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AUSTIN, Texas – World leaders are desperate to find solutions to save the earth. The latest climate change report from the United Nations renewed these efforts. Austin, Texas is at the forefront of this conversation.
The city’s goal is to be waste-free by 2040. To achieve this goal, the city guides organized a competition for sustainable small businesses. The creators of Locoal Charcoal are the winners. Co-founder Petey Peterson sounds more like a scientist than a business owner.
“It goes through a process called paralysis that releases sinus gas,” Peterson said.
Locoal Charcoal picks up commercial wood waste and then recycles it to produce clean energy. They then use this waste to produce biochar that filters the soil and water.
“Our first proprietary Rainmaker system, which is a waste-to-energy carburetor,” he said.
Even if most of us have no idea what he’s saying, you don’t need a translator to hear the passion in his voice.
“500 million pallets end up in our landfills every year and we’re going to take all of that and create clean energy for humanity,” he said.
And “passion” is the word to describe all team members of this sustainable start-up.
“We’re filtering the gas so cleanly that it can power existing commercial natural gas engines,” said CEO Miles Murray.
“I have always wanted and been passionate about renewable resources and what we can to protect and restore the environment,” said engineer Garrett Gordon. “We have to put the solution in the trash instead of putting the waste in the solution.”
The company is building a mobile garbage disposal system that doesn’t just dispose of garbage. It turns old wood into new energy and profitable products, which is why it is perhaps called the green piggy bank.
“A pallet to be recycled costs about $ 5, we can turn a $ 5 pallet into $ 13,” said Murray.
The reason the Rainmaker won over the city guides at the Austin Circular Economy Showcase is because of how it can solve some of the planet’s biggest problems and some of the city’s recent problems like toxic algae.
Biochar can also filter toxic sewage flowing into the area’s waterways, creating toxic algae that have killed seven dogs in the Austin area since 2019. Veronica Briseño, Austin city’s chief economic recovery officer, says the idea is not only good for the earth, but also a great boost for the economy.
“We conducted an economic impact study in 2020 and found that circular companies support more than $ 1 billion in our local economies and support over 6,300 jobs,” she said.
Local charcoal has already created jobs in central Texas. COO Joshua Rasey was a chef not long ago until he lost his kitchen to the pandemic.
“I had no idea what biochar was,” said Rasey.
The only impact that wasn’t in the business model was bringing old friends back together.
“He called me to hang out and tossed it to me, and I said I’m in,” said Timothy Parkison, welder and manufacturer for the company. “Now it’s more than a reunion, it’s uh, haha, we’re definitely committed.”
Like Parkison, most of the team are veterans who have all served in the Army together.
“We said, hey, instead of going to war abroad, how about we go to war on climate change now,” said Murray.
Now this platoon of soldiers takes up a different kind of fight to save the earth. Locoal Charcoal beat nine other innovative entrepreneurs and won a grand prize of $ 3,000.
Peterson says they have a few products on the market right now, but the team found at least 55 uses for biochar. He says the Rainmaker machine should be ready in the next few months.
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