Cool Idea
Smugglers trying to sneak alcohol into Sweden are unwittingly helping fuel the country's public transport system and reducing its greenhouse emissions.
Almost all of the 700,000 litres of smuggled alcohol seized by the customs service last year was turned into alternative fuel and used to power buses, trucks and a biogas train, officials said Friday.
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Lilliehook said one litre of pure alcohol is enough to make about half a litre of biogas. And it is good business, because the material to make it is free.
Jerlebrink said the customs service was happy to get rid of the smuggled alcohol, which was taking up a lot of space before the biogas program was started a few years ago.
"We pump it into a big tank that we jokingly call 'the giant cocktail' and then a truck just comes and picks it up," she said.
I suppose Canada Customs could make a booming business of this. Trying to get cheap booze across the border is practically a national pastime, or at least it was when I was growing up in Saskatchewan.
If this can be effective on a smaller scale, it would be highly useful here. We have almost ridiculously strict liquor laws, which have the effect of driving a booming bootlegging industry. I’m betting we could power most of the vehicles in the territory this way, and it would be a lot cheaper for the government; not paying for the import of oil and gas and having to heavily subsidize both so people can afford it.
On the other hand, it would also encourage keeping those ridiculously strict liquor laws in place. There’s always has to be trade-offs, doesn’t there?
