Plant-based oils are often called vegetable oils because they are mostly derived directly from the seeds of vegetables. However, some plant-based oils are extracted from fruits, grains, and nuts.
Once the triglycerides have been extracted from the vegetable seeds, they are purified. Some oils are chemically altered before arriving at the grocery store, ready for you to buy in a bottle.
There is a wide range of plant-based oils, and they are all comprised of a mixture of triglycerides. Popular oils include:
Avocado
Coconut
Flax
Hemp
Olive
Peanut
Soybean
Sunflower
Walnut
You can also get other derivatives of the seeds of vegetables, fruits, and nuts. For example, soybeans can also produce soybean meal, as sold by US Soy.
What Are the Benefits of Plant-Based Oils?
Plant-based oils have a wide range of health benefits. Nutritionally, they’re all different. Some contain more unsaturated fats than others, and each one is abundant in a unique range of micronutrients.
Here are some of the benefits of plant-based oils.
1. Improved Heart Health
The omega-3 fatty acids in plant-based oils have been shown to lower total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein levels in the blood. These unsaturated fatty acids can also help to lower blood pressure and lower the risk of heart disease.
Many people take a supplement to increase their intake of omega-3s but if you’d rather get your unsaturated fatty acids from natural sources, vegetable oils are the perfect way to do so.
2. No Trans Fats
Unlike butter and other animal products, plant-based oils are trans fat-free. Trans fats have been closely linked to an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), type 2 diabetes, stroke, and heart attack.
3. Reduced Menopausal Symptoms
Research suggests that some plant-based oils can reduce menopausal symptoms. In particular, vegetable oils were shown to lower the severity of hot flushes, which is a common symptom in menopause.
If you want to increase your micronutrient intake or you have a nutrient deficiency, incorporating more plant-based oils into your diet will help.
5. Improved Flavor
You can use vegetable oils to fry ingredients to create a main meal or you can drizzle it on top of salads and bread rolls. Popular cooking oils include soybean oil, peanut oil, and olive oil. Peanut oil is commonly used in salad dressings because of its unique flavor.
Using vegetable oils in your cooking not only enhances the flavor but also adds extra nutrients and omega-3s to your meals.
6. Healthier Hair
The benefits of plant-based oils aren’t exclusive to cooking and nutrition. Many vegetable oils are beneficial for hair health too.
Take a look at the labels of your favorite hair care products and it won’t take long for you to spot a plant-based oil as one of the ingredients. Common oils used in hair products include avocado, coconut, and jojoba oils.
For businesses trying to make a name for themselves in the beverage industry, the challenges are vast and varied. Yes, the sector can be a profitable one – it’s predicted that the global market will be worth $1.86 trillion by 2024 – but that does not mean there are any guarantees of success.
There are a wide range of difficulties facing start-ups of all kinds, and being able to make an impression within the drinks industry is certainly no different. Of course, not every enterprise will start out hoping to become the next Coca Cola, Heineken or Starbucks, but having a solid business plan and a clearly defined set of goals is likely to offer a greater chance for success.
Part of that planning involves identifying which tools and processes are going to help your organisation compete against its rivals. Advances are being made all the time, but which technologies might be most effective in launching a beverage business. Read on to know more:
1. Flow-through systems
Automated systems can prove invaluable in terms of streamlining the processes of sorting, packaging, labelling and distributing produce. Flow-through systems utilise robots to do the vast majority of this work, using proximity sensors in order to detect the presence of other objects and repeat the same movements. Operating in this way can help to reduce the risk of human error while simultaneously lowering running costs and increasing productivity and efficiency.
2. Industrial Internet of Things
This is where devices in an industrial setting are connected on a network in order to communicate with one another. The IIoT can enable machines involved in the manufacturing process to log data and identify any faults in the production line, which means each drink is turned out to a greater level of consistency.
3. Voice technology
Another development that is assisting beverage businesses – and those in other industries – is the emergence of voice technology. Warehouse operators can now harness this concept to issue voice commands that will be picked up by the relevant pieces of machinery, which subsequently carry out the action. This means tasks can be completed in a safer, more time-efficient manner, while it also makes training of new employees easier in that there are fewer manual skills for them to learn.
4. NFC tags
Moving away from the manufacturing side of the business, near field communication (NFC) tags can help to improve the customer experience once the product has been put to market. NFC technology is what’s used in contactless payment devices, and the concept has been adapted by the beverage industry in order to add another dimension to the product that consumers purchase.
They can be added to the label or packaging and scanned with a smartphone to unlock a range of additional information about the drink.
5. Cloud service
For businesses in any field, the challenge of data storage is one that can be difficult to overcome. Giants of the industry will have the available resources to own and run their own infrastructures, but others may not be in a position to do so or may wish to focus their spending in different areas.
As a solution, there are cloud service providers who offer products such as Virtual Desktop or Azure Virtual Desktop with rented access to certain software at a lower cost, which frees up funds for beverage companies to commit more capital towards the likes of R&D, production and marketing.
You have probably come across glow sticks at some stage of your life, however other people refer to them as chemlights or light sticks. After you bend a glow stick, the glass inside shatters and it begins to glow.
After they begin to glow, you can expect them to be visible in the dark from 1 to 12 hours. The time of how long it glows for depends on the quality and the size of the glow stick.
Remember, that once you have broken the glass inside and the light appears, you can’t turn it off.
You can find glow sticks in all different types of shapes and sizes. Most are no longer than 10 inches, however some you can connect together to make longer ones. They are also available in lots of different colors, such as red, blue, yellow and orange. However, it seems both the orange and red don’t light up that well.
If you are planning to go out in the wild, it is vital that you pack reliable lighting. For several years, it has been common for people to use glow sticks in a crisis situation.
Unlike other sources of lighting, glow sticks don’t need batteries to work. Purchasing a quality glow stick will give you 12 hours of light, without having to worry about the batteries running out.
Glow sticks are safe, so you don’t have to worry about them starting a fire nor will they electrocute somebody. They are even safe for children to play with.
Because they are small and lightweight, you will easily be able to find space when you are packing.
Even the best quality glow sticks are cheap. If you are looking for value, purchasing glow sticks in bulk is your best option.
What Survival situations would a Glow Stick prove useful?
There are many reasons why you should pack a glow stick with your survival kit such as:
Keeps large groups together: At night it is very hard to organize a lot of people, so a glow stick will prove to be a very helpful device
After a road accident, you can use a glow stick as a marker: Glow sticks are a great way to warn oncoming traffic that there is an accident on the roadside. If there is debris on the road or gas leaks, placing a glow stick nearby will alert others.
Avoid falling: If you frequently camp, you have probably tripped at some stage. Small holes, trees, and other obstacles that are not visible during the night can cause injuries. By putting a glow stick nearby will help warn others. You can also place glow sticks to mark a safe path.
If it is raining or you are in the water, don’t worry as glow sticks are water-resistant and are perfect for wet environments.
Glow sticks are used by militaries all over the globe as a survival tool. If you do decide to buy glow sticks in bulk and you pack a large amount in your survival kit, you can easily write SOS with them if you are stuck in a dangerous location.
How do you dispose of Glow Sticks and are they safe?
One of the disadvantages of using glow sticks is that there is no environmentally safe way that you can recycle them. As each one has chemicals inside, the plastic casing cannot be reused nor can it be repurposed.
The reason why glow sticks produce light is that there are two main ingredients that cause a chemical reaction.
Although the casing is made of strong plastic, be careful of young children or pets chewing on the plastic. Although the chemicals are not that toxic, it is not advised to ingest them. If a child swallows some of the chemicals, make sure to rinse his or her mouth immediately. Speak to your doctor if the child has swallowed a lot.
Glow sticks have a shelf life of around 4 years, as long as it is kept in its original foil packaging. If it has been removed, you can expect it to last for 1 year. If you decide to buy in bulk, keep this in mind. If you have a large number of glow sticks and think they are out of date, test one before you throw them all away.
Glow sticks are not just a great source of lighting, but children and families can play lots of games and have a fantastic time with them.
Cities have been growing around the globe in the past few years. A United Nations report has estimated that about 68% of the world’s total population will be living in urban centers by the year 2050. This will see an increase of about 70% in solid waste, according to the World Bank.
This might be difficult to handle considering that the world is already facing challenges handling waste management. An increase in solid waste might see increased illegal dumping which might lead to other challenges, especially in public health.
Fortunately, advancements in technology have seen some parts of the world adopting IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence), and APIs (Applications Programming Interfaces) in a bid to make waste management smarter.
How can IoT, APIs, and AI make waste management better?
1. e-Waste Kiosks
Among the different types of waste that you can find in a waste bin, you will also find electronic gadgets. This kind of waste is known as e-waste. The toxicological implications of e-waste, things such as laptops. MP3 players, tablets, and phones can hurt both human beings and the environment.
They, therefore, have to be recycled well to avoid these effects. Fortunately, technology can be used to build e-waste kiosks that use smart applications to evaluate and determine the condition of electronic devices.
Those that are in bad condition and already hurting their owners or the environment can then be disposed of correctly.
2. Sensors for Waste Levels
Sensors powered by APIs, IoT, and AI can be used to implement a smart waste management system that works well for cities. These sensors can be used to track how much waste a bin has accumulated and then share that information with collection service providers.
The collection service providers will not only use this information for collection when the bins are full but also for planning and prediction. For instance, they can time routes and predict when to collect a bin based on the time that a bin takes before getting full.
Research has indicated that these sensors can help reduce the cost of waste management by about 50%. This is because waste bins can be collected on time, eliminating other maintenance requirements that arise from overfilling of the bins.
3. Waste Receptacles
Using Artificial Intelligence, waste collection service providers can build waste bins that come with waste receptacles to sort through waste, recognize different types of waste, and separate them depending on the requirements of the waste collectors.
For instance, if you were to manually sort through a waste bin in a city, you will find different types of waste. Things such as plastics, glasses, nylon papers, or even food waste will be mixed in the bin.
If you were to separate them manually, this would take you a lot of time. Technology has changed this. Using AI receptacles, waste can be sorted into different categories. This plays a crucial role in the transition to smart waste management.
4. AI-Powered Recycling Robots
Looking at a waste bin, you are likely going to find a lot of waste that can be recycled. However, how long can it take a person to manually separate the waste that can be recycled from the one that cannot?
Through AI and APIs, companies can build robots that do this for them. For this to work, understanding what an API is very important. This is because the APIs communicate and share data in a bid to help the robots differentiate different types of waste.
With such robots, waste such as plastic can be reused. Different types of waste that can be reused can be sent to companies for recycling instead of landfills. Using these robots, human error can be eliminated and operational costs reduced.
5. Load Monitoring of Garbage Tracks
We have talked about sensors for waste levels in waste bins above. These bins are emptied into garbage tracks. So, it also makes sense for waste collection service providers to also put sensors into their garbage tracks.
By doing this, the waste collection service providers will be able to monitor the levels of waste on their garbage tracks. This way, they can collect data that can be used to predict when their tracks are likely going to fill up.
With such information, they can find ways to minimize or reduce the number of trips they have to make when collecting garbage. Over some time, they will be able to analyze the collected data to help in future planning and minimizing operational costs.
As technology advances, we are going to see more technologies making waste management better and smarter.
Manufacturing accounts for a massive portion of global carbon emissions, almost a quarter of direct global carbon emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency reports a 23 percent contribution from manufacturing companies in the United States. Varying factors drive this output, but there could be a way businesses could lessen their environmental impact.
Smart manufacturing improves many of these problem areas, leading to better environmental results. Here are four ways smart manufacturing could make a splash by lessening its environmental impact.
How Smart Manufacturing Could Lessen Environmental Impact
Global climate change has evolved into one of the most prominent concerns around the world today. The connection between manufacturers and global climate change is undeniable, leading to understandable concern in worldwide industrialization and economic development.
Many facilities produce enormous amounts of waste every year. By reducing waste output, intelligent technologies can minimize the environmental effect. There are a few ways to implement innovative technology toward lessening production waste:
Adopt lean manufacturing to reduce waste production with assured quality.
Implement an advanced manufacturing process to minimize wasted material used to make a product. 3D printing is an excellent way to reduce production waste.
Incorporate automation in certain areas of the process to minimize the dependence of the process on human intervention. Automated devices can reduce the regularity of human error and defection, resulting in less waste.
Utilize greener cleaning materials with water- and bio-based cleaners to reduce water waste.
2. Improved Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is another significant piece of the puzzle. A facility can become more energy efficient in varying areas by incorporating greener, high-end equipment designed to reduce energy consumption in specific tasks.
Additionally, internet-connected sensors can improve the performance of energy management systems, allowing facilities to reduce their energy consumption without impacting production. Intelligent scheduling and AI can also help in the efficiency process, whether at the base equipment level or covering the entire supply chain. IoT-consulting services can enable industrial manufacturing systems to be more intelligent.
3. Working Toward Sustainability
Sustainability is a critical factor in reducing a facility’s environmental impact. Facilities can incorporate remanufacturing to restore damaged or defective products to full functionality, allowing the product to become useable again and reducing waste.
Reconfigurable manufacturing, although initially designed to improve responsiveness to a fluctuating market, can help facilities improve and manage wastewater and emissions via system reconfiguration.
4. Adjusted Manufacturing Processes
Changing the nature of the beast is one of the most promising ways to lessen environmental impact. Facilities could switch from a chemical to a physical or biological process, reducing emissions. Additionally, facilities can directly use smart technologies to reduce specific emissions from industrial processes, such as GHG emissions.
Greener inputs can replace traditional forms of energy, such as fossil fuels, which are rapidly depleting and produce carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Alternative renewable energies, such as hydrogen, biobutanol, and bioethanol, could replace fossil fuels.
Bottom Line
Smart manufacturing has the potential to improve manufacturing drastically. It could be the way of the future, increasing sustainability, productivity, and cost-efficacy to reduce environmental impact.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term that has been thrown around a lot lately, but what does it actually mean? The Internet of Things refers to the interconnectedness of devices and things. This could be anything from your refrigerator telling you when you’re out of milk to your car automatically ordering new tires when they start to wear down. This blog post will discuss 5 different use cases for IoT in the smart machine manufacturing industry. Most IoT consulting services will include the following recommendations and/or use cases for the aforementioned industry:
1. Remote monitoring of machines
IoT sensors can monitor machines’ performance in real-time, identify issues, and schedule repairs before problems cause downtime. This can help to improve the uptime of machines, as well as reduce the need for manual inspection and maintenance.
Additionally, remote monitoring can also be used to track the usage of machines and predict when they will need to be replaced. As a result, IoT-enabled machine monitoring can help improve manufacturing operations’ efficiency and productivity.
2. Automated inventory management using RFID tags
Smart machines can be equipped with RFID tags to automatically track inventory levels and trigger replenishment orders when stock levels run low. This can help reduce the time needed for manual inventory checks and prevent stockouts that can cause production delays.
Additionally, automated inventory management can help identify opportunities for cost savings by optimizing stock levels and reducing waste. As a result, RFID-based inventory management can be a valuable tool for manufacturers looking to improve their supply chain management.
3. Creation of virtual prototypes for testing
One of the top IoT use cases for smart machine manufacturers is the creation of virtual prototypes. Manufacturers can create accurate models of their machines using sensors and other connected devices. These models can then be used to test various scenarios and compare different designs. This helps to optimize the manufacturing process and ensure that the final product meets all the necessary requirements. Additionally, it can help reduce the need for physical prototyping, saving both time and money.
4. Workforce efficiency
IoT can help smart machine manufacturers to become more efficient in several ways. For example, by connecting machines to the internet, manufacturers can remotely monitor performance and diagnose any issues quickly and easily. In addition, IoT-enabled devices can share data with humans, allowing for more informed decision-making. As a result, IoT can help manufacturers to reduce downtime, increase productivity, and save on costs.
In addition, IoT can also be used to improve safety in the workplace. By connecting devices to each other and to the internet, manufacturers can create a safe environment for their employees by monitoring conditions and responding quickly to any potential hazards.
5. Quality control
In the era of Industry 4.0, more and more manufacturers are looking to adopt smart machines to improve quality control. By using IoT technology and tools, manufacturers can collect data on factors such as material usage, machine utilization, and production line efficiency. This data can then be analyzed to identify areas of improvement.
Additionally, by incorporating IoT-enabled sensors into machines, manufacturers can gain real-time insights into the quality of their products. This allows for quick corrective action to be taken in case of a problem, ensuring that only high-quality products leave the factory floor. As a result, IoT-enabled smart machines can help significantly improve the quality control process for manufacturers.
The cultivation of rice results in two major types of biomass wastes – Straw and Husk –having attractive potential in terms of biomass energy. Although the technology for rice husk utilization is well-proven in industrialized countries of Europe and North America, such technologies are yet to be introduced in the developing world on commercial scale.
The importance of Rice Husk and Rice Straw as an attractive source of energy can be gauged from the following statistics:
Rice Straw
1 ton of Rice paddy produces 290 kg Rice Straw
290 kg Rice Straw can produce 100 kWh of power
Calorific value = 2400 kcal/kg
Rice Husk
1 ton of Rice paddy produces 220 kg Rice Husk
1 ton Rice Husk is equivalent to 410- 570 kWh electricity
Calorific value = 3000 kcal/kg
Moisture content = 5 – 12%
Rice husk is the most prolific agricultural residue in rice producing countries around the world. It is one of the major by-products from the rice milling process and constitutes about 20% of paddy by weight. Rice husk, which consists mainly of lingo-cellulose and silica, is not utilized to any significant extent and has great potential as an energy source.
Rice husk can be used for power generation through either the steam or gasification route. For small scale power generation, the gasification route has attracted more attention as a small steam power plant is very inefficient and is very difficult to maintain due to the presence of a boiler. In addition for rice mills with diesel engines, the gas produced from rice husk can be used in the existing engine in a dual fuel operation.
The benefits of using rice husk conversion technology are numerous. Primarily, it provides electricity and serves as a way to dispose of agricultural waste. In addition, steam, a byproduct of power generation, can be used for paddy drying applications, thereby increasing local incomes and reducing the need to import fossil fuels. Rice husk ash, the byproduct of rice husk power plants, can be used in the cement and steel industries further decreasing the need to import these materials.
Rice straw can either be used alone or mixed with other biomass materials in direct combustion. In this technology, combustion boilers are used in combination with steam turbines to produce electricity and heat. The energy content of rice straw is around 14 MJ per kg at 10 percent moisture content. The by-products are fly ash and bottom ash, which have an economic value and could be used in cement and/or brick manufacturing, construction of roads and embankments, etc.
Straw fuels have proved to be extremely difficult to burn in most combustion furnaces, especially those designed for power generation. The primary issue concerning the use of rice straw and other herbaceous biomass for power generation is fouling, slagging, and corrosion of the boiler due to alkaline and chlorine components in the ash. Europe, and in particular, Denmark, currently has the greatest experience with straw fired power and CHP plants.
Are you considering green technology or green buildings? If you plan to incorporate designs that will help the environment, you should consider wide access doors in your planning! There are various ways to increase the energy efficiency of your commercial buildings to decrease damage to the environment. As the years progress, experts continue to create practical solutions to global warming, and they start with commercial buildings known to be one of the highest contributors to greenhouse gases in the world.
Know More About Green Design
Green design is a term for sustainable architecture and structural designs. It incorporates simple yet helpful materials, designs, and technologies to minimize the effects of the building on the environment. It is still a progressing technique that not all commercial buildings are using, but to those that are, it is already a significant contribution to the environment.
Role of Wide Access Doors in Green Buildings
You might now be wondering what role doorways play in green buildings. It may not seem much, but if you want to attain that green building title and certification from LEED, you must consider everything, including the doors and hardware.
While you might not consider doors and other hardware as top contributors to the expenses of constructing a building, these components have a higher impact on lessening the energy consumption of your commercial building and improving the overall thermal performance.
Purpose of an Access Door
To understand how wide access doors contribute to green buildings, you must first understand the many uses of access doors. They can vary depending on their type and size, but the primary purpose of an access door is to conceal and protect essential components in a building. When it comes to commercial buildings, you can think of plumbing systems, HVAC systems, and even central wiring.
In hospitals, the purpose of access doors is not limited to concealment but also insulation, proper pressure control, and airflow control from one room to another. Knowing the different goals of access doors can help you determine what type of access door can be more useful to you and your green design. By choosing to install a wide access door, you are not only increasing accessibility but also convenience.
Why It Helps in Green Buildings
Depending on the material of your wide access door, you can help minimize its negative environmental impact. Bigger and broader access doors are not only for convenience, but they are also for safety. For example, if you choose to install oversized fire-rated access doors, it will increase protection during a fire and ensure that there would be no blockage when people access it to escape. These wide doors also come with insulation of their own, lessening the energy consumption of the building. Know more about the benefits of wide access doors below:
1. Insulation
Access doors can come with their insulation if you choose it. Access doors are often a requirement in most commercial buildings. Having one not only adheres to building codes but can also contribute to the energy efficiency of your structure. An access door can ensure that the air outside does not seep into the building and vice versa. It does not only contribute to energy efficiency and thermal control, but it also ensures the concealment of your building’s essential components.
2. Convenience and Accessibility
Another thing you can benefit from an access door that has its insulation is the convenience and accessibility it gives you. Compared to an ordinary door that does not come with insulation, the properties and features of an access door are worth the cost because of the additional benefits.
You do not have to create significant changes regarding green design immediately. Sometimes, starting with the small things like your doors and windows can help with the overall green rating of your building. Green building is still a progressing idea that not everyone can immediately follow. If you have the means, starting small can already create an impact.
Each year, we see the effects of global warming drastically increase. The World Meteorological Organization reported that in the last 50 years, the number of climate-change-driven weather calamities increased by five. With this information coming to light, we must act now to prevent these disasters from worsening.
One simple step is to integrate sustainable practices into your establishment. While this may seem like an expensive proposition at first glance, did you know that going green also benefits your bottom line?
In this article, you’ll see a few benefits of green buildings:
1. Healthier Environment
Unsurprisingly, we spend a large portion of our time indoors when working in an office. In these cases, you may experience exposure to several air pollutants, such as mold, volatile organic compounds from air fresheners, and even secondhand smoke from cigarettes. Regular contact with these air pollutants poses a significant health concern leading to decreased performance and absenteeism.
Introducing steps to improve indoor air quality to combat these health risks is essential. One source of air pollutants is mold growth due to moisture build-up in areas such as behind walls. One of the ways you can reduce mold growth in these areas is to have gasketed access doors like those from Elmdor Access Doors and Panels.
Harvard also studied how effective green buildings are at improving cognitive functions. The result was that workers had a 61 percent higher performance when in green building conditions. You can trust that you and your officemates will make more intelligent decisions when breathing cleaner air.
Economic Benefits
You may have seen the words “LEED certification” thrown around the industry in the past few years. For a bit of context, LEED Certification is one of the best frameworks to follow if you want an environmentally conscious building. Compared to traditional buildings, LEED Certified buildings are proven to use less energy, less water, and lower overall operational costs. Lower operating expenses and utility bills ensure you can focus on growing your business to become a leader in the industry.
With lower maintenance costs and massive health benefits, you could enjoy a 6.6% increase in property asset valuation by going green. Additionally, laws have been getting stricter over the past years as we get closer to the 2030 sustainable development goal. Slowly introducing eco-friendly features to your building today can save thousands in fines and expensive overhauls in the future.
Better Infrastructure
With concrete being our primary building material of choice, it’s no surprise that the market for one of the most versatile construction materials has also grown. This demand comes at the cost of our environment, though, as cement is the third-highest producer of carbon dioxide. Because of this, you need to start thinking of ways to incorporate sustainability in your next construction project.
What if there was some way to use other materials in concrete? You’ll be glad to know that some companies have already begun offering such products. From using Fly Ash (found in coal-fired powerplants) to capturing the carbon dioxide from the air directly, it’ll be easy to find low-carbon concrete for you to use.
You’ll be glad to know that it won’t just be the environment that’ll benefit from using low-carbon concrete. For example, concrete that utilizes fly ash in its mixture has high compressive strength and better sulfate resistance. You aren’t just using concrete that can bear heavier loads; you’re also set to enjoy it for longer than traditional Portland cement.
It Takes All Of Us
Hopefully, these points have convinced you of the potential benefits of having a sustainable building. Clean air and clear skies don’t need to only exist in far-away lands. You can also enjoy them in your city as soon as we have done our part in having an eco-friendly society.
We get the better living environment we want through concerted and unified efforts towards this goal, and it all starts with your choice in taking the first step.
Pet waste is a growing public health and environmental risk. According to a report commissioned by the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association, 13 million UK households (45%) keep pets of some kind. Cats and dogs are each kept by 8.5 million households (these numbers are not additive, as some will of course keep both).
Can those of us who want both the joys of animal companionship and waste minimisation, find ways to cut down, or better manage, the huge amount of pet waste generated in the UK every year? With so many cats and dogs in the UK, pet waste must represent a significant mass of organic matter within the residual waste stream.
Does this waste represent a floater in the residual waste stream by necessity—due to inherently unpleasant and possibly dangerous characteristics of the waste—or is it only there out of convention and squeamishness?
I’ve written before about the relationship between waste management and squeamishness, and talking about faeces really brings the point home. There are some undoubtedly nasty pathogens present in pet faeces, notably the parasites Toxocariasis and Toxoplasmosis. But might these be safely killed off by the temperatures reached in anaerobic digestion (AD). If so, provided any litter and bags were made of organic matter, might pet waste be collected along with food waste?
I began by contacting a local authority waste officer, but was told that no one had asked this question before, and that I might be better off talking to AD plant operators. This I did, but most seemed similarly baffled by my query. However, one mentioned that AD digestate goes through a pasteurisation process, where it is heated to a temperature of 70oC for one hour, in order to make it safe for land application. I also attempted to contact some technical specialists in the field, but to no avail.
There are some theoretical indications that this pasteurisation should be sufficient. Hanna Mizgajska-Wiktor and Shoji Uga’s essay Exposure and Environmental Contamination states: “Anaerobic waste treatment kills Toxocara spp. eggs at temperatures in excess of 45oC”, well below the 70oC mentioned by my operator. The susceptibility of Toxoplasma to heat is less clear, although numerous internet sources suggest this can be killed in meat by cooking at 66oC. So far, then, I haven’t confirmed or falsified my initial inkling, and so the collection of pet waste in the municipal organic stream remains a theoretical possibility.
Motivated dog owners can already turn their pet’s waste into a resource within their own home. The website London Worms explains how you can turn your dog’s poo into rich and useful vermicompost, although it warns that the results will only be suitable for use on non-edible plants.
Foul Pay
Household pet droppings may still be largely fated for disposal, but even when binned this waste is at least moving through proper waste management channels. Unfortunately, not all pet poo is binned, and we have real data measuring public perceptions of the disamenity resulting from dog fouling. For most, the presence of this unwelcome waste in our streets, parks and footpaths is of much higher concern than its diversion from landfill. Therefore, it is necessary to make use of biodegradable dog poop bags to keep our environment clean.
A 2011 Defra-funded study on local residents’ willingness-to-pay — via an increase in council tax — for improvements across a range of environmental factors found that dog fouling was the third most important issue out of the presented range (with litter and fly-tipping taking first and second place). Surveys were conducted in inner-city, suburban and rural/semi-rural areas around London, Manchester and Coventry.
In order to move from the current level of dog fouling to the best possible scenario, it was found that inner-city residents would on average be willing to pay £8.87 per month, suburban residents £7.79 per month, and rural residents £2.72. Combining these figures with population statistics allows us to place a disamenity value on dog fouling. National statistics only allow for an urban-rural split, but based on a 2012 Defra rurality study which found that 18.9% of the population lives in rural areas, we can calculate that across England we would collectively be willing to pay £462m per year to achieve best case scenario improvements in dog fouling.
This somewhat crude calculation gives an indication of the perceived disamenity of dog fouling. Presenting the matter in terms such as these may allow economically minded policy makers a means of engaging with this important street scene issue and evaluating the costs and benefits of interventions.
Food for Thought
Let’s wash our hands of poo (with plenty of soap and warm water) and look to the other end of the pet waste problem. According to a report published by WRAP, the UK uses around 75,000 tonnes of primary packaging annually. This holds 1,263,000 tonnes of wet and dry cat and dog food, of which 9,000 uneaten tonnes are thrown away. Although this wasted food constitutes less than 1% of the total sold (if only we were as careful with food for human consumption) the estimated cost to the consumer is still £21m a year.
WRAP examined a number of designs intended to cut to down on the amounts of both pet food and packaging thrown away. A major problem with packaging design is the need to account for portion sizes, which vary from animal to animal and change depending on age and level of activity. Single serve packaging may actually lead to regular food wastage if the portion provided is too big for a particular pet; indeed, this is a problem I am experiencing with my own cat, whose appetite seems to fluctuate wildly. Re-sealable packaging that allows owners to dish out meals in accordance with the changing appetites of their pets is therefore preferable.
The material that packaging is made of is also significant: for example, relatively heavy tins are recyclable, whereas lightweight plasticised plastic foil packets are not. Pet food and its packaging can be pushed up the waste hierarchy by simply choosing a recyclable and resealable container which will allow them to adequately provide for the appetite of their pet. However, these issues are likely to be given less weight compared with health, convenience and cost in the minds of most householders. The onus has to be on manufacturers to develop packaging which is both low cost and easily recyclable. A recent development in this area for cat owners includes durable stainless steel litter boxes, which eliminates the need to purchase and replace plastic boxes.
Love pets, hate waste?
People love animals, but are rather less keen to engage with pets as an environmental issue. Leaving aside questions of whether it is sustainable for so many of us to have pets at all, there are clearly ways in which we can reduce their impact. The convenience of single serving pouches of pet food seems to win out over more recyclable and waste-avoiding alternatives, although pet owners might be willing to change their choices if presented with a better option.
While worrying about recovery options for cat poo might seem somewhat academic, it may be easier to tackle than dog fouling. It might even help to tackle the common psycho-social root of both issues. Cultural distaste perhaps lies behind the lack of information available on dealing with household pet waste, and the persistence of dog fouling as a street scene issue.
Things were very different in Victorian London when “pure finders” earned a living by seeking out doggie doo to supply the tanning trade. But for us this kind of waste is a disagreeable fact of life which we deal with as simply and with as little thought as possible. But as a nation of animal lovers, it’s our responsibility to engage with the waste management issues our pets present.
Note: The article is being republished with the kind permission of our collaborative partner Isonomia. The original article can be viewed at this link
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