Biogen Greenfinch

Location: Milton Ernest, Bedfordshire
Years: 2005-present
Leader: John Ibbett

http://www.biogengreenfinch.co.uk/



Biogen promotes, develops and utilizes new technologies to respond to today’s environmental challenges. They deliver eco-technology solutions that meet those challenges while supporting the sustainability of the environment, farming and rural communities. Biogen was established to develop a new farm based on Anaerobic Digestion (AD). AD is a natural biological process using naturally occurring micro-organisms to break down organic matter into fertilizer while producing biogas. The anaerobic bacteria utilized in the process are commonly found in soils and deep waters. AD is split into three main stages: hydrolysis, acidogenesis, and methanogenesis. After methanogenesis, a combined heat and power engine is used to conver the biogas into heat and electricity.
















Biogen uses its own pig slurry to feed the AD process and also provide a local recycling solution for other food chain waste in the UK.

Recycle Bank

Location: 20 states, United Kingdom
Years: 2003-Present
Founder: Patrick Fitzgerald and Ron Gonen
Partners: 1,500 points redeeming partners

Recycle Bank is an incentive based recycling program started to combat cities eliminating their recycling programs because of the lack of profitability. Presently it serves one million people in twenty states and launched in the UK in 2009 and is an incentive-based approach to recycling that gives rewards for recycling that can be redeemed at both local and national businesses. Residents are given recycle bins that have ID's that track how much is recycled. The program elected to use a single-stream system where materials recycled together instead of in separate bins for ease of use. This amount is then converted to "points" (similar to credit card or airline miles programs) that can be redeemed at Recycle Bank partners.


In addition to individuals, the corporate program partners with (ie replaces) 25 partner municipalities (9 of those in New Jersey). As an example of the positive response from renewing the a city’s recycling program, Wilmington, Delaware saw an increase from 3% recycling to 32% recycling among its residents.

SourceMap

Name: Source Map

Location: The Internet

Contributors: The Public

See Where Stuff Comes From with SourceMap: "Imagine a future in which pointing a PDA at a product bar code returns an instant readout of product source and environmental footprint to inform the buyer's decision. This future could be reality with SourceMap. Designed as a "collective tool for transparency and sustainability," SourceMap aims to be the Wiki of visualizing supply chains."

Sourcemap’s goals are to provide visible supply chains, social and environmental sustainability, and sustain business. We have a right to know more about the products and services we buy, including where they come from and what they are made of. Sourcemap is an open source project dedicated to tracking, documenting, and mapping where all of the components for our everyday goods come from. In short, it’s a supply chain publishing platform dedicated to transparency. Believing their program will allow for industrial productionto become environmentally and socially beneficia. Unfortunately, with the resources currently available to the public, it’s nearly impossible to find out how products and services impact the earth and society. Therefore, they are developing Sourcemap so that those who are interested can make informed, sustainable decisions at home and in the workplace. Yet, their main intention is for Sourcemap to help sustain business. Built as a diagnostic and marketing tool that helps to plan for and advertise a long-term outlook. Their website states that “After all, saving energy and materials saves money, and healthy communities become prosperous markets. Sourcemap provides an edge so you can respond to shifting supplies, communicate with customers, and plan for the future.”

Sourcemap is already a running website, yet it has not achieved their initial goals. This is how it works. It catalogues various materials from food to clothing, and their CO2 emissions. You can then use these statistics to map the total CO2 emissions or carbon footprint of the product. Functioning like a social network, anyone can contribute to the storyline of a products lifetime. For example, you can calculate the impact of manufacturing, transporting, using, and throwing away products using their Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculator. The website uses geographic resources and data while relying on user contributions and a panel of advisers to keep information up-to-date. They hope that as the site grows, suppliers will be able to contribute their products to the Sourcemap database, providing a geographic catalogue of materials and products for sale around the world.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/see-where-stuff-is-from-sourcemap.php

http://vimeo.com/5133927

http://www.sourcemap.org/beta/stage/

Dillo Dirt

Location: Austin, Texas
Years: 1989-Present
Founder: City of Austin


Since 1989 the City of Austin has curb collection recycling program for yard trimmings, which is combined with excess sewage sludge to create Dillo Dirt, a biosolids fertilizer than has been proven to retain water better than regular soil reducing the need for watering. The City built Hornsby Bend, a Biosolids Management Plant, that has proven more cost effective through recycling than land filling and utilized the wastewater treatment ponds as bird observatories. The facility provides the facilities necessary for sludge-thickening, anaerobic digestion, and composting.


The program was an early component of Austin’s strategy to have zero solid waste by 2030. The city creates a closed loop for Dillo Dirt by requiring the use of Dillo Dirty for government projects. It also partners with local nurseries to sell Dillo Dirt to residents and it can be purchased http://www.organicsbygosh.com/old_site/dillodirt.htm
online. Dillo Dirt is the oldest program of its kind in the nation and has spread throughout the country, originally Dallas and Houston, because of its effectiveness and profitability.

Advanced Composting Technologies

Location: Candler, NC
Year: 1998-Present

http://www.advancedcomposting.com

Advanced Composting Technologies is a company based in North Carolina specializing in forced aeration composting technology. Spinning off a previous company known as Mountain Organic Materials, ACT now specializes in the unique composting issue of animal mortality, where responsible disposal of animal carcasses has previously been a problem. A testimonial from a hog farmer with one of Advanced Composting Technology’s proprietary systems claims a 60,000 dollar savings, by changing from burning carcasses with diesel fuel to composting them responsibly.

ACT claims the forced air system cuts down both on time required for full composting, as well as pathogens normally generated by decomposing flesh. The system is applicable in swine and poultry farms, as well as for general manure composting set-ups. Beyond these, the company claims this technology could be expanded for aquaculture farms, municipalities, large institutions, veterinarians or any situation in which organic matter would otherwise go to a landfill.

Preserve Products

Location: Cortland, New York
Years: 1996-Present
Founder: Eric Hudson
Partner: Stonyfield Farm
Preserve Products sells items only made from recycled materials and further recyclable. Most of the products are not all that radical as stainless steel utensils or ceramic and glass plates are not thrown away often. Perhaps the most viable use of the inexpensive items is the possibility of replacing unrecyclable disposable items (paper plates and cups) instead of replacing a set of dishes. However, recyclable toothbrushes, razers, toothpicks, Brita filters, storage containers seem to be a new niche market that presents the possibility of recycling in common items that are not normally thought of as recyclable.


The most important structure of the company is the emphasis on using more environmentally friendly produced plastics that are able to be recycled. At present the materials need to be shipped to New York for recycling creating additional transportation energy. However, the new gimme 5 program allows consumers to drop off items for recycling wherever Preserve Products are sold (typically Whole Foods locations) for Preserve to pick-up and ship while delivering new products to the store.

Zero Waste Zone (ZWZ)

Pilot City: Atlanta, GA

Year: 2009

Organization: Green Foodservice Alliance

http://www.greenfoodservicealliance.org

http://www.epa.gov/region4/recycle/zerowaste.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/earth/20trash.html?_r=1

Atlanta has recently pledged to become a Zero Waste Zone. Gradually, participants in Atlanta are joining the pledge to eliminate practically all of the waste currently going to landfills. More than 10 participants, including the Georgia World Congress Center, the Hyatt Regency and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse have already pledged to recycle their common recyclables (cardboard, plastic, etc.), reuse spent grease for the local production of biofuel and donate or compost food residuals to drastically decrease the amount of waste going to landfills.

Ecological Dry Toilet

Location: Mexico

Years: 1980-present

Organization: Centro de Innovacion en Tecnolgia Alternativa

Designer: Cesar Anorve

Manufacturer: Tecnologias y Sistemas Ecologicos (TESEC)

Cost: $27-54 (stand alone toilet), $150-550 (complete system)

Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises, p.296

The Ecological Dry Toilet was created by Centro de Innovacion en Tecnolgia Alternativa, in Mexico, where nearly half the water used in a Mexican home goes down the toilet. The toilet both conserves water and creates fertilizer.

The Ecological Dry Toilet mounts a conventional toilet seat cover over two chambers—one active, where waste is collected, the other passive, where waste composts while the other chamber is in use. The toilet diverts urine to a tank where it settles before being used as fertilizer. Solid waste passes to the active chamber, which is “flushed” with ash or lime rather than water to speed composting and neutralize odors. When the active chamber is full, it is sealed off and the waste is left to compost for 18 months or more. Meanwhile, composted waste is emptied from the second chamber, which them becomes active again.

TerraCycle

Location: Trenton, New Jersey
Years: 2001-Present
Founder: Tom Szaky, Princeton University Student


TerraCycle wants to be a part of an eco-revolution through its closed-loop, upcycled products. Having started in 2001 making fertilizers from worms, it has grown to have 7 million people recycling and producing 102 items.



TerraCycle sells its products in major retailers nation-wide. Some products are more eye-catching and gimmicky than revolutionary recycling ideas (ie. Vinyl Wall Clock) but the founding idea of using worms to digest organic waste to create a natural fertilizer is noted for its potential to reduce the need for both nitrogen and phosphorus based fertilizers. A media-success story founder Szaky was featured on the cover of Inc. in 2006. Proof of the effectiveness and growth of the new fertilizer was Scott’s Miracle Gro sued TerraCycle for claims of effectiveness. The company’s community based focus extends to its location in abandoned buildings in Trenton, purchasing program for recycled wrappers in schools, and use of local artists in designing and hand-decorating. A marketing campaign with Newsweek where the magazine cover folded into an envelope and 47,000 readers responded by mailing in plastic shopping bags, which were made into reTote messenger bags. The rate of growth of the company proves promising as its scale increases.

Sulabh International Social Service Organisation

Location: India
Year: 1970s- present
Founder: Bindeshwar Pathak

http://www.sulabhinternational.org/st/sulabh_flush_compost_toilet.php

http://www.adb.org/Water/Champions/pathak.asp

In an effort to elevate the social status of the ‘untouchables’ -those scavengers who clean pit latrines- sociologist Bindeshwar Pathak founded the non-governmental organization Sulabh International and created a latrine that is practically maintenance-free. The “eco-friendly, technically appropriate, socio-culturally acceptable and economically affordable” Sulabh Flush Compost Toilet requires only very little water (2 liters) to flush and creates sludge that after 2 years of sitting in an underground pit is turned into manure which can be used as an agricultural fertilizer. Up to date, more than 1,2 million Sulabh toilets have been installed in India.

Sulabh International also prides itself on being the “pioneering organization in the field of biogas generation from public toilet complexes,” treating effluents on site and converting human excreta into biogas that can be used for cooking and lighting. It has constructed 190 biogas plants, whose accompanying community toilets service 250,000 people per day, creating practically 9 million daily square feet of biogas.

The most notable strengths of Sulabh International’s sanitary actions (the organization has since diversified its realms of social involvement) are the large scale at which they have been and continue to be undertaken -primordially in India but recently also in countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal- as well as the multiple advantages they confer. Not only have they helped liberate 120,000 scavengers from cleaning 13 million latrines throughout India, as well as improved the sanitary conditions of those who use the new toilets, but they provide an important example of sustainable human waste management in developing countries. Dr. Pathak’s technologies and actions have received international recognition, earning him a number of awards including the 2007 Energy Globe Award, the Indira Gandhi Award for Environment, and the Global 500 Roll of Honour Award by UNEP.

Major Food Corporation Composting

Name: Major Food Corporation Composting

Location: Pietermaritzburg, South Africa; Durban, South Africa; Suffolk, Virginia

Years: 2005-present

Corporation: Unilever Foods

Unilever Foods is one of the biggest food companies in the world. Beginning in 2005, this company has started diverting food waste from its factories and instead sending it to municipal composting facilities. The first two factories to implement this composting system were located in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and Durban, South Africa. They combine the food waste from their factories with spices and dry savoury powers from other factories, as well as typical compost ingredients like grass clippings and manure. In the first two years of this pilot project, they have managed to diver half their waste from landfills, and the resulting compost is then used in a variety of community initiatives, such as 56 local community gardens. These gardens are intended to fight poverty, provide food, and provide a source of income in poor communities.

In addition to its composting systems in South Africa, Unilever Foods has made great strides with its recycling and composting practices in its factories worldwide. In September of 2009, its plant in Suffolk, Virginia announced that it had become a “zero landfill facility”. Through their aggressive recycling and composting programs, the company has achieved the result of not sending any waste to landfills.This factory is also the largest tea-processing facility in the United States, so it’s nice to see such a major factory taking a stand on sustainability.

http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/casestudies/environment/southafricacompostingwastematerialforcommunitygardens.aspx

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/unilevers-lipton-tea-facility-in-suffolk-virginia-achieves-zero-landfill-goal-2009-09-22

The Humanure Hacienda

Name: The Humanure Hacienda

Location: Pennsylvania

Years: 2001-present

Founded by: Joe Jenkins & family

The Humanure Hacienda is a structure for composting human waste that was built by Joe Jenkins and his family for their personal use. It is located in the backyard of their Pennsylvania home. Known primarily as the author of The Humanure Handbook, Joe Jenkins is one of the leading advocates for the use of humanure in America. This book is a guide to implementing humanure systems, and it provides all the necessary information and procedures to get started, as well as ample reasons why one should use humanure in the first place. In Joe Jenkins’ backyard, he constructed a two-part humanure composting structure that he nicknamed the “Humanure Hacienda”. There are two twin composting bins that are filled with humanure; the family carries the waste out to the hacienda in buckets and dumps it in. However, only one bin is filled up at a time, and they are filled up in alternating years so that one side will always be aging so as to be soon ready for use in the garden, while the other side will be filling up on a daily basis. Jenkins has posted many pictures of the Humanure Hacienda as well as detailed descriptions of its functionality on his website so as to publicize this system and encourage people to implement a similar system in their own backyard.

In effect, Jenkins is practicing what he preaches, and I think that is refreshing to see. As a leading advocate of humanure, he should definitely be using it himself, so I am glad that he has found a successful way to do so and is widely publicizing it. This shows people that anyone can use humanure; it is a simple system that can be placed in your backyard, and the benefits are numerous.

http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/hacienda.html