From waste to warmth: Inuvik pilot project plugging away at purpose for used cardboard

A pilot project that could turn Inuvik's cardboard problem into a source of heat is ready to ramp up — after recently getting back some good test results.

Patrick Gall, a research technician at the Aurora Research Institute, has been studying how to turn waste cardboard into pellets that can be burned in wood pellet stoves and boilers since 2017. 

If successful, it could create local jobs, reduce some greenhouse gas emissions and save precious landfill space — which is where cardboard in Inuvik ends up. Gall said it's too far to ship cardboard south for recycling.

At least one local business manager is enthusiastic about his project.

"We have so much cardboard waste," lamented Shyla Traer, a manager at Bob's Welding. Everyday, Traer said, the shelves are restocked with products shipped north in boxes. 

"If there was something we could do to recycle them that would be great. I mean, it's better than it going into the landfill, right?"

But the project isn't being implemented widely yet. 

In order to burn cardboard pellets safely, they need to be mixed with wood pellets. Gall said that's because cardboard has a lot of "extra goodies" in it from the manufacturing process that you wouldn't find in wood pellets. And those extras can build up in a pellet stove's combustion chamber.

It's also one of the reasons why burning cardboard makes more ash, he said.

In December, Gall said he received the results of a combustion study that confirmed what he'd expected — burning a mixture that contains five- to 10-per cent cardboard pellets is best. The results may have been unsurprising, said Gall, but they were also a relief. 

"We validated the product … so now it's time to ramp up production," he said. 

Cost

There are a lot of things that need to come together, in order for burning cardboard pellets to be economically viable in Inuvik — or anywhere else.

Gall said the cost of the small pellet mill — about $90,000 plus $10,000 for electrical upgrades — is a "sunk cost" he hopes others can find funding for, if they're interested in buying a mill of their own. 

Although he's driven around Inuvik to collect cardboard for the pilot, Gall said it wouldn't be cost effective to hire someone to do that job in the future. The system would require partnerships, such as with grocery stores or a municipal dump, where it can get cardboard in bulk. 

Gall said those partnerships will help keep the cost of cardboard pellets comparable to wood pellets. And, he said, the Aurora Research Institute is going to need to establish some of those connections to source the 450 kilograms of cardboard needed per day to ramp up pellet production later this year.

"At the moment, we've run the pellet mill for maybe two to three hours at a time," he said. "It would be great to have a week of eight-hour days to really see how quickly we can get into the groove."

What's next

The next step is to ramp up production of cardboard pellets, to see how the pellet mill performs. But Gall said the project is "stalled a little bit" because the Aurora Research Institute's capacity is being used elsewhere.

"We've been successful with other projects perhaps too much and that means they've soaked up a lot of personnel time at the moment," he said. 

He's hopeful in late summer he'll be able to revisit the project, find new funding, train more people to use the mill, and to get it up and running for a longer period of time. 

Gall is also hopeful that someone else — a business, a municipality, or even a grocery store — will take up a similar project in another community.