria, comes ahead of the impending state ban on sending e-waste to landfill, which takes effect on 1 July 2019.

Victorian councils and state government entities will upgrade infrastructure to collect e-waste at more than 130 sites. This will ensure that 98 percent of Melbournians are within a 20-minute drive of an e-waste disposal point, and 98 percent of regional Victorians are within a 30-minute drive of one.

There will be an awareness campaign to educate Victorians on recognising e-waste, how it should be managed, and the environmental and economic benefits of reusing, donating, repairing or recycling it.

Electronic waste - or e-waste - is defined as anything with a plug or battery that has come to the end of its useful life; including old mobile phones, computers, audio devices, refrigerators and other white goods, hair dryers, TVs, heaters and air-conditioners.

Further reading:
Australia’s first lithium battery recycling plant launched. RenewEconomy, April 27, 2018.
Australia’s first lithium battery recycling plant opens. Sustainability Victoria, April 26, 2018.

Adidas is using ocean plastic to make sneakers

Source: Green Matters

Adidas sold 1 Million pairs of sneakers made from ocean plastic in 2017 and are moving the initiative to apparel. Within the next six years, Adidas wants all of their products to be created from plastic that would otherwise have been put into the ocean.

To create its recycled plastic products, Adidas works with Parley for the Oceans, an organisation that gathers plastic waste from beaches and the sea, cleans it, chips it down, and turns it into yarn for use in consumer products. Products are now packaged in paper instead of plastic bags and microbeads were eliminated from the manufacturing process.

Adidas hasn’t been the only shoe company exploring sustainable options. Nike has turned to Flyleather material, which is created from cowhide waste mixed in with synthetic fibers. It’s led to a decrease in leather being thrown away and 95 percent of the water used in manufacturing is recycled. Nike notes that the product still feels like premium leather despite using recycled material.

Further reading:
Adidas sold 1 Million pairs of sneakers made from ocean plastic in 2017. Green Matters, March 2018.
Adidas: Sustainability Materials: https://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/products/materials/

See also:

Some good developments with plastic recycling, production and cleanup.

Turning prawn shells into plastic.

Some good developments with plastic recycling, production and cleanup

Seat made from recycled soft plastic

We all know what damage plastic waste is doing to the land and sea environment. However, the move away from environmentally damaging plastic has begun. Below are a few of the many developments.

1. In Australia, we can recycle most hard plastics in our recycling bins. As well as that, we can recycle clean soft plastics at participating supermarkets. You can find the recycling bins in discrete areas that are away from rubbish bins. This soft plastic is used to make seats like the one pictured above, school furniture and other useful items. It is called REDcycle, see: http://www.redcycle.net.au/ for details of what is (and is not) recyclable this way. N.B. biodegradable plastic are not recyclable. The recycled soft plastic goes to an Australian company, Repas, which is making Australian products.

Plant-based compostable plastic bags are sold at supermarkets.

2. In some Australian stores and supermarkets, you can now buy compostable plastic bags that are made from plant material, as shown above. The bags shown are only compostable in a commercial compost facility (Australian Standard 4736-2006) whereas those bags labelled home compostable (AS 5810-2010) are suitable to compost at home.

3. In Amsterdam, The Netherlands, there is supermarket chain that plans to have totally plastic-free aisles. In their first supermarket, the aisle has a range of biodegradable plastics made from plants, including hard plastic food containers. The other, non-plastic containers are the traditional ones of glass, metal and cardboard. See: Amsterdam now has the world’s first plastic-free supermarket aisle. Interesting Engineering, March 2, 2018.

4. Lego, in Denmark, is planning to make its plastic pieces from more sustainable materials. For a start, the toys will be made with a polyethylene produced with ethanol made from sugarcane. The polyethylene pieces will make up just 1% to 2% of the total amount of plastic elements produced by Lego but plans are afoot to improve that percentage. See: Lego goes green with sugarcane-based plastic. BBC News, March 2, 2018.

5. By choosing not to use plastic as much as possible and to recycle it, we can make a difference. See: Plastic bans worldwide will dent oil demand growth, says BP. The Guardian, February 21, 2018.

6. Meanwhile, waste plastic makes its way into rivers, lakes and the oceans. There have been several inventions to clean up plastic from waterways, such as:
This genius bucket sucks trash and oil right out of the sea. Huffington Post, May 13, 2016.
And The Ocean Cleanup with their North Sea prototype.

See also:
Turning prawn shells into plastic
Adidas is using ocean plastic to make sneakers

Turning prawn shells into plastic

Angelina Arora with her plastic made from prawn shells (photo by L. Kennerley)

Having already worked with degradable plastics, chemistry student Angelina Arora from Sydney Girls High School, Australia, experimented with discarded seafood wastes she collected from a fish and chip shop. She came up with a strong, light, biodegradable plastic.

This is using a plentiful, renewable source of waste organic material to make biodegradable plastic, instead of using fossil fuels. The plastic could be a sustainable form of shopping bags and possibly other plastics that may not harm the environment by hopefully being totally biodegradable.

Source: Turning prawns into plastic: schoolgirl Angelina Arora fights science stereotypes. By Liam Mannix, The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 Dec 2017.
Postscript: Indian-origin student wins Australia's top Science and Engineering Award. SBS Your Language, March 8, 2018.

From garbage to energy at the Woodlawn Bioreactor, NSW.

This old mine pit is used to collect methane gas from garbage to run electricity generators (photo Julie May)

The Woodlawn zinc and copper mine was shut in 1998 (although the mine has reopened this year). The original mine left a large pit which Veolia (Australia and New Zealand) uses to store garbage from Sydney. The garbage is covered with soil and methane gas made from the bacterial decomposition of plant and animal matter is collected, then used to run 7 landfill gas engines (92% of the methane is captured). This bioreactor started operation in 2004.

For every tonne of waste deposited at the facility, 1.33 megawatts of clean electricity can be produced. Since opening, over 4.1 Mt of waste has been processed most of which has been used to generate green electricity.

Although burning methane has carbon dioxide as a waste product, it is 21% more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, so overall greenhouse gas effects are reduced. In addition, electricity is made from waste, a renewable resource, and production is 24/7 so it is base load power.

The landfill gas engines (photo Julie May)

Other sustainable and energy saving mechanisms and products are employed:

• The garbage is compressed into containers at two highly efficient rail transfer terminals in southern Sydney. Trains, on the original Sydney-Canberra line, carry the containers to Tarago where they are put on trucks for the short journey to Woodlawn.
• Waste heat from one gas turbine is used to warm the water of a barramundi fish farm. (Some of the fish are sold at the Belconnen Markets in nearby Canberra.)
• There is a new, separate 'waste to compost' facility, which separates out the organics from household waste to create compost and soil. The soil will be used to help rehabilitate mine tailings to grassland.
• The land supports a sheep farm which uses rotational grazing.
• The land also has 23 wind turbines owned by Infogen, producing 48MW.
• Soon the facility will have its own 2.5MW solar farm.

For more information see: Veolia's Woodlawn Bioreactor, NSW