food scraps = energy in Malmo: the food grinder

it's 6.30pm and you just arrived home from work.  it's time to make dinner.  it is a simple meal.  pasta with veggies and sauce.  you pull out the cutting board and your favorite knife.  you scrub all of the terrible pesticides and toxins off your vegetables, hoping that this shiny red pepper is not the one that puts one nano gram too much of whatever you don't want in your body.  you chop and cut and chop and suddenly you are sauteing it all in a pan.  the water is boiling for the pasta and voila! you have dinner.  it's delicious, by the way.

cleanup in this kitchen is almost as easy as making the mess.  you finished the pasta sauce so you splash some water around in the jar and dump it down the drain.  you open the door under the sink and deposit the jar into the clear glass recycling bin.  the scraps of vegetables go into the food grinder (what we used to call the garbage disposal).  you splash a little water on the plates and silverware and put it all in the dishwasher.  you always win the clean plate award so there are no scraps on the plate, but if there were any scraps or anything else that could be ground in the food grinder, you'd dump them into the sink and wash them "away" as well.

kitchen sink in the apartment.  pretty "normal" looking.  the silver button on the upper left turns on the food grinder.

then the magic starts.  you turn on the water and press the little silver button.  a loud gurgling sound emits from inside the sink drain, gradually getting more uniform and higher pitched.  when the last of the food remnants are gone, you press the silver button again and it's done.  your "wasted" food is on it's way to becoming energy.

it's a titan.  food grinder.

a separate piping system takes the water and ground food waste to a nearby storage tank.  it's surprisingly simple.  sedimentation allows the liquid to skim off the top inside the tank and join the rest of the waste water on it's way to a treatment plant in the harbor.  what settles at the bottom of the tank is pumped away to a nearby plant where they tank it all back together in a specific method that turns this "waste" into something called biogas.

pipes from both sink drains joining to go separately out of the building to a sediment and storage tank where the food waste separates and is pumped offsite for transformation from food waste to biogas

biogas, as you can imagine, is just like other gases that you know.  it can be burned like natural gas to heat your home boiler or hot water.  it can be refined into fuel to power your car.  it is basically like oil except we didn't have to dig for it or destroy anything like forests or water supplies or the environment to get it.  it is a natural byproduct of human consumption.  oh, and in case you are wondering (which I am sure you are) it is:

• "clean" (meaning that the stuff that goes into the food grinder is food, not plastic or other undesirable items that dilute or destroy the biogas process)
• hygienic for the inhabitant (what you put into the grinder is what you have already touched)
• natural (no cleaning products, chemicals, or other stuff needs to be added)
• simple (press a button and it's done)
• cleaner burning (biogas is much lower emission and cleaner burning than many other fuels, especially oil based fuels such as gasoline and diesel)

if you are looking for an alternative to oil to power cars, buses, and other transportation, biogas could be a very successful option.  we've all seen how much food goes down the drain (which is, in itself, an area that needs some improvement).  the city of Malmo is making great strides to use food waste to produce energy and hopes to have the entire city bus fleet on biogas within ten years.  there is also a campaign to collect compost style food waste in all neighborhoods of the city as well as using the new grinder method.

want more info?
a company called vasyd is a main stakeholder in this process.  their (vasyd) website is also very informative (and has english translations).  I met with Mimmi Bissmont from the vasyd Malmo office.  she was extremely helpful and supportive.  thanks Mimmi!  her work focuses on connecting action, behavior, and sustainable efforts.  for more info on improved use of energy through behavior, check out this post on the psychology of energy reduction or this post about energy reduction through feedback loops.

rush hour in Malmo

rush hour in Malmo is like rush hour anywhere else; many people have completed a hard days work and are excited to get home to see their families, loved ones, eat a nice meal, maybe even sit like a vegetable in front of the television watching the evening news or another in the endless stream of reality tv shows.

Malmo, like most other cities, has a city center, other popular destinations for business and social life, and shops, restaurants, and bars downtown.  there are tourist attractions (although the town itself is not specifically touristy) such as city squares, churches, a cathedral, old buildings, a giant park, a beautiful library, and much more.  the city bustles with activity in these downtown areas throughout the day, and in certain areas, throughout the evening.

like most cities, these central and downtown areas are higher rent and typically geared toward wealthier people or visitors.  a vast majority of the people who work or spend time in the heart of the city live somewhere else, somewhere further afield in the city or even in the suburbs.  Boston, with approximately 600,000 people in the city proper, receives about 300,000 commuters each day.  Malmo is much the same.  about 60,000 people commute into the city of 300,000 people and another 30,000 commute out (most commonly to Copenhagen over the Oresund Bridge via train).  as one would expect, the commuters take typical means to get into and out of the city, including buses, cars, and trains.

there is no metro in Malmo as there is in a larger city such as Boston or Copenhagen, but what Malmo does have moreso than either of those much larger cities is bike lanes.  the dedicated bike lanes are everywhere throughout the city center and into the suburbs.  I have never (even in Copenhagen) seen so many well constructed, thoughtful, easily navigable, dedicated bikes lanes.  so the other night around 17.30 I stopped at an intersection to the south of the city center and filmed a couple of minutes of rush hour.

the traffic signals seemed to be on about a 1:15 cycle alternating between perpendicular (the minor street) and parallel (the major street).  I stood on a corner in front of a subway (restaurant) and filmed for one light cycle at a time.  these videos represent what I would call a typical, fair weather, rush hour, light cycle at a populated/ popular intersection.

malmö train station: a trifecta of goodness (& free wifi)!

woke up on norwegian air flight somewhere over the alps.  first thing I saw out the window of the plane was a wind farm with at least 20 turbines just sitting in a wheat field.  within about 10 minutes I must have seen over a thousand turbines, mostly in fields that looked to be farmland.  it looks like these people know something.  

40 wind turbines in Danish farmland.  It seems even during a bad year with the crops the wind still blows.

paid 25 danish kroner for a 33cl coke.  free internet on a plane.  norwegian is the first company in europe to do it.  tried to log onto the internet with limited success.  downloaded pictures off the camera.  emailed anne but couldn’t email tamara because the connection was too weak for gmail.  evil 1, good 0.  

another array of wind turbines.  saw these on the descent into Copenhagen.  They are probably in the Oresund Strait.

still need to read that email from tamara but need internet.  saw a wifi hotspot sign.  followed the instructions but did not receive the email activation quickly.  got impatient.  followed signs for the bathroom.  airport seems very crowded.  found the signs and went down three flights of stairs.  secret underground lair bathroom.  each stall had tiled walls.  privacy.  but no sign of ventilation except a crack of light coming under the door.  sounds carry almost the same as hung partitions but maybe its better.  dual flush toilets must be standard here.  they had a little symbol on the top with a half full circle and a full circle.  even their signage is thoughtful.  

went to the exchange place looking to get rid of some traveler's checks.  turns out traveler's checks are pretty much useless in italy or maybe anywhere.  exchange place seemed to be working until I mentioned travellers checks.  she told me to go to amex to exchange them.  waited in an unnecessarily long line at amex.  there were three people on computers right in front of us.  each of the first two had a sign on the counter that said “the agent in the next window will be happy to help you.  nice.  why don’t they just say 'I am busy doing something that makes my company more money than exchanging your weak dollar for our strong danish kroner.  plus I am better looking than you.'?

when it was finally my turn she got three phone calls in a row. two of which she handed to her buddy who was magically taking human customers all of the sudden.  she took the travellers checks and had to make another phone call supposedly to verify something.  then she entered a whole bunch of numbers into the phone.  standard procedure?  standard.  for the record, danish kroner and swedish kroner look almost identical. she tells me to look carefully because at the bottom of danish kroner it says "danish" and at the bottom of the swedish kroner it says nothing.

Danish kroner, swedish kroner, and swedish coins.  exchange rate for swedish is about 6.5 sek to $1.

eventually I had danish kroner and swedish kroner in my hands and moved back to finding the internet.  turns out you have to actually wait a few minutes for the email to come through.  no patience because I needed to get my bag off the conveyor.  followed signs to baggage.  mine was on a conveyor belt that was empty and not moving.  no surprise.  wifi plus bathroom plus amex could have been 45 minutes.

next mission: buy a ticket to malmo.  line was obviously long and a guy at the front was hassling the woman speaking into the microphone about his invalid ticket.  she tells him to see the station master and that there’s nothing she can do.  steff’s place, the hot dog stand sells beer too... plus I have danish money.  gotta stop there... gotta get to malmo...  I like her british accent.

train arrives almost instantaneously.  smooth as silk.  yes this is the train to malmo.  once on the train the first person I see has a celeste blue bianchi, circa 1995.  his is not made of Reynolds and the badge is a sticker not a metal emblem.  we talk for a few minutes about biking.  I ask him for a good shop in town.  he recommends fridhem near riversborg beach.  gotta check that place out.  I ask a young woman which stop to get off at to get to vastra hamnen.  she doesn’t know but three other helpful people know and one even tells me bus #2 gets me from the train station to vastra hamnen.  she’s speaking spanish to her son and another man.

train stops are smooth and quick.  people are orderly and polite.  2 minutes, four minutes, twelve minutes to Lund from Malmo Center.  fast.  arriving at Malmo Center another helpful person tells me the buses are straight ahead.  maybe people want to practice their english?  entering the train station I notice the beautiful shape of the roof.  timbers painted red and bent to a perfect arch.  bolted together.  must be fifty feet high.  

I pass by the swedish hot dog spot and the american food place with hamburgers and french fries.  I see the sushi place and several different versions of a cafe and a coffee shop as well as a smoothie store.  I get to a shop that looks like heaven.  a young blond woman is pulling little open faced sandwiches from under a glass counter and adjusting them onto a little rectangular plate that fits three perfectly.  she makes a plate of pickled herring, salmon, and pate.  the world’s most perfect plate.  each more delectable than the last.  she serves it to two older folks at bar stools who order two carlsbergs as liquid compliment.  it is here that I decide to ask about internet in malmo.  the girl does not quite understand but the other woman working at the shop who looks like she could be the mother of the younger waitress tells me in perfect english that there is free wireless in the train station.  tack.  

the trifecta of swedish goodness (I came to find out later that these little delectable sandies are actually Danish in origin.  still delicious though

I move away from the counter to test the internet.  within minutes I am signed up on the free cloud and ready for lunch.  The trifecta of swedish goodness is mine along with a swedish beer.  I set up shop at the corner of the counter and click through an email to tamara explaining that I have arrived a day early and asking to add one night to my reservation of three weeks at her apartment in Vastra Hamnen, the western harbor.

while I await a response I charge my iphone, which is also on the internet thanks to the wifi.  no charges as long as I keep it on airplane mode and do not activate the phone portion which would allow calls and texts.  I google tipping practices in sweden and find out that food and drinks are usually tipped by rounding up and everything else including services receives no extra compensation.  when I pay I round up from 95 to 100 swedish kroner, about $16 I think.  not the cheapest but certainly the best meal I have ever had in a train station.

still no response from tamara so I guess I need to go to the bar in the train station to watch Man U versus South Hampton.  drinking a falcon on tap for a whopping 80 kroner I watch Man U getting picked apart by a clearly inferior South Hampton squad.  the game goes up and down and I become friends with a local guy from malmo sitting next to me.  he’s clearly rooting for Man U so I do the same.  after an obvious foul in the box, newly acquired Van Persie needs only to slide a penalty past the outclassed South Hampton goalkeeper to tie the game at two, but he tries the old slight chip and in a twist the goalie pops up his outstretched hand for an amazing save.  they’re still in the game with a one goal lead and only 20 minutes left.  you know your team is amazing when Nani is a bench player.  he comes on and eventually Van Persie scores two more for the hat trick and the win, the clincher 3.45 into 4 minutes of extra time.

of course the first bar I come to in Malmo is Boston themed.  even has a young Menino autograph on the wall.

now that the game is over, I have another beer with my new friend, Robin.  he’s studying to be a teacher at the local university.  he laughs when I call it that.  everyone here calls it the college.  we talk about sustainability, the growth and evolution of malmo as a city, and how education plays a role in development of children's views on sustainable living.  quite an interesting conversation for a couple of sports nuts at a bar drinking falcons on tap.

Tamara sends me a text and tells me to come over after 8pm when she gets home, so I finish my beer and look around for a ticket booth.  I see a machine and a guy feeding money into it.  he explains that I need to buy a jojo card (their version of a charlie card).  the bus stops in this town are state of the art, complete with digital signs that announce the next bus.  mine is the number 2 and goes to what was once the shipbuilding capitol of Europe.

bus station outside train station.  digital announcement for bus arrival times.

I get off the bus and walk a couple hundred meters in the direction I think I need to go and arrive at what seems like the end of the earth in terms of urbanity.  the wind is blowing fiercely and the street abruptly ends by turning from pavement into gravel.  there are no more street lights.  ahead of me and on both sides there are construction vehicles parked for the night and several pretty solid configurations of shipping container job site "trailers".  I'm standing in front of a building on Riggaregatan in Vastra Hamnen.  maybe I am at the end... or maybe its just the beginning...

looking back toward the turning torso in Vastra Hamnen from the end of my street.