Converted Organics just announced that it has received a permit from the MA Department of Environmental Protection for its Sutton, MA food waste processing facility. Like Converted Organic’s facility in Woodbridge, New Jersey, this facility will turn food waste into fertilizer for plants.
In a company press release, Edward J. Gildea, President of Converted Organics, explained the significance of the permit:
“The development of a Converted Organics food waste processing facility in Sutton, Massachusetts is part of the Company’s long-term strategic plan to expand our organic fertilizer business. Receiving this permit from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is a significant milestone, and we look forward to commencing development of a Converted Organics manufacturing site in Sutton.”
Ecuador Seeks $3 Billion for Amazonian Park Carbon Bonds Sale
Stephan Kueffner. Bloomberg. July 9, 2009
July 9 (Bloomberg) — Ecuador is seeking about $3 billion in revenue, almost half earlier government estimates, from selling carbon bonds linked to keeping oil inside an Amazonian national park rather than extract it.
Foreign Minister Fander Falconi wants international buyers to acquire certificates linked to the price of carbon emission permits in European markets in exchange for a pledge never to remove Ecuador’s 950 million barrels of oil in the Ishpingo- Tambacocha-Tiputini field within the Unesco biosphere reserve.
Ecuador said June 17 it was aiming to sell carbon bonds to block oil extraction by petroleum companies from inside Yasuni National Park east of Quito between the Napo and Curaray rivers for as much as $5.2 billion. Ecuador plans to sell credits based on avoiding emissions from oil-burning.
The carbon bonds would be “placed in the market through an international trust that we are currently setting up,” Falconi said yesterday in Quito. He said the Inter-American Development Bank had been consulted and officials may “create it at the Andean Development Corp. to ensure solvency of the trust and so that buyers have a guarantee that the oil won’t be extracted.”
Ecuador President Rafael Correa, who in December defaulted on $3.2 billion in debt, has said if the international community doesn’t help preserve the park, the ITT field will be developed. The field, in the park’s eastern tip, holds more tree species in a hectare (2.5 acres) than occur in all of North America along with almost a fifth of Ecuador’s proven oil reserves.
Keeping the oil underground will avoid releasing 410 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Falconi said. If the government someday decides to extract the oil, it will have to pay back the certificates, plus interest, he added.
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephan Kueffner in Quito at skueffner@bloomberg.net