Wood Anchor approached the City of Winnipeg in late 2007 with a financially viable plan to deal with the approximately 5000 waste trees that they cut down due to Dutch Elm Disease (DED). This plan included 3 parts; developing a market for the wood itself in the form of value added products such as flooring, decking etc., developing a market for the remaining 70% of the wood in the form of a biofuel, and thirdly, developing a recycling and green energy education center at our facility to encourage young people to think outside the box when it comes to recycling and using materials slated for the landfill. These 3 parts are a work in progress that require several years of well managed and aggressive marketing in order to work as a successful business model. We are two years into this project and have very successfully created a market for elm wood after 30-40 years of not being used in North America.
Our contract in regards to the utilization of waste wood is with the City of Winnipeg’s Urban Forestry Branch. Our contract states that Wood Anchor will accept usable saw logs at our quarantined site from the city at no cost to them. Though we are only to accept saw logs (logs large enough and straight enough to saw into lumber), we gradually accepted all waste wood from the city because efforts to educate their drivers about what should come to our site and what should be directed to the landfill proved difficult. This meant that we were accepting approximately 4000 metric tonnes of waste trees to our site but only able to utilize 700 metric tonnes into value added wood products. This resulting 3300 metric tonnes of waste wood now needs to be dealt with in order to prevent the spread of DED.
There are several effective ways of dealing with this waste material and each has their own benefits and pitfalls. The first way is to bury this material at the landfill. The financial and environmental cost of this is high. Diesel burning machinery is required to dig holes, push the material into the holes and then compact it to cover it with layers of dirt. This process burns much fuel and is extremely hard on the machinery. After the material is buried, the environmental cost is not over. As this waste wood decomposes, it creates large volumes of methane which is released into the atmosphere. This release of methane can last several hundred years. Out of sight, in this case, should not mean out of mind.
The second way to deal with this material is to grind it into a biofuel. While this sounds like the most environmentally sensible option, it is not necessarily. Grinding this material requires more diesel burning machinery than burying it. As much as 8L of diesel is needed to grind 1 metric tonne of waste elm. The mighty Elm is so hard and has such intertwined grain that it is very difficult to shred or grind. Experience has proved that elm wood is very hard on grinders, and machines typically need repair frequently, slowing down the process and increasing the already high cost. After this material is ground or chipped, it needs to be transported to a facility that burns it for heat or energy. Due to low energy costs in this province, very few facilities locally burn biofuels but rather use natural gas or electricity for heating purposes. While Wood Anchor has been developing a market for waste wood biofuel, the financial cost to us at this point does not make it a viable option. It should also be noted that chips from urban trees are difficult to reuse due to high salt content from city streets and high metal content from nails and other debris.
The third method of disposal for waste wood is to burn it in a controlled manner. The machinery required for this is minimal though the pollutants produced from burning is high though comparable to the long term release of pollutants from burying. While the methane release is low and the amount of diesel burnt is also low, the reuse of this product is not available.
Our goal is to work with the City of Winnipeg toward a mutually beneficial plan that is financially viable and ecologically sound. The City of Winnipeg Forestry Branch has done a tremendous job at battling DED and Winnipeg has arguably the largest urban Elm forest in the world as a result. It is the responsibility of the city to continue their efforts to control DED within their budget while working with private companies such as Wood Anchor to create sustainable solutions to this problem.
In Alberta, where Grant Kergen is from, landfill tipping fees are as high as $212/metric tonne in comparison to $23.50/metric tonne in Manitoba. The idea of grinding waste material makes financial sense in that economic environment. One should also take note that many Canadian cities are looking at cutting back their tree waste grinding operations to replace them with more sustainable solutions similar to the partnership the City of Winnipeg has with Wood Anchor.
Due to the fact that the province of Manitoba has such low energy costs, the idea of thinking outside the box when it comes to reuse of materials and the development of biofuels to replace fossil fuels will remain stagnant. This issue goes far beyond the archaic nature of burning waste wood and delves deep into the engrained mindset of Manitobans. In order for reuse of material to be truly sustainable, we need to understand all of the environmental and financial implications of our decisions and work toward truly sustainable options that improve our lives, the lives of our children and the generations to come.
Rethink. Reclaim. Reuse - J Neufeld
