{"id":18946,"date":"2015-10-13T12:03:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T16:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=18946"},"modified":"2015-10-13T12:03:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T16:03:09","slug":"new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Digs Into Its Biomass Waste; What It Finds Isn&#8217;t Pretty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/biomass-to-energy-plant.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"428\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18947\" src=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/biomass-to-energy-plant.jpg\" alt=\"biomass to energy plant\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/biomass-to-energy-plant.jpg 640w, https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/biomass-to-energy-plant-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Back in 2014, I took a look at Sweden&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2014\/09\/sweden-recycling-99-garbage-really-video\/\">remarkable rate of recovery<\/a> for its trash: only 1% of the materials Swedes throw away end up in a landfill. How does the country&#8217;s trash handler, Swedish Waste Management, achieve this? Well, they burn a lot of trash for energy and heat. While the company argues for the efficiency of this practice (which I have no reason to doubt), we&#8217;d also want to know that technology for scrubbing various toxins are in place. Otherwise, this could be a case of using one environmental evil to cover for another.<\/p>\n<p>But, what if we didn&#8217;t burn all of our trash, but took a look at just recovering biomass: organic materials ranging from cut grass to food waste to sawmill shavings? Rutgers University&#8217;s New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station has been doing this for years, and just released <a href=\"http:\/\/assets.njspotlight.com\/assets\/15\/0927\/1833\">its latest report<\/a> on the amount of <a href=\"http:\/\/greenbuildingelements.com\/2012\/06\/07\/gasification-may-convert-mesquite-and-juniper-wood-to-a-usable-bioenergy\/\">usable biomass<\/a> the state throws away. According to <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.njspotlight.com\/stories\/15\/09\/27\/garden-state-is-wasting-its-waste-should-better-utilize-biomass-report-says\/\">NJ Spotlight<\/a><\/em>, the state sends over 4 million tons of usable &#8220;trash&#8221; to its landfills. That&#8217;s not only costing it money, but also contributing to over-reliance on fossil fuels, and the subsequent carbon emissions that stem from sources.<\/p>\n<p>Among some of the more interesting findings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>72% of usable biomass comes from consumers (which suggest to me that there are good recycling efforts going on further up supply chains);<\/li>\n<li>The usable biomass could supply about 6.4% of the state&#8217;s current electricity consumption, or 4.3% of gasoline equivalent transportation fuels (not huge numbers, but not insignificant, either);<\/li>\n<li>There are numerous options beyond burning: everything from gasification and pyrolysis to fermentation and anaerobic digestion;<\/li>\n<li>Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions largely comes down to preventing these materials from rotting and releasing methane.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While I&#8217;m certain these percentages and amount vary from state to state, the New Jersey study likely gives us some insight into cleaner energy sources we&#8217;re wasting across the country. Yes, many landfills capture methane, but that strikes me as a good start &#8211; lots of opportunities for recycling our biomass into energy&#8230; with the right scrubbing\/pollution capture, of course. I&#8217;m sure New Jersey&#8217;s also not alone in lacking the infrastructure for taking advantage of all of that biomass, too.<\/p>\n<p>So, what do you think? Know of good opportunities for recovering these materials that needs further exploration? Share them with us.<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/pic-272193797\/stock-photo-bio-power-plant-with-storage-of-wooden-fuel-biomass-against-blue-sky.html?src=1U5Wk79Mjv6Gm-UjeMi2Ww-1-14\">Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rutgers University finds that the Garden State tosses over 4 million tons of biomass that it could recycle into energy, heat, and\/or transportation fuel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":18947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,7],"tags":[203,393,1907,8598,8597,4739,7179],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Jersey Throws Away A Lot Of Biomass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rutgers University finds that the Garden State tosses over 4 million tons of biomass that it could recycle into energy, heat, and\/or transportation fuel.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Jersey Throws Away A Lot Of Biomass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rutgers University finds that the Garden State tosses over 4 million tons of biomass that it could recycle into energy, heat, and\/or transportation fuel.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/biomass-to-energy-plant.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"428\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30\"},\"headline\":\"New Jersey Digs Into Its Biomass Waste; What It Finds Isn&#8217;t Pretty\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/\"},\"wordCount\":397,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"biomass\",\"carbon emissions\",\"new jersey\",\"new jersey agricultural experiment station\",\"rutgers university\",\"sweden\",\"waste-to-energy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sustainability\",\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/\",\"name\":\"New Jersey Throws Away A Lot Of Biomass\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"Rutgers University finds that the Garden State tosses over 4 million tons of biomass that it could recycle into energy, heat, and\/or transportation fuel.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Jersey Digs Into Its Biomass Waste; What It Finds Isn&#8217;t Pretty\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"description\":\"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":142,\"caption\":\"Sustainablog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30\",\"name\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b723ef9244464afe2e59d68b238a07?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b723ef9244464afe2e59d68b238a07?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\"},\"description\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg is the founder and editor of sustainablog. You can keep up with all of his writing at Facebook, and at Google+\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/jeffmcintirestrasburg\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Jersey Throws Away A Lot Of Biomass","description":"Rutgers University finds that the Garden State tosses over 4 million tons of biomass that it could recycle into energy, heat, and\/or transportation fuel.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Jersey Throws Away A Lot Of Biomass","og_description":"Rutgers University finds that the Garden State tosses over 4 million tons of biomass that it could recycle into energy, heat, and\/or transportation fuel.","og_url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/","og_site_name":"Sustainablog","article_published_time":"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":428,"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/biomass-to-energy-plant.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30"},"headline":"New Jersey Digs Into Its Biomass Waste; What It Finds Isn&#8217;t Pretty","datePublished":"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00","dateModified":"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/"},"wordCount":397,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"keywords":["biomass","carbon emissions","new jersey","new jersey agricultural experiment station","rutgers university","sweden","waste-to-energy"],"articleSection":["Sustainability","Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/","name":"New Jersey Throws Away A Lot Of Biomass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00","dateModified":"2015-10-13T16:03:09+00:00","description":"Rutgers University finds that the Garden State tosses over 4 million tons of biomass that it could recycle into energy, heat, and\/or transportation fuel.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/new-jersey-digs-into-its-biomass-waste-what-it-finds-isnt-pretty\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Jersey Digs Into Its Biomass Waste; What It Finds Isn&#8217;t Pretty"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","name":"Sustainablog","description":"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization","name":"Sustainablog","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","width":200,"height":142,"caption":"Sustainablog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30","name":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b723ef9244464afe2e59d68b238a07?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b723ef9244464afe2e59d68b238a07?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg"},"description":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg is the founder and editor of sustainablog. You can keep up with all of his writing at Facebook, and at Google+","sameAs":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org"],"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/jeffmcintirestrasburg\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}