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Is There Gold in Garbage?

Michael Kanellos

Someday soon, communities may brag about being the Saudi Arabia of old, discarded milk jugs.

Waste products—old packaging, used tires, broken electronics, waste streams from breweries—are starting to look like gold, according to a small, but growing group of investors and entrepreneurs.

Axion International, a company out of New Providence, New Jersey, has come up with a way to craft pilings, beams and other building components out of recycled plastic. How strong is it? In Fort Bragg, the U.S. Army has erected a bridge for tanks out of railroad ties fashioned from Axion’s beams made from recycled high-density polyethylene.

“Plastics were the Great Satan,” bellows Axion CEO Jim Kerstein. “It takes less energy to produce our materials than it takes to produce wood or steel.”

Think about it for a moment. Plastic and rubber come from petroleum, a substance that’s been at the center of geopolitical conflicts since at least the 1920s. Lehigh Technologies says its factory can produce recycled rubber to generate 4 million tires a year, curbing demand for oil by hundreds of millions of gallons.Bioplastech, out of Ireland, says it can take old plastic, feed it to a genetically modified organism, and get new, more easily recyclable plastic that can be made into bottles.

 

Strategic analysts worry about future supplies of nickel, copper and rare earth elements. When China threatened to stop exporting, Toyota and Mitsubishi announced metal recycling projects.

Garbage giant Waste Management harvests enough methane (natural gas) coming from its dump in Livermore, California to power its garbage trucks in the region.

And these are just the obvious examples where natural hazards find a new life. Joe Jones, CEO and founder of Skyonic, has come up with a way to convert carbon dioxide spewing from smokestacks into baking soda. In Moss Landing, California, Calera says it can convert flue gases from power plants into cement filler. Pollution is reduced with these technologies and the need to mine these materials declines.

Meanwhile, Oberon FMR produces food for fish farms from waste streams at breweries.

It might sound smelly, but if we can afford mining, and landfills, and imported petroleum, it might be the way to go. Then again, cost/benefit calculations can be cruel.

What valuables lurk in your garbage can?

Michael Kanellos is the Editor in Chief at Greentech Media, where he covers emerging technologies and companies in the green world. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, NPR, Al Jazeera, Fox News among other media outlets and speaks often at tech conferences. A graduate of Cornell University and the University of California, he has worked as an attorney, a travel writer and a busboy at a pancake house.

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Can Agriculture Go Urban?

Eric Wesoff

Urban agriculture has the potential to change the way we eat, farm, and our relationship with the food on our plate.

Migrating sustainable agriculture closer to customers addresses a laundry list of looming concerns — trucking, water, energy costs, carbon emissions, and pesticides.

Instead of pesticide-intensive factory farms, we can envision organic foods grown in Brooklyn greenhouses. Instead of concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFOs), think backyard chicken coops. What about using technology like LEDs to provide indoor growth environments or growing food vertically instead of using precious urban real estate?

Why not grow vegetables in greenhouses on roofs in Manhattan or Mumbai?

Demand for food is rising, particularly in rapidly growing economies like China and India, fossil fuel-based fertilizers are getting more expensive, and water is an increasingly scarce resource. Almost a billion people in developing countries are undernourished, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Why not grow food vertically?

 

AeroFarm is a startup that looks to do just that. With a modest amount of land, plus water and electricity, AeroFarm claims that they can grow greens at the same cost as traditional farming areas in California. Yields are likely modest but it’s a novel solution for city dwellers if the energy balance is favorable.

New York’s Gotham Greens builds rooftop greenhouses that combine advanced horticultural and engineering techniques to optimize crop production, crop quality, and production efficiency. Their climate controlled facility can grow produce, year-round.

Venture capitalists are paying close attention to the green agriculture market and will certainly look at urban farming if the market potential exists. Recent VC investments in green agriculture include WeatherBill with investment from Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures; as well as startups AgraQuest, Yulex, and Holganix.

Aquaponics can produce fresh fish and vegetables year-round, with a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics in an integrated, soil-less system. In these systems, fish waste fertilizes plants, while plants naturally filter water for fish.

Aeroponic farming uses mist to grow plants without soil, another-urban friendly farming technique.

And urban agriculture has the potential to provide jobs and strengthen communities while producing affordable food.

Will Allen, a farmer who produced a quarter of a million dollars worth of food on two acres in Milwaukee, won a $500,000 genius award from the MacArthur Foundation in 2008 for his urban efforts. First Lady Michelle Obama is planting an organic garden on the White House lawn and the President is touting urban agriculture as a means to revitalize cities.

Can tomorrow’s farmer be an urban entrepreneur with a greentech thumb?

Eric Wesoff is a Senior Analyst at GreenTechMedia. Eric’s expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley’s premier venture capitalists.

TAGS farm, farming, locavore, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, urban agriculture, urban farm,urban farming, vertical farming, water-energy nexus