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Landfills to Fertilize Biofuel Crop With Trash-Juices

gas2.org — Two British landfills could soon use their trash ’s syrupy excretions to irrigate and fertilize on-site biomass crops.A developer, Waste Recycling Group, hopes to construct two 18-foot-deep lagoons near landfills to produce fertilizer from the leachate that oozes from the trash piles.

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  • Batfishy, on 09/30/2008, -0/+11See how smart we can be? Not that it's perfect or anything.
    • Hillsfar, on 09/30/2008, -6/+8Unfortunately, trash juice may also be full of things like household cleaners, battery acid, lead contaminants, chemicals outgassings from plastics, and other toxic metals like mercury, etc. Try researching news articles on chemical contaminants leaching from landfills here in the U.S.

      Now imagine with current WTO regulations, the trash-juice irrigated products get shipped to the U.S. to fill our grocery produce aisles. With cheap garlic from China, grown on toxic land - tests have shown them to be full of lead and mercury. Try looking for research articles on that.

      Now imagine these biofuels imported into the U.S. combusting in vehicle engines and polluting our air.
      • mjwhip, on 09/30/2008, -1/+8FTA "The developer then hopes to use the fertilizer to grow willow coppices at the landfill for use as biofuel."
        Nobody is saying to use this for food crops.
        Also I'm sure the contaminants will/should be refined out.
      • charlietuna, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2@mjwhip
        Refining out contaminants adds cost. As the saying goes: good, fast, cheap - pick two.
    • groo68, on 10/01/2008, -0/+1wouldn't those juices help the trash rot faster?
  • woulok, on 09/30/2008, -1/+20Now that's what I call a "sticky situation"
  • AFelsinger, on 09/30/2008, -0/+6i wonder if they could capture biogas from the leachate instead and if it'd be more efficient than growing the willow for biofuel.
    • nesagwa, on 09/30/2008, -0/+4They do that already in a lot of places, but it produces methane rather than ethanol.

      Both are useful, just for different purposes.
  • TheMachine1, on 09/30/2008, -0/+7What a waste that trash juice would be an excellent feedstock for high fructose corn syrup production.
  • InkDemon, on 09/30/2008, -8/+1Good idea...IF recycling does not recycle diseases, too. We live in a world of toxic chemicals and terrible microbes. Will be be "recycled" back into the food supply, too. Look! We already have enough salmonella, ecoli, other bugs to worry about now!
    • edalquist, on 09/30/2008, -1/+6Except this is explicitly for biofuel crops which are processed directly into ethanol, none of the crop would go into the food supply.
    • alex7575, on 09/30/2008, -0/+3You know that right now your entire body, inside and out is literally crawling with microbes?
  • RipleyIsDead, on 09/30/2008, -0/+8Mmm, trash-juice.
  • Skywise, on 09/30/2008, -0/+15Get Mike Rowe on it!
  • mogebier, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2Mmmmmmmm.... syrupy excretions.....
  • alltimeqb, on 09/30/2008, -0/+7So when do the ninja turtles come in?
  • elitebmo, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2thats pretty cool, but you'd think that they would have that lagoon enclosed by a very futuristic space dome. i mean, open air? is that safe?
  • scot333, on 09/30/2008, -0/+4dug for "trash-Juices"
  • Terraburn, on 09/30/2008, -1/+1ohhhhhhhhhhhh, heueheuheu *vomit*
  • FlyingPhotog, on 09/30/2008, -0/+8OM NOM NOM NOM.
  • h3lx, on 09/30/2008, -2/+4Bally Jerry, pranged his kite right in the how's-your-father; hairy blighter, dicky-birded, feathered back on his sammy, took a waspy, lipped over on his Betty Harpers and caught his can in the Bertie!
  • Chairboy, on 09/30/2008, -0/+6I prefer Hershey's Trash Syrup Lite, it's got half the calories.
  • southwestnut, on 09/30/2008, -0/+4I can see it now, Tropicana Trash Juice...........
  • Mataroo, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2I wonder how they could filter out contaminants without killing off the nutrients? I guess it won't be too far from compost.
  • fernwood, on 09/30/2008, -1/+5They should use Brawndo. It has electrolytes!
  • inajeep, on 09/30/2008, -0/+4So I guess they need to stick a bucket on the back of the garbage trucks to collect that juice that trails them all around town.
  • Hillsfar, on 09/30/2008, -2/+4Unfortunately, trash juice may also be full of things like household cleaners, battery acid, lead contaminants, chemicals outgassings from plastics, and other toxic metals like mercury, etc. Try researching news articles on chemical contaminants leaching from landfills here in the U.S.

    Now imagine with current WTO regulations, the trash-juice irrigated products get shipped to the U.S. to fill our grocery produce aisles. With cheap garlic from China, grown on toxic land - tests have shown them to be full of lead and mercury. Try looking for research articles on that.

    Now imagine these biofuels imported into the U.S. combusting in vehicle engines and polluting our air.
    • nesagwa, on 09/30/2008, -1/+3Now imagine theyre not growing food with this. Theyre growing plants to convert into ethanol.
      • Hillsfar, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2I repeat: "Now imagine these biofuels imported into the U.S. combusting in vehicle engines and polluting our air."
    • knowmad23, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1Hillsfar you are making a good point, with just a bit of googleling around people would find out that there are quite a few problems with this approach. The core of the problems arises from the fact that the really nasty toxins are both chemically and physically stable. They don't go away they will; as you point out enter the atmosphere.
      This is yet another example of the bio-diesel crowd, trying to separate themselves from the petro-crowd and confuse the masses-of-asses that couldn’t pass a 6th grade Science class. Internal combustion engines produce CO and CO2! No mater if they burn Clean Bio-diesel, Bio-diesel fed on toxic sludge, ethanol or petroleum based hydrocarbon fuels.
  • svensksvamp, on 09/30/2008, -3/+2WIKIPEDIA IS DOWN, WTF!!!!!!!!
  • bizzywho, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2You guys should watch the documentary, "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You".
  • Cheeseburgers, on 09/30/2008, -0/+6trash juices...like sunny-d
  • FlyingSpaghetti, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2Trash juices, or what I call "excess flavor".
  • hydroplane, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2The trash runoff is also bottled and sold as Snapple.
  • ncc74656m, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2Garbage juices? Like the ***** that I find on my street after the truck runs its compactor? EWWW.
  • BoneStamp, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2Nothing smells worse than trash-juice (aka garbage-juice).
  • Snaffler, on 09/30/2008, -1/+4I suppose nobody wants to know what is in landfill leachate? I've looked at lots of test results and it is not the sort of stuff you want to sprinkle on your salad. Heavy metals, including mercury, lead, and cadmium, ammonia, chloride, benzene, xylene, phthalates, PCI, etc. are commonly found. Some of this stuff will persist in soils on which it is applied. Some of this stuff can be absorbed by organics. Yum.
    • fixyourthinking, on 09/30/2008, -1/+2ALL of the "STUFF" is filtered and detergents added before it can be shipped as automobile fuel. If any "stuff" comes from the plants it can be recycled for use.
    • nmezib, on 09/30/2008, -0/+4who the ***** sprinkles trash-sauce on salad?

      hot only is it filtered and purified (thanks, fixyourthinking), but it's for biofuel, dude. Biofuel.

      I'm sorry, I didn't know you liked gasoline on your croutons. My bad.
      • knowmad23, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2bio-fuels produce CO and CO2. dude. CO and CO2!
        xylene, phthalates and PCI's; Show me a method with references on how to "Filter” that stuff and we'll give you a Nobel prize in chemistry. And before you try to crawl any further up Fixyersh... whole of ignorance, what do you think the net product of burning "Detergents" is? (I’ll give you a hint. It’s the same stuff you scrape out of your bong.)
      • nmezib, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2sure, youre right. Biofuels tend to have a lot more particulate matter in combustion emissions, but consider the alternatives...

        while we wait for greener technologies to emerge and become more feasible for our energy needs, there is a whole lot of untapped energy that can be harvested naturally. Sure, its enviromental benefits are questionable when compared to conventional petrol when emissions are only taken into account, but we have vast stores of trash piling up everywhere that can be both reduced and reused.

        it's not perfect (gasoline has both CO and CO2 emissions so we should all dump our cars immediately?) but it is a start, and a nice intermediate.
      • knowmad23, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1Well most people hate generalizations, I'm really no exception. So I have reason to cringe at the comparison of Bio-fuels to petro fuels based on emissions alone. The collective investments of Capital, research time, litigation and disasters made by technologist of the last 200 years have produced the internal combustion engine as a means to drive the ends. It’s not that we need to work on using "greener" methods. We need to end the concept that we operate independently from our eco system just because we use fire. We shape our ecosystems because we use fire. And yeah we can dump our cars compared to human innovation, and history the 100 year love affair with the auto has gotten us nowhere, quicker. And No I don’t own a car. Haven’t owned one since 1995. I practice Reduction, Reuse, and Removal (from lifestyle), because recycle is a but a re-finance on a mortgage that was never re-payable.
      • knowmad23, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1Well most people hate generalizations, I'm really no exception. So I have reason to cringe at the comparison of Bio-fuels to petro fuels based on emissions alone. The collective investments of Capital, research time, litigation and disasters made by technologist of the last 200 years have produced the internal combustion engine as a means to drive the ends. It’s not that we need to work on using "greener" methods. We need to end the concept that we operate independently from our eco system just because we use fire. We shape our ecosystems because we use fire. And yeah we can dump our cars compared to human innovation, and history the 100 year love affair with the auto has gotten us nowhere, quicker. And No I don’t own a car. Haven’t owned one since 1995. I practice Reduction, Reuse, and Removal (from lifestyle), because recycle is a but a re-finance on a mortgage that was never re-payable.
  • jull1234, on 09/30/2008, -0/+5Kitties love garbage juice.
  • rootsm3, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2Oh sign me up for that job.
  • nmezib, on 09/30/2008, -0/+3Dugg for "syrupy excretions"
  • maxlightz, on 09/30/2008, -0/+3i just threw up in my mouth ...
  • sandersdamnit, on 09/30/2008, -0/+3Hey if Luke Skywalker can almost drown in this ***** and then become a ***** Jedi knight practically overnight, why wouldn't we want to put this on the crops? I gonna go drink the ***** outta some trash juice right now, just try and stop me!
  • helloelan, on 09/30/2008, -0/+3'round these parts we call it "garbage water"
  • kgdoom, on 09/30/2008, -0/+2reminds me of when Neo falls into that piss-***** pool and the Nebakanezer fishes him out.
  • NewandImproved, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1Sewage Lagoon...good name for a band
  • XZanatos, on 09/30/2008, -0/+1We have to reintegrate all the trash we humankind create back into the biosphere somehow and stop it from being dead, toxic matter. All I ask is that we put a few steps between syrupy-trash-juice and my dinner plate. A decade or so in fallow, non agricultural lands would be enough to satisfy me.
  • slapthemonkey, on 10/01/2008, -0/+1Great. A use for trash
  • Gmoney6212, on 10/02/2008, -0/+0When will America catch on to the good British ideas?
  • lornali, on 10/03/2008, -0/+1Great initiative
  •  

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