[TheForge] eco coke

[Andrew Vida]

dann at wctatel.net wrote:

> The Eco Coke idea comes from a German guys patent for making charcoal fuel
> in developing contries.. ( 3rd world  countries) where they like to cook
> with charcoal and are destroying their forests making it.  So saving 75%
> of the wood in the process of making an environmentally cleaner charcoal
> isn't to be sniffed at.

Except for the fact that those poeple probably cannot afford to buy the 
manufactured fuel. :(
> 
> Some charcoal makers harvest  their wood from the forests of broken pallets.

Better than going to a landfill, I suppose.

> As I dug deeper into this yesterday,  I found that one noted  university
> critic,  questioned the economics of  ECO COKE as a soil additive, 
> basically said that old fashioned composting used less energy, and
> produced a higher value soil additive.

This is the problem with much and perhaps very much most of this green 
nonsense.  The economics of it, and I am not speaking in solely 
financial terms here, make no sense.  If what you assert abou tits 
purpose is so, it raises the question of "why?"  Good compost makes 
itself, costing nothing but time and maybe a few earthworms tossed in if 
your local soil is particularly poor.  In this respect it sounds like a 
solution in search of a problem.