Would you gather your yard refuse and haul it to a cellulosic ethanol plant to sell?

Question

If there was a cellulosic ethynol plant near your home that made cheap alcohol fuel for cars, would you be willing to gather yard refuse and haul it to the plant if it paid you a small amount to make hauling it worth-while?

Or, knowing it would greatly improve your nation's energy independence, would you gather and haul it for free?

Answer 1

Well....we have the "hi-5" deal on the islands where they give you a nickel for ever aluminum, glass, or bottle can that you bring in. I've no idea how many people are actually doing that.

I think that if I was on my own, I'd probably do that, just to get money back on the packs of drinks...

I don't know how much in way of plant refuse one can glean from the yard to make it worthwhile. It may be too much to ask people to take time out of their week and drop a couple of bags full of leaves at an ethanol plant. What might work, if one is intent on doing that, is maybe asking them to separate the garbage. One bag/container for the 5-cent bottles, one for mulch refuse....

Eh, it still is very impractical in getting people to go onboard. If I was in a volunteer group, I might.

Answer 2

It already gets hauled away for compost; we pay to have this done.  There is not nearly enough to be useful as an energy source.

Answer 3

If they offered that here, absolutely. It would be nice to put all those grass clippings to good use rather than just being picked up with the trash.

Answer 4

Let's see, $4 per gallon to haul it 12 miles.  Car gets 24 mpg.  So cost is $2 plus my time so that you can make 50 cents worth of fuel.

Answer 5

They can come pick it up.  If they did that they can have it for nothing.  If they can't make enough fuel to pick up raw material it is not worth doing.

Answer 6

why not use it yourself? yard refuse is not only an awesome fertilizer, but can be use to create methane when used on a large scale. Besides, yard waste is a smorgesborg to earthworms . In reality earthworms are vital to our existance. Every ounce of soil on the face of the earth has gone through a worms stomach. Earthworms are the only creature that can eat radioactive waste and pass it through as pure 100% topsoil. Thats why in some places like Japan they buy worms by the millions to put in their landfills.

Answer 7

Why would I? I would do what everyone would do, put it by the curb and they can pick it up on scheduled days just like trash.

Answer 8

Yes

Answer 9

I answered on your multiply page, and then read your comment that you wanted us to reply here!  So, I wrote...

Oh, that's a difficult one, because I pride myself on having a huge compost pile!

Answer 10

Well, I would haul it, even for free.  But I heard the ethanol isn't really as good for the environment or cars as they originally thought (?!).