Can chocolate byproducts produce an energy boost?

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In the world of interesting energy possibilities from waste products, a test burn at a Portsmouth, N.H., power plant is by far the most creative. The substance to be burned: cocoa bean shells.

Chocolate maker Lindt USA and Public Service of New Hampshire's Schiller Station in Portsmouth had a test run recently, mixing one part cocoa bean to 33 parts coal and burning it to produce electricity in a boiler at the plant.

If it works - and only time will tell - Lindt will start sending the power plant cocoa bean shells from its Stratham facility when it starts producing its own chocolate from raw cocoa beans.

It is believed to be the only cocoa bean-to-energy project in the US chocolate industry.

No ifs, ands, or butts: Stop the cigarette litter The woman in the silver Ford Taurus during rush hour was enjoying a cigarette while her fingers tapped impatiently on the wheel. Suddenly the cigarette butt was unceremoniously tossed out the window. Then she lit another one.

I angled beside her, and asked why she threw the butt out the window. I smiled. I wasn't accusatory.

I was reporting. That's because I really want to know why people who probably wouldn't think of throwing soda bottles or food wrappers on city streets seem to think it's OK with cigarette butts, creating a landscape that can look suspiciously like an ashtray.

According to the litter prevention group Keep America Beautiful, butts are by far the most littered item in America, accounting for 30 percent of the litter collected. The group has a website, www.preventcigarettelitter.org, to help communities fight butt litter.

In Massachusetts, cigarette butts are the number one debris collected in the annual Coastsweep effort, which last year had 3,000 volunteers cleaning 130 miles of coast. A preliminary count shows they got 46,736 butts.

Aesthetics is a strong reason not to toss the butts. But there is an even stronger environmental reason. According to Keep America Beautiful, about 95 percent of cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that does not quickly degrade. And butts can get washed into storm drains, where animals including marine life can mistake them for food.

It's also illegal; you could have your license suspended for up to seven days, according to the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. I never did get an answer from the woman in the Taurus. But I noticed that when she finished that next cigarette it didn't go out the window.