The “Muncher” that means to clean up the world
By Jonathan Atchley
This is the story of the little machine that could. A machine that could change the world from a globally unfriendly and hazardous dumping ground to a healthy and rich bounty of resources, simply by utilizing what we are currently throwing away as refuse. The little machine exists, designed, patented, built and distributed by Ecologico-Logic, Inc., an American company based in Nevada. Along with the prototype Muncher’s big brother, rendered in this concept photo of a full sized, 50 ton daily, processing system, and other models in the works, here is a family of solutions for our global family’s struggle to manage its own growing piles of refuse.
And oh! How these trash piles grow, consuming precious land with waste that is ugly, increasingly toxic and financially burdensome to local communities in every country on earth. To say that society is aware of the problem and threat is an understatement. Consider CNBC’s publicly aired program, “Trash Inc: The Secret Life of Garbage” (still available at http://www.cnbc.com/id/38830389/). This one-hour documentary on the $50 billion-a-year trash industry traces where trash goes (to the local dump). It also comments on the obvious: how the concept of refuse removal has changed to mean that garbage is not traveling as far away from us as it used to - winding up in landfills that are, as the press materials state, "sophisticated, environmentally regulated and expensive trash management systems."
If you’d prefer a more artistic take on world-wide problem of waste, check out “Waste Land,” a fascinating documentary released in 2010 and nominated for an Oscar (reviewed on www.imdb.com). It features the world’s largest dump just outside of Rio de Janeiro, and tells about the gargantuan piles of waste with which Brazilian trash pickers (self-styled “recyclers”) contend. One reviewer noted “…scenes of the trucks dumping loads of trash into the landfill's ever-expanding ocean of debris have an almost visceral effect, as you begin to start imagining what the place has to smell like. Yet even in this alien landscape, Waste Land shows that beauty is never outside the reach of people who never stop believing in themselves." The point here is that burgeoning piles of trash are on our social radar and conscience.
The question remains: What are we doing about it?
Currently, there are two systems for dealing with the problem of waste management. That is, if we want to reclaim what is currently waste. There is the ugly alternative of simply allowing waste management companies to pile up our refuse in landfills until our communities are slowly swallowed into similar Waste Lands.
One method, decades-old, though highly toxic and replete with intrinsic dangers, is “anaeroebic digestion,” an accelerated decomposition of trash in a user-unfriendly environment. Anaerobic digestion is a naturally occurring biological process that breaks down organic material with microbes without the use of oxygen. A 2005 study (for Sacramento, California) regarding the feasibility of producing green energy with anaerobic processes acknowledges that “anaerobic digestion has been used to treat sewage sludge, animal wastes and industrial wastewater. Only in the past decade, has the technology become a recognized method for processing solid organic waste from residential and commercial sources.” (http://www.nerc.org/documents/sacramento_feasibility_study.pdf)
There are drawbacks to working without oxygen: anaerobic digestion produces volatile solids and toxic gases that pollute the environment with hydrogen sulfate, sulfur dioxide, methane, and other environmentally dangerous by-products. Even now, communities are carefully weighing the benefits of burning poisonous methane (a short chain hydrocarbon, and longer chain hydrocarbons are gasoline or even tar) to obtain steam and electric power, or just truck refuse to the nearest landfill. Another drawback is the time it takes for the anaerobic process to work: waste from an anaerobic digestion must be further composted for a minimum of two months after it is removed from the digester.
Toxic by-products or pile up trash? What we are finding out is that landfills are a looming legacy fast becoming an indigestible problem. The last available landfill in San Gabriel Valley is closing in two years; by 2013, with other metropolitan areas almost certainly to follow. Where will we stockpile the millions of tons of trash annually produced? Suggestions are that we have trains move it to New Mexico or Nevada or Utah, where, eventually those communities will have to deal with the same problem we are facing. What happens when we run out of usable space? Some are seriously suggesting we send our trash to the moon!
There is another alternative system for dealing with the challenges of waste management: the Muncher.
Mohammed “Moe” Memon, COO (and CFO) of Ecologico-Logic, Inc., is uniquely qualified as leader of a team with specialized expertise to remediate waste with an unique aerobic process, designed practically to turn trash into gold (reusable, environmentally friendly commodities). Memon has been working for over a dozen years on the science and mechanics of putting waste and refuse back into the system, rather than stockpile it for hundreds of years, as society seems content with allowing.
With his father, Abdul Memon, CEO of Ecologico-Logic, Inc., Moe began seriously working on this project with the untimely death of his mother from cancer, suspected to have been caused by an overabundance of toxic agricultural compounds used where she lived. As a means to an end, Moe wanted to find a way to replace harmful pesticides and dangerous compounds; as an end in itself, he wanted to save lives.
A self-described outdoor person and mountaineer who loves nature, Moe belongs to a group of artisans called the Society of Creative Anachronism. They craft their own realistic medieval armor and weaponry, from swords to crossbows, and stage battles, largely for their own entertainment and edification. Adept at welding, design and construction of metals, and steeped in studies of chemical processes like denitrification, that can break down toxic substances into safe and reusable ones, father and son worked on a prototype with various materials, water and physical waste.
“Basically, the Muncher is a waste-processing system employing mechanical, natural biological and chemical methods that breaks down organic materials and many inorganic materials, like an accelerating composting system,” Moe says; “it turns them into useful by-products.” He muses on Eddie Cantor’s saying: “It take twenty years to become an overnight success.” “That sounds about right,” Memon stated. “ We employed the scientific method. Many failures led to this success. Like Edison inventing the light bulb.”
Just as ideas and technology slowly fuse, so too did the company that stands behind this ground-breaking technology grow into a unified group. The several inventors and Board of Directors that comprise Ecologico-Logic, Inc. are like-minded, enthusiastic, family-oriented businessmen that now hold patents for their invention.
“The prototype we use in our demonstrations started with various materials: water, physical waste. The current working system is designed to process two to five tons of waste a day. (Its dimensions are eight feet wide by eighteen feet long by ten feet tall.) The photo rendering is not the prototype itself, but a very close representation of what a 50 ton system will look like, in size about 2000 square feet. No toxic or hazardous materials are used or produced in the system,” Memon said.
“Now we take the system out for demonstrations. We’ve done several presentations at various disposal facilities in Southern and Northern California. The general response of the public has been very favorable and impressed.” Moe chuckles affably: “Now we are waiting for someone to cross that final stage, sign on the dotted line and write that check.”
But this is a story not just about how a machine that can clean the environment is built; it also has to do with how it is brought to market. “Everyone wants to be green,” Moe notes. “But how realistic is the cost efficiency? And not just efficient, but financially feasible? Imagine going to a business and telling them we will make them green while adding to their costs by 30%-- that just isn’t viable. Who can afford that? Instead, we offer a great, green and environmentally friendly machine that generates revenue, without increasing cost. Every pertinent business is going to want one.”
As for the machine, it promises to be the answer to so many pressing modern day problems having to do with the ecology, global thermal trends and renewable sources of energy and increased food production—all from ordinary trash that already crowds our landfills--without a toxic whiff or hint of unwanted end-user byproducts, which the company calls “commodities.”
“Do we throw away our trash or start using it for something beneficial?” That is Moe Memon’s challenge to the public at large, and one that Ecologico-Logic, Inc. has wrestled with for years.
