Environmental Economics

And just think of all the jobs it will create

As villages and cities across Ohio prepare to send out their street sweepers this spring, state environmental officials are considering a proposal that would let them recycle the debris.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said the sweepings could be used to help build or repair roads and medians or even be mixed with salt to help keep cars from sliding off icy highways during winter.

The idea, the agency said, could save money in dumping fees and keep thousands of tons of debris out of landfills.

Cities would have to remove all the twigs, cigarette butts, crushed cans and other trash that street sweepers routinely vacuum up. And cities would have to run tests to make sure there are no hazardous concentrations of metals or other pollutants.

via www.dispatch.com

According to the article, it only costs $40 per ton to dump the sweepings in the landfill.  Based on a quick Google search, the estimated external costs of a ton of stuff dumped in a landfill is somewhere betwixt $3 and $80.  Any idea of the costs/benefits of not dumping?

July 23, 2010 Urban Word of the Day

Congreenient

The practice of recycling, or being green, only when convenient. A person who only recycles when it is convenient to do so.

I would have recycled my Fiji water bottle, but my plastic bin was full. I guess I'm just congreenient.

Not funny: unit pricing for trash would overcome the congreenient problem.

Coase Avoided

My current town...

Recycling in Char-latte

From the city of my glorious birth (Charlotte's new ...):

Beginning next week, Charlotte's recycling program gets an overhaul, with new bins and a biweekly collection schedule.

Under the initiative, known as "Recycle It!", residents have received 96-gallon green recycling carts to replace the older 16-gallon red bins. And with a new waste collection company, the city will reduce its pickup from weekly to biweekly. ...

The new waste management equipment also will be able to process all recyclables together, said Solid Waste Management Director Bruce Gledhill. Before, collectors had to separate recyclables into two different compartments - containers or fibrous paper products - to be processed on different machines.

The new equipment was installed in December and cost around $7 million, he added. ...

The cutback in recycling collection is expected to save the city $15 million over the next five years and $43 million over the next decade, Curtis said.

This seems to pass the benefit-cost test unless the discount rate is r=0.35 over five years or r=0.61 over 10 years.

But, this sounds big brother scary!

The recycling bins for Charlotte also include new technology: Every bin comes with a radio frequency identification chip that tracks the serial number of the recycling bin and the residential address to which it is assigned. The city says the chips will allow the city to manage cart information more efficiently and to better focus environmental education to certain neighborhoods.

Next thing you know, they'll want to embed a radio frequency identification chip in my neck. Lookout for the libertarian outrage in the comments section.

"You guys are interested in cow farts, right?"

Well, I'm offended you even had to ask.

The title comes from a message from David Zetland (at aguanomics) who, besides asking questions with obvious answers, thinks posts about cow farts cheapen his blog.  To that I say, nothing can cheapen our blog--er, or something like that.

The World Watch Institute has released a new report arguing that the FAO’s estimate of livestock’s total contribution to global GHG emissions (18%) is a serious underestimate and that the true footprint of livestock production is around 51% of higher.
 
It bases this figure on the claim that the FAO report fails to count, misallocates or overlooks additional emissions that are attributable to livestock.
 

With sugar on it

Recycle, pretty please:

Public service announcements, fliers, and in Raleigh's case, corporate-sponsored gift cards, are all aimed at getting North Carolina households to do their part in complying with a state law kicking in Oct. 1 that bans plastic bottles from landfills.

But don't look for the trash cops to come knocking if soda bottles end up in your garbage cans.

"That's not the spirit of the law," said Scott Mouw, the state's recycling director. "Clearly, this is more of a law of spirit or intent, everyone recognizing the positive reasons to recycle."

Any state enforcement efforts will be aimed at haulers who show up at landfills with big loads of banned material. Most local governments don't have the power or the interest in dogging residents who don't recycle.

Really, all the enforcement they need to do is tell the second-grade-recycling-fanatics to recycle plastic bottles.

Cow farts*, fish oil and climate change

Sometimes the oddest solutions are surprisingly effective (from CNN.com):

The benefits to humans of omega 3 fatty acids in fish oils are well documented, but a new study has found that fish oils can have a wider benefit to the environment -- by reducing the amount of methane produced by cows.

The report produced by University College Dublin found that by including two percent fish oil in the diet of cattle they achieved a reduction in the amount of methane released by the animals.

Lowering methane emissions is important for the environment, as the gas given off by farm animals is a major contributor to greenhouse gas levels...

Approximately 50 percent of Irish agricultural methane emissions result from farm animals, which has led to suggestions that, to help combat global warming, the numbers of cattle, sheep and goats should be capped.

The researchers believe that it may not be necessary to limit the number of farm animals if their methane levels are reduced through diet.

*I know it's childish, but it's Friday.  Oh, and it made you click, didn't it?

Didn't we used to call these cow pies?

From the inbox:

There doesn't appear to be any costs associated with this miracle of science.  Could this be a silver bullet for all of the world's problems?

What is this miracle? 

Over the railroad tracks, near Agriculture Drive on the University of Georgia campus, sits a unique machine that may hold one of the solutions to big environmental problems like energy, food production and even global climate change...

In a few hours, organic trash is transformed into charcoal-like pellets farmers can turn into fertilizer. Gasses given off during the process can be harnesed to fuel vehicles of power electric generators.

Biochar is considered by many scientists to be the "black gold" for agriculture.

Its high carbon content and porous nature can help soil retain water, nutrients, protect soil microbes and ultimately increase crop yields while acting as natural carbon sink - sequestering CO2 and locking it into the ground.

Biochar helps clean the air two ways: by preventing rotting biomass from releasing harmful CO2 into the atmosphere, and by allowing plants to safely store CO2 they pull out of the air during photosynthesis...

"We have 3 billion people out there who are at risk for climate change and they can be making money solving our global problem," said Day.

Industries can now begin to look at farmers around the world and pay them for their agricultural wastes, said Day. "They can become the new affluent."

Not all green projects create green jobs

Our friends at Green, Inc have a story on smart public trash cans that have solar-powered compactors built in and are capable of texting dispatchers when they are full--reducing the total landfill space needed for disposal and the number of trips needed by diesel guzzling trash trucks to empty them.  A proposal by the Massachusetts Governor to use stimulus money to put these smart cans in State Parks is meeting resistance--on the grounds that it doesn't create jobs. 

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed using $21.8 million of stimulus package funds to put thousands of BigBelly units in all of the state’s parks. “It’s projects like these that make people suspicious of the entire federal stimulus project,” State Representative Vinny M. DeMacedo, a Republican, told The Boston Herald late last month. “They might be nice, but how are they creating jobs?”

One answer might be that as the demand for smart trash cans increases, jobs are created in manufacturing.  But, that is counterbalanced by the loss of jobs in traditional trash can manufacturing, trash collection and disposal.  Which way the scale tips is an open question, but to mix mixed metaphors, that's one soggy dinner DeMacedo is serving.

I love when the jokes write themselves

Australia is considering a change in their sewage charge system:

HOUSEHOLDERS would be charged for each flush under a radical new toilet tax designed to help beat the drought.

The scheme would replace the current system, which sees sewage charges based on a home's value - not its waste water output.

CSIRO Policy and Economic Research Unit member Jim McColl and Adelaide University Water Management Professor Mike Young plan to promote the move to state and federal politicians and experts across the country.

"It would encourage people to reduce their sewage output by taking shorter showers,recycling washing machine water or connecting rainwater tanks to internal plumbingto reduce their charges,''Professor Young said.

"Some people may go as far as not flushing their toilet as often because the less sewage you produce, the less sewage rate you pay.''

And what are they calling this new tax system? 

Wait for it.

Here it comes.

The pay-as-you-go rate would provide financial savings for those who reduce their waste water output.

[emphasis added because I get a chuckle out of potty humor]