WENATCHEE, Wash. — Instead of fueling his truck at the gas
station, Tim Bombaci is getting his fuel from his neighbors. His
neighbors who own orchards, that is.

Over the past year, the middle school teacher from Manson
developed and tested his own method of making ethanol out of apples
that were slated for burial.

Using a wood splitter, a washing machine and a still, Bombaci
produced enough ethanol in his backyard to drive his 1990 Ford
pickup in Manson’s Apple Blossom Parade in May.

His goal now is to fuel the truck entirely with ethanol for a
full year – or about 2,000 miles that he usually puts on the rig he
uses as a farm truck. He also plans to enter it in Wenatchee’s
Apple Blossom Parade next year, as well as Manson’s.

Bombaci said his first tank of gas cost him about $200 a gallon
— because of all the equipment he bought to make it. But now that
he has all the machines and hoses and five-gallon buckets that he
needs, all it takes to make his own fuel is a free bin of apples, a
couple of cups of yeast, and enough electricity to keep a hot water
heater going for a week.

That, plus about four hours of time gets him four gallons of
pure, apple-grade ethanol.

It all started a few years ago, when Bombaci and a few friends
were sitting around trying to figure out a use for all those
cherries going to waste in orchards around Manson. There was a glut
on the market, and some growers weren’t even picking them.

They talked about turning the wasted fruit into ethanol, which
appealed to Bombaci on a few different levels. “There’s all kinds
of reasons that this makes sense,” he said.

First, it creates a use for cherries, apple culls or other fruit
that orchardists and packing houses can’t use. Eventually, if
enough people want it, there would be a market for this waste, he
said.

Second, compared to gasoline, ethanol releases very little
carbon dioxide, so using it helps reduce greenhouse gases.

And third, the process is simple enough that anyone with a few
thousand dollars to invest — or a few simple household machines —
can do it.

“I was initially trying to make it so anybody anywhere in the
world could do this,” he said. That’s why he used a wood chipper
and a washing machine.

Bombaci said serving on a statewide committee that set standards
for environmental education two years ago helped inspire him to
actually follow through on the idea of turning orchard waste into
fuel.

“I think that geared my thinking toward sustainability,” he
said. “It made me think about interacting with my world, and
thinking locally.”