Session Description: Hear from the winners of the 2004 SWANA Gold Award about their pioneering symbiotic composting/biodiesel production model. Faced with the problem of how to reach 50% diversion and what to do with all that tropical foliage (green waste =30%), wastewater treatment sludge (bio-solids), and fats oils and grease (FOG), in 1993 the County of Maui embarked upon creating the first co-composting facility in the State of Hawaii. Learn in this eSession what it took to turn a huge liability into an environmental and (surprise!) financial asset for this island community with a de facto population of 150,000.

You will discover insider tips on how to establish a similar system for your community and how to avoid the pit-falls. If your community already has co-composting, join us for the incredible adventure story of “Bio-Solids in Paradise” and learn how to add on a biodiesel facility. This web seminar will provide an understanding of the benefits of multi-feedstock technology and how it has benefited America’s oldest biodiesel business. It will teach about the challenges of producing renewable fuel from waste oils and the advances in separation and processing systems for trap grease. New technologies covered will include: automated GT separation, FOG screening tubes and a research project exploring the co-digestion of aqueous phase waste trap grease with distilled glycerin.

The partnership of Pacific Biodiesel and Maui EKO Compost was truly a groundbreaking approach to landfill diversion. Pacific Biodiesel started its local biodiesel processing facility as a recycling project in 1996 at the Central Maui Landfill and has become the country’s foremost authority on community-based biodiesel production.