North Carolina launches organics trading website

Oct. 28, 2009, Raleigh, NC
– The North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental
Assistance has launched an online commodity trading website for organic
materials to help expand the development of the biomass economy in North
Carolina. NC BiomassTrader (www.ncbiomasstrader.com) is a free, online waste
exchange for surplus and waste biomass materials such as waste vegetable oil,
restaurant grease, wood waste, manures, food waste, forest products and
byproducts, and agricultural products and byproducts. The trading site is
available to individuals, organizations, and businesses that have biomass
commodities that others need or that are looking for biomass commodities.

NC BiomassTrader is not a
sales tool for commercial ventures to advertise products. It is a platform for
trading valuable materials that may otherwise be discarded, buried in
landfills, discharged to sewers, or otherwise disposed. The website is a
spin-off of the free commodity trading site, NC WasteTrader, and is a joint
project of the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and
Environmental Assistance and the State Energy Office. Over the years, NC
WasteTrader listings have become heavily populated with listings for biomass
materials, so the natural move was to develop a free, online trader
specifically for biomass.

Biomass is becoming an
increasingly important source of alternative fuels and feedstock for
manufacturing and new products. North Carolina is rich in biomass resources,
including resources that are often discarded but may have a value-added use. NC
BiomassTrader is designed to facilitate the development of biomass markets in
North Carolina and increase job creation in the state’s biomass economy. Examples
of products that can be listed in NC BiomassTrader include, but are not limited
to: sawdust, wood chips, and shavings; industrial pallets and crates; waste
vegetable oil and grease; old corrugated cardboard containers and paper waste; surplus
and discarded food items; glycerin and other biodiesel production byproducts.