Breaking Down Organic Waste
Ever wonder what happens to all the leftovers from, well everywhere?
Mostly leftovers go into the trash and then to a landfill. Some leftovers are donated to soup kitchens (although health regulations and the issue of an employee from eith party getting the food to the non-profit make this tough to pull off). Progressive organizations have turned to composting.
Now there is a whiz-bang technology that promises, “you can throw anything in the machine that you can digest yourself.”
BioHightech debuted the GOHBio 1001 (not sure how to say that) recently. It is a high volume organic waste decomposition system – an anaerobic digestion chamber – an institutional stomach. It looks like a deep freeze.
The GOHBio 1001’s “active ingredient” are microbes which need periodic replenishment. They truly digest the organic matter and the machine spits out water that qualifies to go down an ordinary drain. The remaining waste is dramatically reduced in volume and gets cleaned out every few months.
Cost savings potential for high volume kitchens and cafeterias and manufacturing is significant.
Ultimately Gazelle Disappoints
OK, got the scoop from Gazelle today. Rather then paraphrase, here’s the note I received from customer service:
Hello Tim,
I have researched your order, unfortunately at this time we do not provide free shipping for items that are eligible for recycling only. If you would like to send your items please send them to:
Gazelle
61 North Beacon St.
Suite 3000
Boston Ma, 02134
If you would rather not send in your item here is a link to a page on our site that can help you locate a local recycle center so you can responsibly recycle these items.
Thank you,
Nicole
Customer Care
This is just a bit of a snafu don’t you think? No where is this policy mentioned on the site, or in the order fulfillment process. In fact, I was instructed to print up a packing slip and the FAQ says an envelope will arrive shortly.
At a minimum, this policy should be revealed during the order fulfillment process, prior to the step where one prints up the packing slip.
I venture to say that the envelope should be sent anyway in order to “buy a customer.” Everyone knows that customer acquisition is much more costly than repeat business, so Gazelle would do well to suffer a small loss in order to acquire a customer who will experience a smooth process from the get go, gain confidence from the experience and then continue to do (profitable) business with them.
As it is, I’m grumpy with Gazelle, doubtful that I’ll do business with them in the future and I now have to source a local cell phone recycler – after having old junk clutter my desktop for two weeks.
Polystyrene processing and recycling
You know, I’ve written several posts about recycling polystyrene.
Polysytrene densification is the solution and there are various applications.
Recently I got wind of a seafood processing company that receives frozen fish in polystyrene containers and after processing, ships out fish in other polystyrene containers.
The densifier they bought handles 4,000 pounds of polystyrene weekly, compacting them into 40 pound ingots which are sold to a container company.
Polystyrene densification is a project where the feasibility is driven by sheer volume. I’m glad to see more and more companies tackling it as a part of their sustainability goals!
Update of Gazelle’s Electronic Recycling Service
The day after writing my original post praising Gazelle, I submitted two old cell phones in order to experience their service for myself.
I was disappointed to see that I wasn’t going to get any cash back for my old cell phones – especially since that’s a big part of Gazelle’s schtick. But, I wouldn’t bear any disposal other cash or time disposal costs.
Time is a biggie. I’ve had a camp stove propane tank in my back seat for weeks and just can’t seem to get to the one place in the County where I can recycle it. The site is nowhere hear my usual haunts and the operating hours are not customer-friendly. But I digress….
I was told a Gazelle box would be shipped to me and dutifully printing off the packing slip. Online, all order fulfillment functions were intuitive and worked smoothly.
That said, it’s now two weeks later, and still no box. So the slip and phones are sitting on my desk waiting. We’ll see if Gazelle ever comes good. Anyone have an experience to share?
Foam Densifiers
Polystyrene foam. Fun stuff. Ubiquitous. Most often landfilled.
Foam densification is a fancy term for compacting polystyrene foam into tiny little blocks. Foam by definition is full of air, so smushing it anyway you can saves a lot of space, which reduces waste disposal pick ups and thus, costs.
For example, Dart Container Corp makes a densifier that can compact a foam mound the size of a Prius into the volume of a five-gallon bucket.
Foam densifiers are great fits for distribution center recycling and food service foam is very common too. The equipment isn’t cheap, so sourcing it requires great care. Leasing is a good option, especially if you are selling the densified foam to an organization who uses it as a raw material.
