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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