Author: Aurelie Chuong, Treasurer - [email protected]
The developed world has grown accustomed to the use of fossil fuels: coal, natural gas, and petroleum, and the developing world is only a few steps behind. Unfortunately, the rate at which the Earth population is using up those resources has had many realize that those energy sources are finite, and it is predicted that “fossil fuel reserve depletion times for oil, coal and gas [are] approximately 35, 107 and 37 years, respectively [as of 2008, when the study was published]. This means that coal reserves are available up to 2112, and will be the only fossil fuel remaining after 2042” [1]. Despite the large movement to find alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric powers [2], we still have a long way to go. Hybrid electric cars such as the Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt as well as fully electric cars as manufactured by Tesla Motors have already made their way into the market. However, using existing alternative energies are still expensive compared to our fossil fuels; therefore, we need to develop alternative energy sources that are not only renewable, but cost-effective as well.
Recently, on the National Public Radio (NPR), I heard a story about using food wastes as an alternative source of energy. According to a 2013 National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Report on food waste, anywhere between 2.6 to 4.4 trillion pounds of food gets wasted, which is estimated to cost $165 billion in losses [3], mainly because food is thrown out prematurely (where “sell-by,” “freeze-by,” etc. dates get confused for “stop-consuming-by” dates). The NPR story highlights the use of anaerobic bacterial digestion of food wastes as a means to produce methane gas for downstream purposes such as generating heat or electricity. Although this is a good first step forward, there is still one major challenge, and that is sorting organic wastes from landfill waste.
Last week, Dr. Daniel Aldrich of Purdue University gave a seminar on how Japanese civil society was the key component in recovering from the Fukushima nuclear plant incident [4]. In his talk, he mentioned that the Japanese had a dozen of categories for recycling and trash management, which made me think about what we do in the U.S. In recent years, mixed recycling (also known as single-stream recycling) has gained popularity over sorting paper, plastic, and metal. But less effort sorting at home, means that all of that work gets put onto trash management workers – here’s the link to Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe where he goes to the San Francisco Dump for some good clean fun. I have to say though, recycling does take extra work. Currently, at school and at work, there are paper and mixed recycling bins (for aluminum and plastic). At my apartment though, I only have trash bins, no options for recycling. Sometimes, I will try to bring all of my recycling to campus, that is, I am not going to lie, time-consuming and requires a car trip, but then I look at the Japanese people, as did Dr. Aldrich, and with time and community involvement and motivation, as noted in the New York Times, “[i]n towns and villages where everybody knows one another, not sorting may be unthinkable” [5]. If we have a high compliance rate in recycling, then we may be able to make strides in separating organic wastes.
Ultimately, if using food wastes as an alternative energy source works out, the following issues will be handled in some way: production of alternative energy and “recycling” of food wastes that would otherwise be going to landfills. In order to get a step closer to that goal, however, we need to make recycling and trash sorting readily available to all and ensure compliance of trash sorting just like the Japanese are doing.
[1] Shafiee, S. & Topal, E. “When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished?” Energy Policy, 37 (2009): 181–189. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2008.08.016
[2] “Renewable Electricity Generation.” United States Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. Accessed 13 Mar 2014. <http://energy.gov/eere/renewables>
[3] Leib, E. B., Ferro, J., Nielsen, A., Nosek, G., & Qu, J. “The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America.” Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and National Resources Defense Council. NRDC Report R:13-09-A (2013).
[4] Aldrich, D. P. "Rethinking Civil Society-State Relations in Japan after the Fukushima Incident." Polity 45.2 (2013): 249-264.
[5] Onishi, N. “How Do Japanese Dump Trash? Let Us Count the Myriad Ways.” The New York Times. Published 12 May 2005. Accessed 14 Mar 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/asia/12garbage.html?pagewanted=all>
The developed world has grown accustomed to the use of fossil fuels: coal, natural gas, and petroleum, and the developing world is only a few steps behind. Unfortunately, the rate at which the Earth population is using up those resources has had many realize that those energy sources are finite, and it is predicted that “fossil fuel reserve depletion times for oil, coal and gas [are] approximately 35, 107 and 37 years, respectively [as of 2008, when the study was published]. This means that coal reserves are available up to 2112, and will be the only fossil fuel remaining after 2042” [1]. Despite the large movement to find alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric powers [2], we still have a long way to go. Hybrid electric cars such as the Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt as well as fully electric cars as manufactured by Tesla Motors have already made their way into the market. However, using existing alternative energies are still expensive compared to our fossil fuels; therefore, we need to develop alternative energy sources that are not only renewable, but cost-effective as well.
Recently, on the National Public Radio (NPR), I heard a story about using food wastes as an alternative source of energy. According to a 2013 National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Report on food waste, anywhere between 2.6 to 4.4 trillion pounds of food gets wasted, which is estimated to cost $165 billion in losses [3], mainly because food is thrown out prematurely (where “sell-by,” “freeze-by,” etc. dates get confused for “stop-consuming-by” dates). The NPR story highlights the use of anaerobic bacterial digestion of food wastes as a means to produce methane gas for downstream purposes such as generating heat or electricity. Although this is a good first step forward, there is still one major challenge, and that is sorting organic wastes from landfill waste.
Last week, Dr. Daniel Aldrich of Purdue University gave a seminar on how Japanese civil society was the key component in recovering from the Fukushima nuclear plant incident [4]. In his talk, he mentioned that the Japanese had a dozen of categories for recycling and trash management, which made me think about what we do in the U.S. In recent years, mixed recycling (also known as single-stream recycling) has gained popularity over sorting paper, plastic, and metal. But less effort sorting at home, means that all of that work gets put onto trash management workers – here’s the link to Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe where he goes to the San Francisco Dump for some good clean fun. I have to say though, recycling does take extra work. Currently, at school and at work, there are paper and mixed recycling bins (for aluminum and plastic). At my apartment though, I only have trash bins, no options for recycling. Sometimes, I will try to bring all of my recycling to campus, that is, I am not going to lie, time-consuming and requires a car trip, but then I look at the Japanese people, as did Dr. Aldrich, and with time and community involvement and motivation, as noted in the New York Times, “[i]n towns and villages where everybody knows one another, not sorting may be unthinkable” [5]. If we have a high compliance rate in recycling, then we may be able to make strides in separating organic wastes.
Ultimately, if using food wastes as an alternative energy source works out, the following issues will be handled in some way: production of alternative energy and “recycling” of food wastes that would otherwise be going to landfills. In order to get a step closer to that goal, however, we need to make recycling and trash sorting readily available to all and ensure compliance of trash sorting just like the Japanese are doing.
[1] Shafiee, S. & Topal, E. “When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished?” Energy Policy, 37 (2009): 181–189. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2008.08.016
[2] “Renewable Electricity Generation.” United States Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. Accessed 13 Mar 2014. <http://energy.gov/eere/renewables>
[3] Leib, E. B., Ferro, J., Nielsen, A., Nosek, G., & Qu, J. “The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America.” Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and National Resources Defense Council. NRDC Report R:13-09-A (2013).
[4] Aldrich, D. P. "Rethinking Civil Society-State Relations in Japan after the Fukushima Incident." Polity 45.2 (2013): 249-264.
[5] Onishi, N. “How Do Japanese Dump Trash? Let Us Count the Myriad Ways.” The New York Times. Published 12 May 2005. Accessed 14 Mar 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/asia/12garbage.html?pagewanted=all>