Very few states are as acutely aware of the threats and challenges posed by climate change as California is. The Golden State has always been America’s most progressive place to live and so would likely always have had an interest in the environment whether it served the state’s interests or not. The fact that it stands in line to suffer badly if the worst effects of climate change aren’t averted or reversed within the next few years has only served to focus the minds of those charged with making decisions.
We saw what might be the biggest pro-recycling decision of our lifetimes taken in California just a few days ago. A company that claims to have developed a safe, surefire way to take household waste and turn it into natural gas has been given approval to raise a tax-free thirteen million dollars on the debt market to turn the impossible-sounding dream into a reality. If they’re successful, it’s likely to be the first of several such facilities that opens within the state. The proposals made by the company behind the plant suggest that almost any kind of household waste, from food to wastewater, can be safely converted if subjected to the right processes. The advantages of using this process to create natural gas rather than digging into the ground to do so are obvious. California (and the wider world) has been looking for a greener way to create gas for decades. It appears we might finally have found one.
It’s been well over one hundred years since the famous California “gold rush.” Such was the seismic nature of the gold rush in our state that it’s still celebrated today in everything from folk music to online slots. While the latter might sound a little unlikely, one quick glance at New Zealand Rose Slots would be enough to tell you that the gold rush is one of the most popular themes that online slots development companies use on their reels. There are even two different slots that are simply titled “Gold Rush.” Various industry trends that have rolled through the state in the past century have been promoted as the “new gold rush,” but none of them has ever turned out that way. If this new waste recycling plant is successful, the new gold rush might finally have been found. We’re not sure anyone would make online slots about the topic, but the idea of finding gold (of the metaphorical kind) in waste makes for a great story.
The company behind the move is SoCal Biomethane LLC, which is in the process of acquiring an old plant from the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority. Once the purchase is completed, the company will add an “anaerobic digestion system” to the existing facility which will, in turn, create gas that could be transported to the Southwest Gas pipeline nearby. The plan has been carefully examined by the California Pollution Control Financing Authority and found to be compliant. The decision to allow the company to raise funds on the debt market was taking unanimously, with no dissenters. If the plant becomes fully functional as is envisaged, it will accept more than three hundred tons of organic waste every year, which would otherwise be destined for landfills. From those three hundred tons of waste, over 320,000 million British Thermal Units of renewable gas every year. Experts say that the reduction in greenhouse emissions created by processing the waste in this way is the equivalent of taking over fourteen thousand cars off the road. If a single plant can do that, imagine what a whole network of them might achieve.
Early indications are that the Live Oak Banking Company will purchase the notes involved in the debt deal, with the transaction set to complete by the end of June. At that point, the entire deal will have to be signed off by the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, but that’s expected to be a formality. A further request for $18,000 in small business assistance aid to help with the cost of issuing the debt has already been granted by the pollution authority. As soon as the debt deal is done, the company envisages full completion of the plant within twelve months, ready to begin operations during the final quarter of 2022.
Whatever California is able to do about waste processing and recycling will go toward President Biden’s recently announced plan to cut the USA’s greenhouse gas emissions in half before the end of 2030. While the contribution made by this new Californian plant and others like it will be significant, it won’t get the job done on its own. We’ll all have to pitch in and change our ways when it comes to recycling if we’re to achieve such a dramatic turnaround, but it isn’t impossible. In our hearts, we all already know what we ought to be doing. Every bottle we drink from should be recycled and can be recycled through curbside bins. California is lucky enough to have more than fifteen hundred recycling centres across the state, so there’s likely to be one available near you. Some of them even offer cash refunds for bringing recyclable goods to them, so there’s an incentive to make the trip.
On top of that, it’s high time that we stopped creating plastic waste in the first place. Single-use plastics are frowned upon almost everywhere now. Paper shopping bags are better for the world around us than plastic shopping bags. Public transportation is better for the environment than driving our own cars. Many modern public transportation solutions – especially those you’ll find in California – produce zero or next-to-zero emissions. Cars and buses alone are responsible for almost a third of all American greenhouse emissions, so expect them to be major targets when policies are set by the Democratic administration.
We’re around eighteen months away from finding out whether this exciting facility genuinely can do the things it claims to be able to do. If it does, we’ll be entering an exciting new era in Californian recycling, with profits to be made from turning discarded waste into gas. It could provide jobs, make money, and save the environment at the same time – a triple win from a PR point of view! As and when more information becomes available, we’ll provide it to you right here.
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