Waste to Value

The built environment has a 600 million ton waste problem. Construction and demolition, or C&D waste, comprising large volumes of concrete, wood, drywall, glass, even furniture, and much more. This significantly contributes to landfill volumes, with approximately one quarter of total waste generated in the U.S. ending up in landfills.

For episode 6 of Waste to Value, “From Liability to Asset,” I speak with featured guest Kathryn Soter, executive director of Good Future Design Alliance (GFDA), a non-profit devoted to “tackling this wicked problem through smart design, technology, and creative business solutions.” Waste to Value is a reader-supported podcast and newsletter. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Baie Verte in north central Newfoundland, Canada, is one of several communities that comprise the island’s emerald zone. In the 1950s, a large deposit of asbestos was discovered and Baie Verte, which is French for Green Bay was quickly transformed into a company town with a large scale asbestos mining operation that supported the community for the next three decades. Trina Barrett grew up in Baie Verte. Her father worked as a foreman in the asbestos mine.

BAIE Minerals, a company based in the remote fishing village of Baie Verte, Newfoundland (one of the easternmost points in North America), has tapped into a unique model of climate economics.

Waste to Value is a reader supported podcast and newsletter. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. When we think about wood products and our domestic forests that supply them, we invariably arrive at mental images of large swaths of forest land that populate the Pacific Northwest or the Southeast, those places that provide abundances of Douglas fir and spruce and southern yellow pine. But we rarely consider urban forests.

Waste to Value is a reader-supported podcast and newsletter. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5/month. It’s a relatively new phenomenon that a growing percentage of consumers now care a great deal about where their products come from, how they’re made, and whether the manufacturing and packaging and transportation of said goods have any positive impact on their communities. Gone are the days when distance was equated with high taste and exoticism.

For Episode 3 of “Waste to Value,” I connected with Apoorv Sinha, co-founder of Calgary-based Carbon Upcycling, a company that has discovered a unique place within the waste-to-value economy. Another way to put it is: they have solved an unintended consequence born of a sustainable solution. Justin R. Wolf: Supplementary cementitious materials, or SCMs, have completely transformed the global cement industry.

Deforestation from agricultural practices in Paraíba, Brazil. Spend enough time operating in the climate space and some disturbing patterns begin to emerge. I’m not talking about climate anxiety or the general uneasiness that comes with each new IPCC report. Rather, it’s the lingering question of what unintended downstream impacts today’s climate solutions may well bring.

Clip of Waste to ValueEpisode 2, with featured guest Garrett Benisch, Chief Development Officer of Bioforcetech Corporation. Justin R. Wolf: You’re working with a waste stream that is the most basic form of waste, in a sense. So how do you communicate that with clients, with stakeholders, with markets, to shift the stakeholder outlook on the fact that this is not dirty waste? This is not disgusting waste? This is usable waste.

For Episode 2 of “Waste to Value,” I connected with Garrett Benisch, Chief Development Officer of Bioforcetech Corporation, a Bay Area company that turns organic waste into carbon negative materials. Bioforcetech’s flagship product is something called OurCarbon, a distinct form of biochar made from wastewater sludge, which has applications for various markets ranging from concrete to fashion.