Experts gathering at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago this month said an estimated 30 to 50% of the food produced globally goes to waste. On average, Americans throw away about 33 pounds (15kg) of food each month. In the UK, one example of a company tackling food waste in a ‘super sized’ fashion is waste management firm Biffa, which recently opened its 120,000 tonne per year capacity facility.

CBS News report (17 March 2012):

Experts gathering this week at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago said an estimated 30 to 50 percent of the food produced globally goes to waste.

Reuters reports that on average, Americans throw away about 33 pounds of food each month which adds up to 396 lbs. in lost groceries a year, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Food production also hurts the environment by taking the world’s water supply, emitting greenhouse gases and consumes a large amount of energy and chemicals.

As the world’s population rises so too does demand for food and pressure on farmers. By 2050, experts estimate the population will grow from an estimated 7 to 9 billion people.

A growing population means more demand and high food prices.

NRDC specialist Dana Gunders said that no matter how sustainable farming is, “If the food’s not getting eaten … it’s not a good use of our resources.”

Depending where you live, waste comes in different forms. For developing nations, food spoils more readily if it is not properly refrigerated. In wealthier Western countries, people often throw away good food.

In 2010 alone, 33 million tons of food ended up in landfills and incinerators across the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA have suggested some possible solutions including recycling unused food to shelters and soup kitchens, while clarifying the difference between “sell by” and “use by” dates. That could help some people from throwing away their produce too soon.

Source: www.cbsnews.com

Ben Messenger is associate editor of Waste Management World magazine:

Packaging often proves a challenge for biowaste processing facilities. A new ‘super’ £24 million anaerobic digestion facility in the UK has the technology to overcome this and well as set the standard for large-scale infrastructure, explains Ben Messenger.

Around 10 million people in East Africa are currently at risk of starving, in what aid agencies are calling the worst drought for 60 years. It is more than a little perplexing, therefore, that a recent study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) shows that one third of the entire World’s food production – about 1.3 billion tonnes – goes to waste. Every year, consumers in rich countries waste 230 million tonnes of food, almost as much as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa. According to the FAO, North American and European consumers are each discarding an average of 100 kg food waste per year, with the largest constituent being fresh fruit and vegetables.

Financial incentives

In the UK, figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), show that around 16 million tonnes of food waste is generated each year, with around half of this coming from businesses, and at least 40% currently ending up in landfill. And all that waste raises more than just moral questions. It causes half of all waste related CO2 equivalent emissions in the UK – 3% of the national total. Because of this, as in many countries around the world, the UK government has identified food as a priority waste stream.

While the government’s recent Waste Review identifies prevention as the most effective means of tackling the issue of food waste, it also recognises that some food waste is unavoidable. The key to negating the impact of such waste lies in treating it in the most sustainable way, it says. By aiming to treat food waste as high up the waste hierarchy as possible, the government has identified Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and in-vessel composting as the most appropriate technologies with which to treat food waste.

To this end a number of financial incentives are being offered by the government to encourage the development of AD, including Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) per MWh, Feed in Tariffs (FiTs) and a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for biogas combustion. As a result, a number of companies are investing in food waste infrastructure projects around the country.

One example of a company tackling food waste in a ‘super sized’ fashion is waste management firm Biffa, which recently opened its 120,000 tonne per year capacity food waste AD facility adjacent to its landfill site in Poplars, Staffordshire.

The UK’s new big hitter

Speaking at the opening of the £24 million Poplars facility, Ian Wakelin, Biffa chief executive, explains that this ‘super’ facility is a strategically important step forward in the company’s plans, and makes more sense than having lots of small plants dotted around the country.

“Firstly it’s cheaper,” he says. “It’s cheaper for us and it’s cheaper for our customers. Secondly you can deploy more technology in bigger plants.”

With plans to roll out a further three to five such facilities in the coming years, this is a strategy that Biffa intends to follow. The idea sounds like a good one. Scale up the facilities and use economies of scale to invest in more sophisticated technologies that will allow for greater yields, less downtime and higher quality outputs. But what makes this facility ‘super’?

According to Wakelin one of the problems that AD food waste facilities typically face is that of packaging. When Biffa began designing this plant two years ago it was very keen that it should be able to accept as wide a range of food wastes as possible. By leveraging its size the Poplars facility has been able to install sophisticated machinery that will strip the packaging away from the food and send the plastics for recycling. The development of the plant was heavily influenced by lessons the company learned in extracting gas from mixed black bag waste at the Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) plant in Leicester, which it has been running since 2003, explains Dr John Casey, director of engineering and quality at Biffa.

As such the company applied the same design principles of creating a robust system, with built in redundancy that allows for one part of the plant to undergo maintenance without shutting down the whole operation. The whole design and build of the facility has been completed in two years, with work continuing through winter temperatures that sank as low as -20°C.

Source: www.waste-management-world.com

Singapore is raising the mandatory energy-efficiency standards of refrigerators and air-conditioners from next year, as these two items typically make up half a household’s energy consumption. And companies which use lots of energy will have to appoint an energy manager to monitor and reduce their use, under a proposed law introduced in Parliament by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan.

By Jessica Cheam in Straits Times (7 March 2012):

The appliances in your home are about to get greener – and electricity bills could shrink in tandem.

The Government is raising the mandatory energy-efficiency standards of refrigerators and air-conditioners sold on the market from next year. These two items typically make up half a household’s energy consumption. The standards for lights will also be raised, by 2014.

This means that more of such appliances that do not hit a certain energy efficiency target will not be approved for sale.

It will also be harder to qualify for the three- or four-tick classification. The more ticks a gadget carries, the more energy-efficient it is. Four ticks are the maximum. Those with no ticks cannot be sold.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan announced the tougher standards in Parliament yesterday, adding that the scheme might include television sets in future.

He was responding to MP Teo Ho Pin (Bukit Panjang) who asked what measures the Government was taking to promote energy efficiency in households.

Dr Balakrishnan said that by removing inefficient models from the market, ‘consumers avoid being locked into the high operating cost of inefficient appliances’.

One home owner who has already decided against inefficient appliances is Mrs Kim Lin Harbick, 32. ‘It makes sense to get energy-efficient appliances for the home as it saves money. I’m glad the Government is also raising the standards.’

Manufacturers The Straits Times spoke to said they had been preparing for stricter standards.

Panasonic Asia-Pacific spokesman Christopher Lim said the company welcomes the move but added that the Government could have sought the views of affected companies before setting the standards. He said his company has seen more sales of its energy-efficient products. ‘Consumers are starting to understand the benefits of these products even if the initial cost of energy-efficient products may be slightly higher.’

Source: www.nccs.gov.sg

Proposed law to get firms to improve energy management

Straits Times (9 March 2012):

COMPANIES that are heavy users of energy will have to appoint an energy manager to monitor and reduce their use, under a proposed law introduced in Parliament yesterday.

The introduction of the Energy Conservation Bill was indicated by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan the previous day.

He had said in Parliament, during the debate on his ministry’s budget, that a new law will make it compulsory for heavy energy users in the industry and transport sectors to put in place energy management practices.

These include monitoring and reporting energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as submitting plans to improve energy efficiency.

It also consolidates current energy performance standards and labelling schemes for household products and cars governed by other laws. These include energy efficiency labelling for air-conditioners, refrigerators and clothes dryers, and fuel economy labelling for cars.

Two other Bills were also introduced yesterday to give a further boost to Singapore’s drive to be an international arbitration centre.

The first Bill amends the International Arbitration Act to let Singapore courts recognise oral arbitration agreements, in addition to those made in writing.

Other changes include giving the courts powers to review positive and negative rulings made by other tribunals.

In the Financial Limitation Periods Bill, the proposed law spells out how Singapore laws apply to contractual disputes that are heard here, but where the contracts are governed by the laws of another country.

Another two Bills to amend the Public Utilities Act and the Sewerage and Drainage Act were also introduced yesterday.

The proposal also consolidates current energy performance standards and labelling schemes for household products and cars governed by other laws.

Source: www.singaporelawwatch.sg

Japan is scrambling to find alternative energy sources as the lights go out at its nuclear power plants this year. On February 20, Kansai Electric Power shut down its last nuclear reactor, leaving only two in the nation still in operation, out of a total of 54. By the end of next month, the remaining two will also be turned off for regular maintenance. European countries, including Germany, Italy and Switzerland are turning away from nuclear but the fear is that many will revert to fossil fuels instead of making a commitment to genuine clean energy.

As Richard Matthews writes in “Global Warming is Real” : Nuclear reactors are located adjacent to sources of water for cooling. With many of the world’s 442 nuclear power reactors located by the sea, these power plants must integrate additional safeguards against flooding and tsunamis. This is a legitimate concern as ocean levels are rising due to global warming.

Kwan Weng Kin, Japan Correspondent, Straits Times (10 March 2012):

TOKYO: Japan is scrambling to find alternative energy sources as the lights go out at its nuclear power plants this year.

On Feb 20, Kansai Electric Power shut down its last nuclear reactor, leaving only two in the nation still in operation, out of a total of 54. By the end of next month, the remaining two will also be turned off for regular maintenance.

Before the disaster at the Fukushima plant on March 11 last year, nuclear energy supplied a third of Japan’s power needs, while coal, oil and natural gas supplied slightly more than half.

People like Assistant Professor Hiroaki Koide, a nuclear researcher at Kyoto University, have long pressed for the nuclear plants to be shut down immediately. The Fukushima disaster has boosted their cause.

‘Nuclear reactors are extremely dangerous as they produce very toxic, radioactive by-products. I am confident that existing fossil-based power stations will be able to supply all the power that we need,’ he said.

Will they’

So far, the gradual switch to fossil- based energy after March 11 has proceeded smoothly, with the country experiencing no unintended power blackouts.

Despite the unusually frigid temperatures this winter, power companies have not had to appeal to consumers to save power even though demand sometimes exceeded 90 per cent of peak supply.

But fossil-based power plants, on which the country is now increasingly dependent, are not without their own problems. Since last July, there have been more than 10 instances of operational problems, fuelling worries of instability of supply.

To address fears of a potential power shortage, the Japanese government is considering deregulation to boost the development of alternative energies.

A government panel has drawn up plans to relax rules in 183 energy-related fields to encourage the construction of mega plants for the production of solar, geothermal and wind energies.

Currently, renewable energies account for only about 1 per cent of Japan’s energy needs. Deregulation is a means by which the government hopes to boost that figure to 3 per cent in three years.

For instance, existing laws limit the size of a power plant to 50 per cent of the area of the land it stands on.

Stripping away such rules would enable the building of much bigger plants and hence the more efficient generation of power.

The government also proposes to allow geothermal and wind power plants to be built in Japan’s national parks, which is currently illegal.

It is even eyeing the use of the country’s nearly 400,000ha of unused farmland, of which about 170,000ha is deemed suitable for building solar or wind power plants.

The only snag is that much of this dormant land lies scattered around the country, requiring the use of land swops or other means to consolidate them into bigger properties for building power plants.

Recently, the government has shown interest in exploring for methane hydrate off the coast of central Japan.

Methane hydrate – an ice-like substance consisting of crystallised methane gas molecules trapped in water – can be used to produce methane gas for use in gas-fired plants.

The seabed surrounding Japan is believed to contain enough methane hydrate to supply the country with 90 years’ supply of natural gas.

In the meantime, efforts are being stepped up to find more efficient ways of using energy .

One post-March 11 innovation being explored is a new type of building material for use on the walls of buildings to generate power from sunlight.

This material, which uses organic semiconductors and is thinner and lighter than traditional solar panels, when applied on one or two skyscrapers, is said to be able to produce the same amount of electricity as a large-scale solar power plant.

Source: www.power-eng.com

Richard Matthews in Global Warming is real:

The safe operation of nuclear power plants will be aggravated by climate change. In the age of global warming, additional safeguards are required to make nuclear power safer. Nuclear reactors are located adjacent to sources of water for cooling. With many of the world’s 442 nuclear power reactors located by the sea, these power plants must integrate additional safeguards against flooding and tsunamis. This is a legitimate concern as ocean levels are rising due to global warming.

Even nuclear reactors located near inland waterways pose problems because they remain vulnerable to heat waves, which are another corollary of climate change. A 2003 heat wave in Europe forced Electricite de France to close or lower output at about half its 19 nuclear plants because of temperature limits on the water it returns to rivers.

There are still other issues for nuclear reactors related to climate change that are not typically subject to heat waves or water-born risks. Tornadoes, also a corollary of climate change, are increasingly a concern. Last year tornadoes crippled three nuclear reactors in Browns Ferry in Athens, Ala., and knocked out power at two nuclear reactors at Surry Power Station in Surry, Va.

When it comes to building new reactors, the NRC said that “redesigning nuclear plants to address newer threats from climate change may also be too expensive at many locations.”

Source: www.globalwarmingisreal.com