Sweden have come up with a, shall we say, interesting way to turn their rabbit problem to their advantage. Some 3000 bunnies have been culled this year in a move to rid the country of the plague of wild and stray pets which destroy parks and generally cause a nuisance. And in true waste not want not style, the bodies are shipped off to Konvex, part of the Danish company Daka Biodiesel, which makes car and heating fuels from vegetable and animal oils and fats.It doesn’t just use rabbits, but also makes use of dead cats, cows, deer and horses.
Now on one hand, its a frugal idea which does make sense. For example, in Sweden, slaughterhouse leftover are turned into biogas, which is a methane based fuel used to power taxicabs. And Sweden aren’t alone in their use of biofuel- in tAmerica, companies ConocoPhillips and Tyson make biofuel from pork and chicken fat, which would otherwise have been put into pet food or turned into cosmetics or soaps.
Maybe it’s just putting the cute little rabbit face on things that makes it seem less reasonable…
With the commonly spouted speeches about how we’re running out of fossil fuels, biofuel is one of the next steps for powering, well, pretty much everything in the future. So give it time and your car could be running on cats, your electricity converted from eels and your heating from… well, what begins with h? Just hope the cemeteries don’t become over crowded too soon…
What’s your opinion on the biofuel of the future? a good, sustainable resource? Or slightly too sick for you to support? Discussion as always encouraged in the comments.
Image credit- Nick Coombe