Its Easy Being Green

Going Green At Work

2011-05-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

A greener workplace can mean a lighter ecological footprint, a healthier and more productive place to work, and good news for the bottom line. Whether you're the boss or the employee, whether your office is green already or still waiting to see the light, some practical steps can lay the groundwork for a healthy, low-impact workspace. From how you get to work -- we recommend telecommuting -- to helping your company walk the walk through corporate financial investment in green, to getting a new green job that matches your career with your ideals, to starting your own green business, we break down your green workplace. Read on for all the details.

Going Green at Work: Top Tips

More Work, Less Energy For many people, a computer is the central tool at work. Optimizing the energy settings for computers and other devices can be more than a modest energy saver. Set computers to energy-saving settings and make sure to shut them down when you leave for the day ("standby" settings will continue to draw power even when not in use). By plugging hardware into a power strip with an on/off switch (or a smart power strip), the whole desktop setup can be turned off at once (make sure to power downinkjet printers before killing the power--they need to seal their cartridges). Printers, scanners, and other peripherals that are only used occasionally can be unplugged until they're needed. And of course, turn off lights in spaces that are unoccupied.
Digitize It does seem a bit strange that in the "digital age" we still consume enormous amounts of mashed up, bleached tree pulp, most of which gets used once or twice and then tossed or recycled ("downcycled," as McDonough and Braungart would call it). The greenest paper is no paper at all, so keep things digital and dematerialized whenever possible. The more you do online, the less you need paper. Keep files on computers instead of in file cabinets (this also makes it easier to make offsite backup copies or take them with you when you move to a new office). Review documents onscreen rather than printing them out. Send emails instead of paper letters. New software likeGreenprint helps eliminate blank pages from documents before printing and can also convert to PDF for paperless document sharing.
Don't Be a Paper Pusher When buying printer paper, look for recycled paper with a high percentage of post-consumer content and the minimum of chlorine bleaching. Even recycled paper gobbles up a great deal of energy, water, and chemical resources in its processing (toxic pulp slurry is the paper recycling industry's dirty secret). When using the real stuff, print on both sides of the page when appropriate and use misprints as notepaper. Try to choose printers and photocopiers that do double-sided printing. If your office ships packages, reuse boxes and use shredded waste paper as packing material.
Greening the Commute American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 3.7 billion hours and 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year. We can ease some of this strain by carpooling, taking public transit, biking, walking, or a creative combination thereof. If there's no good way to phase out your car, consider getting a hybrid, electric vehicle, motorcycle, scooter, or using a car sharing service like Flexcar or Zipcar. See How to Green Your Car for more depth on the subject. Some employers are even giving a bonus to bike and carpool commuters and special perks to hybrid drivers. For those who think bike riding is for kids and tattooed couriers, consider a high-tech folding bike or an electrically assisted one (see below for more).
Green Sleeves You might be amazed how sharp work clothes from thrift stores can look. If you buy new, get clothes made with organic or recycled fibers. Avoid clothes that need to be dry cleaned, and if they so demand it, seek out your local "green" dry cleaner. See How to Go Green: Wardrobe for more tactics on greening those work duds.
Work From Home Instant messaging, video conferencing, and other innovative workflow tools make effective telecommuting a reality. If you can telecommute, hold phone conferences, take online classes, or otherwise work from home, give it a try. It'll save you the time you would have spent on the trip as well as sparing the air. As a bonus, you get to work in your pajamas. Telecommuting works for 44 million Americans (not to mention the TreeHugger staff). Also, consider the possibility of working four ten-hour days instead of five eight-hour days (a consolidated workweek), cutting the energy and time spent on commuting by 20% and giving you some lovely three-day weekends.
Use Green Materials Some paper use can't be avoided, so use recycled paper and envelopes that have been processed and colored using eco-friendly methods. Pens and pencils can also be made of recycled materials, and refillable pens and markers are preferable to disposable ones. Use biodegradable soaps and recycled paper or cloth towels in the bathroom and kitchen, and provide biodegradable cleaners for the custodial staff. Buy in bulk so that shipping and packaging waste are reduced, and reuse the shipping boxes. Recycling printer cartridges is often free, and recycled replacements are cheaper than new ones.
Redesign the Workspace Greening the space in which you work has almost limitless possibilities. Start with good furniture, good lighting, and good air. Furniture can be manufactured from recycled materials as well as recyclable. Herman-Miller and Steelcase are two groundbreaking companies that have adopted the Cradle-to-Cradle protocol for many of their office chairs. Incandescent bulbs can be replaced with compact fluorescents and there is an ever-growing selection of high-end LED desk lamps that use miniscule amounts of energy (see How to Green Your Lighting). Not only is natural daylight a free source of lighting for the office, it has been proven to improve worker productivity and satisfaction (as well as boost sales in retail settings). Workspace air quality is also crucial. Good ventilation and low-VOC paints and materials (such as furniture and carpet) will keep employees healthy (look for How to Green Your Furniture coming soon).
Lunch Time Bringing lunch to work in reusable containers is likely the greenest (and healthiest) way to eat at work. Getting delivery and takeout almost inevitably ends with a miniature mountain of packaging waste. But if you do order delivery, join coworkers in placing a large order (more efficient than many separate ones). Also, bring in a reusable plate, utensils, and napkins. If you do go out for lunch, try biking or walking instead of driving.
Get Others in on the Act Share these tips with your colleagues. Ask your boss to purchase carbon offsets for corporate travel by car and plane. Arrange an office carpool or group bike commute. Trade shifts and job duties so that you can work four long days instead of five short ones. Ask the office manager to get fair trade coffee for the break room and make sure everyone has a small recycling bin so that recycling is just as easy as throwing paper away. Ask everyone to bring in a mug or glass from home and keep some handy for visitors so that you reduce or eliminate use of paper cups.

http://envisionwaste.net/

http://www.minimrf.com/

FROM TRASH TO TREASURE

2011-01-06T08:46:00.000-08:00

12/29/2010

Engineered fuel is just one of the many products that the Medina County Central Processing Facility and Steve Viny’s miniMRF technology can produce from residential garbage.

Nearly 18 years ago, Steve Viny built the Medina County Central Processing Facility (CPF) in Seville, Ohio. The facility is perhaps the longest running mixed waste processing facility in the U.S. and is still in full operation today.

Since there was no residential curbside recycling program in place in Medina County in 1993, the facility was designed to sort and recover items like newspaper, steel and aluminum cans, white goods, plastic bottles, wood, organics and yard waste from mixed solid waste—items that can either be recycled or made into other products.

Ever since the facility opened, every bag of trash from Medina County has been directed to the CPF through flow control where it is processed to extract recyclable commodities and compostable materials, which are sold, as well as a coal alternative product called engineered fuel (EF)—all greatly reducing the volume of waste destined for the landfill.

“In Medina County, you’re a recycler whether you want to be or not,” is how Viny, the CEO of Cleveland-based Envision Holdings, describes residents whose garbage is processed through the system.

Studies indicate that almost 50 percent of aluminum cans in the U.S. are not recovered for recycling. A recent report concludes that in 2009 27.8 percent of PET bottles were recovered for recycling—an increase from the previous year. While recycling rates may be improving, many recyclable items still ending up in the waste stream, even though in many cases consumers have access to recycling programs.

According to Viny, because so many recyclables are disposed of with trash, the model used in Medina County also can work in areas with curbside recycling.

The Medina County CPF has not missed a single day of operation in its almost 18-year existence, processing an estimated 500 tons per day of municipal solid waste (MSW). The plant still uses all of the original processing equipment. Viny attributes the equipment’s longevity to a system that combines two daily production shifts and a nightly third shift that cleans and maintains the facility.

FIRST GENERATION — MEDINA COUNTY CPF

In Medina County, 100 percent of residential waste is delivered to the Medina County CPF. The CPF is housed in three rooms at the 71,000-square-foot facility. First, the waste is transferred from the tip area to an infeed conveyor belt. Workers in the primary sort room remove recyclable items typically outside of garbage bags, such as cardboard, newspaper, white goods, wood and yard debris. Next, machinery breaks open the trash bags, liberating the contents.

The system then screens out the fines, or the small-sized fraction, from the waste stream, which consists of yard waste, food waste, small paper products, glass and small metallic objects like nails and household batteries. The small metallic objects and batteries are recovered and sold. The remaining fines are composted at the facility’s Class 1 Compost Facility and screened to produce alternative daily cover (ADC) and other compost products. The clean wood products are shredded, dyed and sold as color-enhanced mulch, and yard debris is composted, shredded, screened and sold as compost and natural mulch products.

Once the fines and bulky items are taken out of the stream, the remaining material continues through the conveyors. An electromagnet pulls the ferrous metal out, and an eddy current separator removes nonferrous metal objects. The remaining material is conveyed to a second sorting room, where different grades of paper and plastic are hand-sorted and subsequently baled.

According to Envision’s website, the Medina County CPF has processed an estimated 4 billion pounds of solid waste and is the cornerstone of the county’s solid waste management program. Despite the volume and the heterogeneous nature of that waste that has been sorted, the facility claims that it has never had a load of recyclables rejected, as it makes clean bales.

During the final stage of processing at the Medina County CPF, EF is made. The fuel product is made on the back end of the system using a proprietary air system with a ballistic separator that removes the heavy material. It is a product that is free of glass, metal and heavy plastics, according to Envision. What is left is a combination of mixed paper and plastic film, which is baled for use as an alternative fuel in utility boilers.

The EF that the Medina County CPF produces has been tested for more than a decade.

NEXT GENERATION – THE MINIMRF

Recently, Viny introduced his next generation mixed waste processing system, called miniMRF.

“Even in areas with curbside recycling, it is a very effective program,” Viny states.

He says officials are amazed at what can be recovered from the trash a mini-MRF. For example, in Montgomery County, Ohio, the miniMRF recovers a large amount of steel and aluminum cans that residents still continue to put in their trash despite the residential recycling program.

Viny describes the miniMRF as the “MRF (material recovery facility) of last resort.”

The system was coined as a miniMRF because of its high production rate despite its small physical size.

MiniMRF LLC is the company that was formed as a joint venture between Viny and the world’s largest producer of aluminum rolled products—Novelis Inc.—to deliver and implement mini-

MRF technology in new or existing transfer stations and other facilities. According to Viny, the miniMRF system consists of three trailer-mounted, completely assembled modules and can be delivered and operational in 20 weeks. This is a vastly different approach than the traditional design and custom build philosophy used on virtually all major MRFs today, he claims.

“With miniMRF, there are no requirements for special foundations, no field construction costs and the time required from placing an order to commencing full operation is greatly reduced when compared to a traditional MRF,” Viny explains.

Just like the Medina County CPF, the miniMRF is designed to remove ferrous and nonferrous metals, glass and organics and an EF fraction, to achieve a high rate of landfill diversion. MiniMRF can be used as a standalone system, as a front-end processing system for conversion technologies like gasification or pyrolysis or as a front-end processing system for waste-to-energy (WTE) systems.

In the case of WTE, companies can beneficiate their processes, according to Viny, using the technology. The mini- MRF can be used to remove unwanted materials prior to combustion in the WTE boiler. For example, ferrous and nonferrous metals cannot be combusted because they will melt and plug up stoker grates in WTE systems. In addition, metals don’t provide calorific value and when recovered in the bottom ash of a WTE system decline in value.

“Why put in metals and scrub them out of the back? It makes more sense just to remove them up front,” Viny says.

Glass can slag in a boiler and organics, with their high moisture content, have parasitic value in a WTE boiler, according to Viny. The miniMRF takes out glass and organics up front to be made into compost instead of going into a boiler.

Processing waste in a miniMRF gives the EF its best value and puts the boiler in its best light, according to Viny. EF is being tested in a market that has no tolerance for rigid plastics. Heavy plastics, explains Viny, can be a precursor to dioxins. That is why the miniMRF’s air system is designed to eliminate them.

The EF can be injected into existing coal-fired boilers, cement kilns or lime kilns, often without modification, according to Viny, who says EF burns cleaner than coal.

Viny points out that chlorine is very corrosive when combusted in a boiler and that other waste conversion technologies like gasification frequently do not remove chlorine up front. Conversion technologies may change the physical state of the material from a solid to a gas, but it does not change the fact that toxic chlorides are still present in the gas.

“We scrub them out of the waste stream, so the boiler or conversion technology never sees them,” explains Viny of the miniMRF process.

In four large scale test burns of EF, Viny reports, “We haven’t had degradation of stack emissions with their existing back-end structures.” In many cases, he adds, “emissions actually improved.”

The four test burns that have been conducted since the late ’90s have all been successful, Viny reports. Two more test burns of EF are scheduled to take place in the next 90 days.

Quite a few entities have expressed interest in the product, according to Viny, which he says is an is an inexpensive renewable power source that burns cleaner than coal.

Viny was recently recognized for his contribution to the solid waste industry for both the miniMRF technology and the creation of EF. He was named the 2010 Solid Waste Innovator of the Year by the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Ohio Buckeye Chapter.

FUELING THE FUTURE

Viny says he is eager for EF produced at the Medina County CPF to replace coal in coal-fired boilers as a source of fuel. Recent legislation that will recognize EF as a product other than waste could be the break he has been waiting for.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) rule clarifies which nonhazardous secondary materials are solid wastes when burned in combustion units.

The nonhazardous utilization rule, in Viny’s words “breaks down barriers.”

Of EF, Viny says, “People want to buy it.” But until this new ruling, EF has been regulated as trash in some cases.

This new rule no will no longer define the alternative fuel EF as waste, making it easier for potential customers to be able to use. Viny says the new nonhazardous utilization rule and new standards will bring attention back to the “dirty MRF” but he is quick to mention that this “doesn’t mean the end of curbside recycling.”

Viny admits, “We live in a coal-dominated society, and we will be for decades.” However, he says the revision to the RCRA rule being considered by the Environmental Protection Agency “is a game changer, and we are excited.”

The author is assistant editor of Recycling Today and can be reached at ksmith@gie.net.

By: Kristin Smith

http://www.recyclingtoday.com/trash-treasure-recycling-today-december-2010.aspx

To learn More about Envision or miniMRF visit our Websites

www.envisionwaste.net

www.minimrf.com

Where does your trash go?

2010-09-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

For many people in the United States their city or town provides recycling services. This usually involves you the "resident" to separate all of your recyclables from your non-recyclable trash. Not only is this a hassle to the average person, but many people choose to forgo this step because of either the extra work or extra cost involved in the pick up process. Many times your trash is picked up from a separate truck than the recyclables are. This not only increases costs for you but in essence provides more pollution to the environment in the form of gas emission created by these extra recycle pick up trucks.

Once your trash is picked up many times it is not source separated at a local processing facility, rather it is merely dropped of at the landfill and covered with topsoil. This can cause many issues in regards to harmful emissions created from the heating of garbage under the soil.This also waste highly valuable reuse materials like aluminum, steel and various plastics which will take lifetimes to bio-degrade.

If you do have a local processing facility where your municipal solid waste is sent usually your trash is separated at the facility to remove all of those recyclables people so easily toss in the trash. As effective as this process is in rescuing all those materials from the landfills it is time consuming and requires a lot of manpower. Which in turn makes your trash pickup more expensive.

Now if you are a person who recycles you are doing the environment a great deal of help, however did you know that much of your "other" waste materials that you send to the landfill can be used in the creation of engineered fuel fractions. These fuel fractions not only save landfill space but are cleaner burning than coal and can be used in replace of or in lieu of coal in any coal fire broilers for the creation of electricity.

Why am I telling you all of this? With the use of MiniMRF technology coupled with a conversion technology landfill volume reduction can approach 90%. What does that high rate of volume reduction mean to you? When your trash is taken to a landfill it costs money to dump it there, this trickles down to a price for you. Potentially minimrf can reduce the cost of trash pickup for you. It will also allow you to not have to separate you recyclables, again reducing your cost. Most importantly this technology and its abilities will aid in the sustainability and health of the planet earth.

Not only does MiniMRF separate all those materials to be reused but it will also create Engineered Fuel, which in turn aids in ozone treatment due to its ability to burn cleaner than coal.

What can you do in regards to all of this. Spread the word!! Your trash is not...trash. It is a mixture of valuable resources with energy creation potential being tossed away. Isn't the whole point of going green saving energy?

If you want to learn more about our MRF's capabilities visit our website www.minimrf.com
You can also visit our parent companies webpage to learn about other types of recycling from MRF's to compost-ables www.envisionwaste.net

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