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New technical report: Improving Household Hazardous Waste Collection Options for East Central Illinois

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center’s latest technical report, Improving Household Hazardous Waste Collection Options for East Central Illinois, assesses the current state of household hazardous waste (HHW) collection activity in Illinois and reviews the options in Champaign County as of January 2013.

 

It summarizes applicable federal and state regulations, best management practices related to HHW collection, and challenges associated with HHW collection in Champaign County. It also compares the costs of one-day collection events in Illinois and the costs associated with start-up, operation, and processing of permanent HHW collection facilities. Finally, it includes a preliminary “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats” (SWOT) assessment for three potential options for Champaign County.

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Spotlight on U.S. EPA Region 5’s Food Manufacturing and Processing Industry

In 2015, the Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) began a project to analyze public data sets to determine the impact of manufacturing on the economy and environment of the six states in U.S. EPA Region 5. The goal of this project was to use the analyzed results to assist pollution prevention technical assistance programs (P2 TAPs) with targeting their assistance efforts.

 

This paper summarizes preliminary findings related to the food manufacturing and processing industry (NAICS code 311).

 

GLRPPR is a member of the Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx) national network of pollution prevention information centers and is hosted by ISTC.

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Illini Gadget Garage Summer 2016 Hours and Volunteer Opportunities

The Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI), a project of ISTC, is pleased to announce that the collaborative electronics repair center, the Illini Gadget Garage, will be open over the summer to assist “test pilots” with troubleshooting and repair for your small electronics and appliances with electronic components. Open hours for the summer are:

 

  • Tuesdays 11 AM – 2 PM
  • Wednesdays 5 PM – 8 PM
  • Fridays 12 PM – 3 PM

 

The Illini Gadget Garage is housed within the Illinois Natural History Survey Storage Building #3 (SB3); see this Google Map for directions.

 

Since SB3 is not yet ADA compliant, the space is open only so student staff and volunteers can work with “test pilots” –those who do not require accommodations for accessibility–so that they can gain experience with working with members of the public on troubleshooting and repair. If you require accommodation and would like to work with the Gadget Garage to repair a device, please email staff at illinigadgetgarage@gmail.com to arrange for an appointment in another accessible public space.

 

We will also be hosting “pop-up clinics” in accessible spaces around campus to better serve the community until our physical location has been renovated for accessibility. Be sure to follow the Gadget Garage on Facebook or Twitter to see announcements of pop-up clinics. If your department, RSO, or residence hall would like to host a pop-up clinic, please fill out our form to indicate your interest.

 

Whether you’re stopping by SB3 during open hours, or attending a pop-up clinic, you might want to take a few minutes to fill out our diagnostic form. This provides staff with some basic information about your device and the issues you’re experiencing, so they can do a little research ahead of time, hopefully making your one-on-one time more productive.

 

Whether you’re a student on campus for research or summer classes, or a faculty or staff member that enjoys tinkering, we hope you’ll consider volunteering with us! If you’re interested, fill out our contact form. If you’re technically inclined, your expertise can benefit others in our community! If you’re not at all technically inclined, but interested in sustainability and can help out with social media, networking, writing blogs or resource guides, etc., then you should also consider volunteering. The Gadget Garage is NOT just a project for techies! We want to empower everyone to feel comfortable with maintenance and repair of their devices, and to use and dispose of electronics more responsibly. So join us in this effort!

Tentative Illini Gadget Garage identifying mark

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Calling All Parks! Get Your Green On

remain green and carry onISTC loves recycling. Last year our Zero Waste Program turned Forest Preserves of Cook County on to a great opportunity with the Keep America Beautiful / Dr. Pepper Snapple Park Recycling Infrastructure Grants. It was a nice boost to a Chicago parks program that had already made sustainability a high art form.

 

Keep America Beautiful is offering the grants again to parks, athletic fields, nature trails and public beaches. Hurry though! You need to apply by June 10.

 

Another fabulous KAB opportunty is their Anheuser-Busch Community Restoration Grants Program. When natural disasters affect public areas, this program can assist in restoration.

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Charcoal vs. Gas – A Sustainability Question

The age-old American tradition of a backyard barbeque dates back to at least 1672 when John Lederer mentioned “barbecue” in his writings. Over the years there has been secret recipes and perfect techniques that brought about the classic question: Charcoal or Gas? While there are merits to both for taste, evenness of cooking, and cooking time, the bigger question we should be asking these days is: “Which one is more sustainable?”

 

What you eat

Let’s get one caveat out of the way. What you are grilling has more of an impact on your sustainable grilling event than which grill you are using. Beef has two times or more of an environmental impact than chicken or vegetables. More reading on the true cost of food:

 

Grilling

gas grillThe charcoal vs. gas debate isn’t as clear cut as you might think. While it is fairly obvious that charcoal puts out more particulate matter when burning, it also gives off about two times more carbon dioxide emissions than propane gas. Initially then because of those points, I thought gas was more environmentally friendly, but let’s take a step back and look at the whole picture.

Continue reading “Charcoal vs. Gas – A Sustainability Question”

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Sustainable Memorial Day

Memorial Day

 

Memorial Day – A day when Americans honor those who have died in military service to the United States of America. Many of us honor the dead by visiting cemeteries, posting a flag, and by having potlucks and grilling celebrations. Let us take the opportunity to honor what those brave Americans fought for by committing to sustainability this Memorial Day. Let’s help to “Keep America Beautiful!”

 

A few tips for a sustainable Memorial Day:

  1. farmers marketBuy local – Shopping at your local farmers’ market for fresh salad ingredients can significantly reduce your carbon footprint and also reduce the packaging that will end up in the landfill.
  2. Switch to chicken, fish, or veggie burgers – Beef and pork products have two to three times the environmental impact as chicken, fish, and especially veggie burgers because of the greater water, energy, and land resources needed to feed cattle and hogs.
  3. Reusables – This day and age nearly all homes have dishwashers. So this Memorial Day skip the disposables and use reusables to keep your party out of the landfill.
  4. Eco- and Family-friendly activities – gardening with native plants or heading out for a walk/bike ride as a family are some great family-friendly Memorial Day activities that are also eco-friendly.
  5. Pooper Scoopers – It’s fun to get out and play with your pets but if your pet does a number two while out and about, it is best pick it up. Pets poop contains bacteria. While it is not immediately toxic, the combination of thousands of people not picking up poop and rainy weather can cause the bacteria to get into local streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater aquifers and contaminate them. Case Study: It really did happen! The city of Austin, TX, is home to more than 250,000 dogs. After the start of their “Scoop the Poop” campaign, the city saw a significant decrease in giardia, roundworms, salmonella, and other viruses and parasites in their local waterways, thus improving the environment and conditions for recreational activities.

family fun with dog

 

References

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It’s Not Mr. Fusion, But It’s A Whiz at Energy Production

Mr. Sewer image
The multi-stage waste-to-biofuel system can make municipal solid waste and wastewater into a renewable power source.

ISTC NEWS

Pairing of Waste Processing and Algae Farming Offers ‘Clean’ Energy 

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — “Mr. Sewer” is a multi-stage waste-to-biofuel production system under development by ISTC which can extract 100 percent of energy from a wide variety of wastes.

 

No, it’s not the fabled perpetual motion machine, it combines hydrothermal liquefaction of wastes with algae farming, which captures additional energy from the sun.

 

The best news is it can use a variety of energy-rich materials that are now landfilled. According to Lance Schideman, research scientist at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, the optimal location for the Mr. Sewer system is close to a sanitary landfill, a wastewater treatment plant, or both. A video on the energy research is available here.

 

Sewage solids, food wastes, even waste paper are all rich in energy content. This system can remove both organics and nutrients in these sources and turn them into renewable energy resources. Processing of wastewaters is combined with algae farming in a way that amplifies the energy production while cleaning the water for potential reuse applications. The nutrients support algal growth and the algae are then harvested for use in biofuels.

 

Amplified by the sun’s energy and multi-cycle nutrient reuse, an optimized system can harvest three to ten times the energy contained in the wastewater.

 

Calculations based on a commercial-scale demonstration plant on the University of Illinois campus indicate the technology is well-suited to generate fuel/revenue from wastes at the scale of a small city, a military installation, or a large animal feeding operation.

 

Theoretically Mr. Sewer, applied to all U.S. wastewater treatment plants and livestock operations, could produce enough bio-energy to replace all current petroleum imports, according to Schideman.

 

Today the commercial-scale plant is being optimized and a mobile version of the system is being developed.

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Celebrate International Compost Awareness Week

In the US, the beginning of May has people thinking of several celebrations, including Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, and even Star Wars Day (May the 4th, as in “May the Fourth Be With You”). But did you know the first week of May is also celebrated annually as International Compost Awareness Week?

 

Composting allows organic materials, such as food scraps and yard waste, to break down naturally into a nutrient rich resource that can be used in gardening and landscaping in place of commercially available fertilizers. Application of compost reduces erosion, and can help your soil retain water, reducing costs associated with watering and contributing to water conservation. Composting can also reduce waste hauling costs, as well as greenhouse gas emissions associated with the breakdown of organic materials in landfills in the absence of oxygen.

 

If you’d like to learn more about composting, check out the following resources:

 

If you’re a college or university student interested in pursuing research related to composting, check out the CCREF Young Investigator Scholarship.

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Now There Is an ‘I’ in Green, Art, and Krannert

“Are you responsible for this?” asked a man hurrying by and pointing to a massive Block-I sculpture in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts lobby. “Great job!”

Architecture and engineering students Hursh Hazari and Nahid Akarm teamed up to create the great Block-I sculpture installed for Earth Week in the lobby at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Architecture and engineering students Hursh Hazari (left) and Nahid Akram (right) teamed up to create the great Block-I sculpture installed for Earth Week in the lobby at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Hursh Hazari and Nahid Akram, first-time artists of monumental found object sculpture, beamed and waved in acknowledgment.

The two are responsible for the Block-I shaped from campus’ own early spring supply of empty beverage bottles. The sculpture is an Earth Week gift of ISTC and the Student Sustainability Committee as an impossible-to-miss reminder of the importance of recycling or repurposing the mountains of waste we produce.

Nahid is in the first year of a master’s of architecture program. His designs for buildings are already built in his native Bangladesh. After completing his undergraduate training at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology he worked at an architectural firm for four years.

Hursh studied polymer science as an undergrad at Dehli Technological University in New Dehli, but his interests turned to renewable solar and wind energy, so he enrolled at the U of I to study power and energy systems. He plans to promote sustainable energy use in India, where unreliable power grids make grassroots wind and solar installations very popular.

Hursh Hazari is an engineering graduate student from India. Nahid Akarm is a graduate student in architecture from Bangladesh.
Hursh Hazari (left) is an engineering graduate student from India. Nahid Akram (right) is a graduate student in architecture from Bangladesh.

Both spotted the job as sculptors on campus’ virtual job board and saw in it work that advanced their professional interests. They needed all of the 20 oz beverage bottles they could sort at the campus Waste Transfer Station for their design. They were washed and disinfected at ISTC and, over the course of three weeks, they were fitted into their new educational configuration.

ISTC’s Zero Waste Illinois program is noting the metrics from the sculpture project as part of their ongoing campus building waste characterization project here at the U of I. ISTC is helping the University meet its Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) goals with waste audits of individual campus buildings – a big step toward becoming a zero waste campus.

The artwork is on display at Krannert through Saturday, April 23. More on the sculpture.

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Proper Disposal of Unwanted Drugs Getting Easier

Got Drugs?

 

 

dropboxes for unwanted drugs
Handy, secure dropboxes at Champaign, Urbana and U of I police stations make disposing of unwanted drugs easy.

 

Saturday April 30 is National Prescription Take-Back Day in the U.S.A. The Drug Enforcement Administration has organized a network of local law enforcement agencies to accept unwanted or expired human or veterinary drugs and to educate the public about the need to properly dispose of these medications.

 

Check DEA’s handy collection site locator  if you want to drop off your drugs between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 30.

 

If you live in the Champaign-Urbana area you can use secure dropboxes ANYTIME in the lobbies of the following police departments:

 

Champaign: 82 E University Ave.

 

Urbana: 400 S Vine St.

 

University of Illinois: 1110 W Springfield Ave, Urbana.

 

Of course the DEA is interested in halting abuse of unused drugs which are often misappropriated from the home medicine cabinets. But a DEA news release makes the alarming understatement that “Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines—flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash—both pose potential safety and health hazards.” To keep unused medications out of the reach of children and pets and also to prevent abuse by others taking the medications, all unused medications should be taken to drop box collection sites.  You should keep the medications in their original containers and black out your name and address if on the label before dropping them off.

 

Information on ISTC’s recent research on the emerging problem is available online. A lot more about proper handling and disposal of drugs and personal care products is provided by IL-IN Sea Grant.

 

ISTC, IL-IN Sea Grant, and the U of I Extension are now working together to improve pharmaceutical give-back locations state-wide. Scientific studies are revealing the bio-active compounds are having observable consequences when they get into the aquatic environment.