by Tom Mason

A MILLION KILOGRAMS OF APPLE PEELINGS sounds like a lot of landfill fodder. But it is just one of the dozens of waste products created by the food processing industry in Nova Scotia’s Kings County every year. Everything from hot water to chicken feathers pour out of county factories; sometimes uses are found for them, but more often than not, the waste products find their way into landfills or worse, into the Annapolis Valley environment.

That could be about to change, thanks to an innovative new pilot program conducted by the Dalhousie University Eco-Efficiency Centre. The bi-product inventory program aims to catalogue all waste bi-products being produced by the Kings County food processing industry and then chart them using a global information system (GIS). Once the project is completed, industries will be able to use the information as a powerful tool for locating valuable resources that might otherwise be discarded.

“It’s a way of looking at waste products in a positive light,” says Ray Cote, a Dalhousie University professor and the founder of the Eco-Efficiency Centre in Dartmouth. “It will allow us to turn waste into useful products that can be used in other industries.” Discarded wooden palettes could be burned for fuel or used to manufacture new products, for example. Corn husks and other plant material can be refined into biodiesil, something that is already happening in at least one Annapolis Valley facility. Chicken feathers are a source of extractable protein, while hot wastewater can be used to heat a nearby factory or add a component to a chemical processing plant. “We’re looking at everything from gases and waste heat to biomass – anything that currently being discarded by the food processing industry. I think that the public will be surprised by the amount of useable products that are being thrown away.”

To complete the study, Eco-Efficiency Centre representatives have been canvassing Annapolis Valley food businesses, asking questions and cataloguing the types of waste generated, the quantity and frequency. “We keep the questions as open-ended as possible,” says Cote. “You never know the possibilities we’re going to uncover.” Once catalogued, the data will be made available to industries looking to locate in Kings County. The ultimate goal is to achieve something that Cote refers to as “industrial symbiosis” – clusters of industries that complement each other, even though they may have little to do with each other on the surface. “If you are thinking of building a factory that needs access to hot water, it makes a lot of sense to build it next to a factory that is already producing hot water as a waste product,” says Cote. “It’s a very efficient way to operate.”

Cote has a history of coming up with environmental ideas that also help business bottom lines. A professor at Dalhousie’s Faculty of Management, he has devoted much of his professional career to developing and applying strategies for eco-industrial development, an approach designed to reduce the ecological footprint of business on the environment. His ideas work because they make money for businesses that buy into them.

Cote founded the Eco Efficiency Centre in 1998 with support from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia Power Inc. and all three levels of government. Located in the Burnside Industrial Park, the center exists to help small and medium-sized businesses find ways to reduce operating costs by becoming more environmentally friendly. The Eco Efficiency Centre is an information center, a training facilitator and an environmental consulting center that assists businesses with issues like energy efficiency, waste disposal, onsite recycling and use efficiency - all concepts that can help save money and increase profits. Since its beginning the Eco-Efficiency Centre has expanded beyond the borders of the Burnside Industrial Park and now assists businesses across the province. About 250 companies have used the center’s services in recent years. “We’ve identified about $1.5 million in savings for businesses,” says Cote.

Once the Kings County pilot project is completed, Cote promises to expand the bi-product inventory program to other industrial sectors and other areas across the province. Hants and Richmond Counties have already expressed interest in taking part, and Cote expects other counties and industries to come on board soon. “With the right incentives in place, there are some real opportunities here for businesses and the environment.”