permaculture

[<soilfirst@dojo.tao.ca>]

This (the previous email below) sounds cool.  I used to work for California's 
first institutional worm composting company, Berkeley Worms, which composted 
food waste from University of California dorm kitchens by feeding it to 
worms.  We ran our truck (a dairy feed mixer that we used to mix the compost 
while we drove from site to site) on 20% biodiesil.  I mentioned the ecology 
center earlier. Our recyclign trucks fun on 100% biodiesil-- made from 
soybean oil wastes. We're working on a community biodiesil"gas station" but 
this will take quite some time.  These fuels emit a significantly lower 
portion of particulant pollutants than petrol based feuls.  Plus, you can 
make them at home. 

Those interested should look into the "Veggie Van," too.  I am not an expert 
in Biodiesil, but it is interesting and a damn better alternative than petrol.
There's a gaggle of links on the web, just search for them.  
Tim Krupnik


Invicta, a major bus company in the state of Victoria, Australia, has just
started a trial of canola oil as a substitute for petroleum diesel in its
bus fleet. And here at the University of New South Wales we are in the
process of designing a mobile (to fit on the back of a twin axle trailer)
biodiesel plant to process used cooking oil from the university's food
outlets and to link in with teaching programs in the Chemical Engineering
and Photovoltaic Engineering. The idea of a mobile plant is also to be able
to tour around to schools, events etc to promote the concept.

Cheers, Paul Osmond