Fat is Back in Fashion…as Fuel! | 3BL Media

Fat burns, literally. Now before you run off and take the propane torch to that beer gut or those cute love handles of yours, wait just a second. It‘s got to be processed into fuel first. Sometimes it’s simple. Olive oil, right from the bottle, can light a simple wick lamp.

Biodiesel requires a little more processing, but it can be made from virtually any kid of fat, including used cooking oil, oils past their expiration date, oil from animal fats, even oils from algae grown in sewage- a real waste to resources story. I suppose you could collect fat from liposuction clinics and literally burn off the pounds as you drive down the road, but that’s too gross to even think about. Sorry I mentioned it.

Rudolf Diesel’s first model engine ran on nothing but peanut oil during its first demonstration on August 10, 1893. Most biodiesel available commercially in the US comes from canola or soybeans, although biodiesel from chicken fat and fish oils is being made.

Algae is the most promising in the long term, as it can utilize other wastes to grow it, doesn’t divert food  into fuel, or take up valuable farmland.

For local usage, waste vegetable oil like Yellow Brand is a good bet. I run my John Deere 1050 tractor on 100% Yellow Brand in the warm months, and a 20/80 blend with conventional diesel in the cold season. Both are significantly less polluting and the local 100% biodiesel adds no net carbon in its use. I can sit there and smell just a slight a sweet aroma from the exhaust when I mow my fields on a warm fall day.

I also pestered my local oil company about carrying a biodiesel blend for home heating oil, and talked them into including me on their route when it became available. It’s just a 5% biodiesel blend, but that 5% makes a much cleaner burning fuel all around. If you use oil for home heating, see if a local dealer can supply you with a bioblend.

Yellow Brand also has a heater that we saw at the Garlic and Arts Festival that will run on straight vegetable oil. The heater is partly made form reclaimed materials to boot.

Not all biodiesels are created equal, though. Some commercial biodiesel production uses food crops that drive prices up, or destroys habitat like palm oil plantations that are endangering orangutans in Indonesia and other places. Local biodiesel from waste oil or from non food crops are best. Try to get it as locally produced as possible- shipping creates more waste and emissions. Make sure you aren’t creating more problems than you are solving.

You can make your own biodiesel in your basement, kitchen or garage if you are inclined to do so, from your own used cooking oils or that old gallon of Mazola that smells a little off.

So “stick a sunflower in your tank” instead of a tiger. Biodiesel made from waste oil is one part of a renewable energy and waste to resources strategy. Then kick back and smell the French fries!

Greenopolis.com is dedicated to our users. We focus our attention on changing the world through recycling, waste-to-energy and conservation. We reward our users for their sustainable behaviors on our website, through our Greenopolis Tracking Stations and with curbside recycling programs.

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More Sustainability Tips from Colorado Rocky Mountain School

Problem:On average each of our high school day students drives approx 13.4 miles per day coming and going to campus getting approximately 27.2 miles to the gallon. Will all 67 day students combined, we are using over 80 gallons of gas each day and spending over $350 daily. While those numbers may not sound that significant, when you calculate them out over the course of the school year, it results in 13,200 gallons of gas being consumed costing over $59,000.

Solution: Since many of our day students live close to one another (whether it be in Glenwood Sprigs, Aspen, Basalt or Carbondale) if they would all pair up and carpool to and from school together it could save over $30,000 in gas consumption annually.

For more information go to http://www.crms.org/culture/sustainability/

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Sustainability Tips from Colorado Rocky Mountain School Students

Problem: The US throws away almost 50% of their food every year. That is approximately 52 tons of food annually. Just 5% of America’s food leftovers alone could feed 4 million people for a day. At CRMS even though we compost all of our waste, we are still disposing of 250 pounds of compostable waste per week. So while we are keeping it out of the landfill, we are still wasting it.

Solution: While we no longer use cafeteria trays at CRMS as it encourages overloading. We still need to remember to take only as much food as you can finish. It is better to go back for seconds than to take too much food the first time and end up throwing it away.

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Food, Inc. (movie review)

Chris MacDonald’s commentary appears originally and regularly on his blog The Business Ethics Blog, and is redistributed via 3BL Media with his expressed consent.

I finally saw Food, Inc. Frankly, I didn’t expect to like it much. I expected a one-sided, misleading anti-corporate tirade, along the lines of The Corporation. I was only partly correct. The main message really does seem to be that big companies are ruining everything, and that things would be better if we all just realized that we should be buying directly from the kindly farmer/sage down the road. But in spite of that slant, the movie does contain some useful stuff. So, my conclusion: a grudging endorsement. I think the film is flawed, but worth seeing.

First, I’ll note a couple of worthwhile take-away lessons, points that are made by the film and that seem well-justified.

Number one is that the meat industry is pretty disgusting. Most of the people who might be tempted to see Food, Inc. likely already knew that. But it’s a rotten industry. Injury rates for workers are high. Animals are treated badly. And quality control can be dodgy. The causes are pretty clear. Competition drives companies in all industries to cut corners in order to attract and keep customers. Sometimes that has undesirable effects. In the food industry, those effects can be pretty bad. Food, Inc. doesn’t tell us much that’s new, here, but it’s a useful reminder.

Number two: the corn subsidies in the U.S. are apparently insane. Those subsidies result in overproduction of corn (and hence of High-Fructose Corn Syrup). The result is that crappy food can be more affordable than nutritious food. Politically-powerful food companies like the subsidies (since they keep the price of ingredients down) so the food-buying public is likely to go on being subject to all the wrong incentives.

(For more on that topic, see the excellent 2007 documentary, King Corn.)

But in several ways the movie is less than satisfying.

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