You might not know it, but many of common, everyday products used by all of us are in some way made with petroleum. Aspirin, bubble gum, dishwashing soap, toothpaste and shaving cream, among scores of other products, all contain petroleum to some extent.

    With a worldwide energy crisis and the knowledge that petroleum is a finite resource, trying to find alternative materials to produce products such as these is crucial.

    This goal is one of many for the Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology (WIST), an institution at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point that seeks to deliver sustainability solutions by combining research, education and laboratory services.

    At a recent colloquium lecture for Phi Kappa Phi, Paul Fowler, the executive director of WIST, laid out his organization’s plans for helping Wisconsin become a leader in sustainable development.

    Noting three pillars of sustainable development, (1) social, (2) economic and (3) environmental, Fowler spoke chiefly of the benefits of the non-traditional uses of Wisconsin’s agricultural and forest products.

    He especially referred to materials such as whey and methane in the dairy industry, and potato peelings in the potato industry, which are often produced in excess and disposed of, usually at a high cost.

    “We’re really looking to explore within WIST the opportunities to say, let’s take some of this waste material which currently is disposed at a cost, it actually costs money to dispose of that material, or, at best, it’s a low-value feed supplement for the agriculture industry, and build some really substantial fuels,” Fowler stated.

    For example, whey contains a type of alcohol called a polyol that, in combination with other compounds, can produce a bio-derived polyurethane foam that is naturally fire-retardant.

    With potatoes, it is estimated that in Wisconsin within a 20-mile radius in a three-month period, an excess of 600,000 tons of potato peelings are produced.

    “So, if companies are generating those stocks of volume, their first thought is: ‘How do I get rid of this?’” Fowler said. “So they look to feed it to cattle, spread it on the land, just disperse it as quickly as they possibly can. But in my view, they’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

    This is because potato peelings contain that vital carbohydrate, starch. Potato starch is particularly useful for the paper industry, which uses it for certain stages in the manufacturing process. It can also be used to make adhesives, such as those used for wallpaper.

    When commonly disposed agricultural materials are utilized in these ways, the advantages are not only environmental, but also economical. Through contact with both primary and secondary processors, WIST hopes to help businesses get the maximum potential out of their excess materials.

Initiatives at UWSP
    As a UWSP institution, WIST is especially concerned with enacting sustainability initiatives on campus.  Fowler noted the introduction of corn-derived bioplastic cups in the Dreyfus University Center’s dining hall as a step in the right direction for UWSP. These cups are biodegradable and can be composted.

    However, Fowler sees that this plan has not lived up to its potential. As a compostable material, the cups are often just discarded in the same waste bins as all other trash. Thus, they inevitably end up in a landfill with common petroleum-derived cups.

    What is not being instituted, says Fowler, is a segregation of waste products. In other words, there is not a special bin for compostable materials in the dining center and students rarely take the cups home to compost them.

    “The segregation of waste products is primarily a communication problem,” said Fowler.

    WIST hopes to utilize the power of UWSP’s Student Government Association to spread the word to students about the incentives of composting bioplastics as well as communicating the costs of sending waste to landfills.

    Another goal in the near future for WIST at UWSP is producing energy from excess food waste.

    Anaerobic digestion, a process by which biodegradable material is broken down in the absence of oxygen, is a method used in the dairy industry to convert the methane in animal waste to energy. Such a process could be used with food waste, but the quantity and quality of methane produced would have to be analyzed.

    “What we have to ask is: Are there feasible amounts of waste to produce an anaerobic digester?” said Fowler.

    If there is enough waste, the energy created could be enough to produce electricity or power a vehicle.

    WIST’s future goals for sustainability at UWSP are looking even brighter, as SGA recently decided to allocate to WIST the entirety of its previous funding to Naturewise, a Wisconsin Public Service program. For more information on WIST, go to www.uwsp.edu/WIST.