However, though ‘for the second year in a row, Canada has placed second-worst among 17 countries on an international ranking of consumer behaviours that have an impact on the environment’ (Canadians lost points due to their preference for car ownership and large houses, said a 2009 report), a man from Simcoe may one day supply area farmers with a unique energy source by recycling old tobacco kilns.
According to a recent article found in the London Free Press, ‘old tobacco kilns are loaded with high-quality biomass. The wood -- mostly pine -- is decades old and has been subjected to repeated curings.’
Yes, I’d like to recycle some of that pine myself for birdhouses but I’m not jealous of Mark Bouchard’s idea.
["Can old kilns become energy in an environmentally-friendly manner?": photo GAH]
If he can turn the pine into fuel for farmers and reuse or remove asphalt shingles, tar paper, asbestos and spray foam insulation in a cost-efficient way, a temporary industry will be born.
I read that ‘since last fall, he has reduced 60 kilns to wood chips with a 500-horsepower Morbark tub grinder. The powerful machine can reduce three kilns to sawdust in 60 minutes. The chips are a popular fuel with greenhouse operators and other businesses that need a plentiful, inexpensive source of heat.’
[Please click here to read more about turning tobacco kilns into biomass fuel.]
Recycling and extracting the biomass, Mr. Bouchard said, is the environmentally responsible route to take (for tobacco farmers).
"I applaud them," he said. "It would be so easy for them to dig a hole and just bury it."
Mr. Bouchard works in an area I often motorcycle through, so I may try to get a look at the Morback tub grinder in action.
Though I bet I’ll need earplugs.
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Have you heard of other enterprising people trying to turn 3Rs into a worthwhile business?
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