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Teru Talk News

Teru Talk Newsletter

Volume II, Issue 38, September 17, 2012 
Teru Talk by Michael Theroux (pronounced "Terú")  

Teru's Trash Talk

What is it about "recycling" that enthralls everyone? Simple: it's the Right Thing to DO because it is just stupid to keep throwing resources into a hole in the ground, and then paying to keep them there. But what really IS Recycling? By Law, to actually accomplish Recycling, you have to complete the job by Reprocessing the raw stuff you've pulled out of the trash, making it market-ready again. Is that what really happens? Somebody does pull the Recyclables out of the trash, and somebody does sell it to somebody else … and then those responsible for watching lose track of it.

This week, California's favorite Recycling promoter CalRecycle will hold meetings to discuss these things with Stakeholders (that's us); open, public meetings that you really should notice if this Business of Recycling seems to make less sense than it should. Since AB 341 passed with its Mandatory Commercial Recycling dictum, anyone trying to do Business in this great state must do something about "setting up recycling" of the wastes they generate. CalRecycle must come up with a Plan to implement the law, and for the time being, we all can still weigh in with our thoughts. CalRecycle's Wednesday morning meeting will go over the comments received so far, and address this issue of "measurement": what to measure, when to measure, what the numbers might mean. Whether or not an agency so dead-set on promoting Recycling will see fit to require transparency of those being paid to do the job, whether we'll know where the recyclable stuff gets shipped off to or not, remains to be seen. Maybe we can chat about that, come Wednesday morning.

Then, Wednesday afternoon we get to think about two other AB 341 and Recycling related issues: what performance standards should the pick-apart stations, those "materials recovery facilities" (MRF) be held to, and what can we do with all those "post recycling residuals" that are left, after the MRF owner has grabbed anything of immediate value off the conveyor belts? The Governor told CalRecycle recently he wants to promote a "technology-neutral, feedstock-driven" policy for the conversion of waste into things of value. Right. Just how far do you think that will get with the pre-determined negative attitude of Certain People that run CalRecycle toward anything that "operates above body temperature"? I guess we'll get a chance to discuss that interesting quandary Wednesday, also.

Hey Rube!

California's Governor is very busy right now working on a mountain of bills on his desk. I'm sure all of those bills are very important to Somebody, or they wouldn't have gotten as far as they have. One in particular, SB 1122, is rather crucial to the Waste Conversion effort; it sets aside $250 million a year for Renewable Energy, including around $9 million a year for biomass projects. It also makes a special point to support smaller, community-scale development projects. Think: convert your own Business Organics into energy to meet AB 341's "gotta recycle" mandate. Within the next few days, Senator Rubio's SB 1122 will be ready for the Gubernatorial Go-Ahead (or not). Believe me; letters of support for a bill can make a difference if the Governor doesn't see any real support for a particular issue, why should HE care about it? We've dropped our own Letter of Support on his desk and copied a buncha Governmental VIPs that need to know we care. You can, too. Check out our SB 1122 Support Letter, maybe use it as a template and write a quick note to Governor Brown. Soon. Like, today. If you want to keep it simple, just go to the Governor's comment page, choose SB01122 from the subject menu, and  let him know what you think.

The Week's News

CalRecycle Hosts 3rd Workshop on AB 341 - Mandatory Commercial Recycling

The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) notice for the third AB 341 workshop now includes a brief agenda in the Documents section. 09/15/2012

Deinove Successful in One-Step Cellulosic Biomass Fermentation to Bioethanol

French microbial research and development firm Deinove has announced success in developing its Deinococcus bacterial strain as an "all-in-one" bacterial factory for one-step digestion of cellulosic feedstock and fermentation to bioethanol, without addition of enzymes or other catalysts. 09/15/2012

Joule Commissions First SunSprings Demo Plant Converting CO2 to Biofuels

Massachusetts based Joule Unlimited has announced full commissioning of its first commercial-scale demonstration facility in Hobbs, New Mexico. 09/14/2012

WRAP Releases Development Guidance for Energy from Waste Facilities

The United Kingdom's Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has announced the release of a suite of inter-related guidelines for project developers and municipalities considering projects for recovery of energy from waste (EfW). 09/14/2012

Diageo Partners with Bullfrog to Run Manitoba Plant on Landfill Biomethane

United Kingdom based producer of wine, spirits, and beer Diageo has announced it will replace natural gas with landfill sourced biomethane to run its Crown Royal distillery in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada. 09/14/2012

New Scottish Plastics Loan Fund to Support Mixed Plastics Recycling

Zero Waste Scotland has announced the availability of the new Scottish Plastics Loan Fund (SPLF), which has £2.5 million available to support the development of new mixed plastics recycling and remanufacturing capacity in Scotland. 09/14/2012

Biojet Partners with Tribes on $3B Multiple Biorefineries Development Project

California based Biojet International and the 57 Tribal member organization Council on Energy Resource Tribes (CERT) has announced a long term development agreement between CERT, Biojet, and the Indian-held firm Tartoosh Environmental for development of a series of biorefinery / bioenergy projects on Native American lands. 09/14/2012

CalRecycle Meetings Next Week Will Address Crucial Waste Conversion Issues

The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) will host two September meetings that include important waste conversion issues. 09/13/2012

GESI Completes Study of Waste Wood Conversion to Energy in Alberta

Canadian waste conversion company Green Energy Solution Industries, Inc. (GESI) has announced receipt of a final payment from the Canadian Government's Albert Energy Biorefining Commercialization and Market Development Program Grant awarded in 2011. 09/13/2012

ZeroPoint and Envirotherm Partner to Build Turn-Key Biomass Power Plants

New York based gasification system company ZeroPoint Clean Tech, Inc has announced a partnership with the German thermal systems engineering firm Envirotherm GmbH, part of the Allied Technologies Group, to build standardized design, turn-key biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plants. 09/13/2012

Nexterra, GE, and UBC Celebrate Biomass Waste to CHP Plant Opening

Vancouver-based Nexterra Systems Corp. has announced the opening of its biomass gasification facility on the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus. 0913/2012

ESA Report: Importance of Overseas Markets to UK Recycling

The Environmental Services Association (ESA) of the United Kingdom (UK) has announced the release of a report entitled, "Overseas options: the importance of exports to UK recycling," which shows how the export of UK-collected recycling to overseas reprocessors has helped the UK achieve a near quadrupling of recycling rates in a decade. 09/10/2012

The Week's Action Items

Due 10/18/2012: Proposals to SJVAPCD for Emission Reduction Projects

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) TAP21-01 for projects demonstrating new and innovative emission reduction technologies through the SJVAPCD’s Technology Advancement Program (TAP). 09/11/2012 

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Featured Events:

SCWMF Annual Conference & Exhibit -
SCWMF Annual
Conference & Exhibit

Pomona, California
November 7, 2012

 2nd Annual Waste Conversion Congress - West Coast
Waste Conversion Congress
West Coast

Long Beach, CA Nov 28-29, 2012

SEE YOUR EVENT HERE!
Recommended Reading:

"Waste-to-Energy, Second Edition: Technologies
and Project Implementation" by Marc J Rogoff and Francois Screve

 Municipal Solid Waste to Energy Conversion Processes: Economic, Technical, and Renewable Comparisons by Gary C Young

"Municipal Solid Waste to Energy Conversion Processes: Economic, Technical, and Renewable Comparisons" by Gary C Young

 

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The Teru Talk Newsletter is published weekly or more or less frequently, primarily depending on what is going on in the world of waste conversion or ours.