Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
46, November 12,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Some time
ago, I watched in
fascination as my 80+ year
young mother carefully
placed a great variety of
materials in that Big Blue
Bin in the driveway by the
back of the house. When I
questioned whether all that
stuff was indeed
recyclable, she looked up
in surprise and replied,
"Well, it SHOULD
be!"
And
that's the truth: if one
member of our community is
done with something, others
should be able to reuse or
reprocess the stuff back
into something useful. The
decisions each of us make
regarding what is, what
isn't, and what SHOULD be
"recyclable" unfortunately
depends on what
instructions we receive by
our haulers, our agencies,
and by Society at Large.
That information tends to
be shoddy at best. We are
misinformed about what CAN
be accomplished. We all
know that our discards go
somewhere, but even
the State doesn't know what
happens once those
segregated goods are sold
to out-of-state, often
out-of-country buyers.
What's pulled from the
trash depends far too much
on what the daily prices
are for foreign materials
brokerage, because of
course we can't have those
"dirty industries" that
actually do the
reprocessing here, where we
live. Not that we don't
know how; we just have
never had to take care of
the reprocessing business
near the source of the
waste generation. Now,
those Jobs are starting to
look a little better; now,
those Resources are getting
a bit more
precious.
There are
plenty of clean
technologies available to
reprocess discards, and
keeping that last step of
Recycling right here at
home also dramatically cuts
the greenhouse gas
emissions when compared to
long-haul diesel, even
trans-oceanic shipment. The
problem is broken Policy,
not a lack of technology.
And if everything is
potentially Recyclable,
then everything should
simply be placed in one bin
and shipped off to those
that sort, clean, treat,
and reprocess. Let's let
the folks that run the
Materials Recovery
Facilities manage Waste
like they are trained and
equipped to do. The people
with the proper gloves and
goggles, sensors and
conveyor belts can sort
everything out, figure out
what can be reused and
recycled. But let's also
focus on what comes next,
what happens to the stuff
that gets pulled off the
line, and the reasons why.
Right now, most of those
left-over resources still
are trundled off to the
Dump.
Hey
Rube!
If you can
get to Los Angeles just after
Thanksgiving, plan to attend
CalRecycle's 2nd MRF workshop
and lend your thoughts to the
more technical side of
California's recycling and
resource recovery. This week's
newsletter provides some nice
resources to get you prepared.
The City of Houston spelled out
its "Total Reuse - One Bin for
All" program and received
serious kudos for the proposal.
Meanwhile, across the Pond, the
United Kingdom's Waste &
Resources Action Programme
(WRAP) has presented a
well-documented case for
measuring and monitoring all
sorts of materials recovery and
recycling centers, finding:
"The single most important type
of data for understanding how
to improve HWRC [their
"Household Waste and Recycling
Centres"] performance relates
to the composition of residual
waste. It is therefore a good
idea to monitor the composition
of residual waste at HWRCs on a
regular basis." What a novel
idea! Wonder why California
doesn't do that? Why don't you
ask
'em?
The
Week's Extra Reading
See Teru's
Focus Report on
AB 341 Lessons Learned (so
far)
,
based on his presentation
at Southern California
Waste Management
Forum'sAnnual Conference
& Exhibit held on
November 7, 2012 in
Pomona. Teru's
presentation at the
afternoon roundtable also
included a
slide show
.
The
Week's News
Praj to
Build $30MM Lignocellulosic
Biofuels Commercial Scale
Demo
India based Praj Industries has
announced that it is developing
a $30 million commercial scale
demonstration biorefinery for
conversion of lignocellulosic
biomass feedstock to ethanol.
11/11/2012
Stoel Rives
Releases Free "Law of
Biorefineries and Advanced
Biofuels"
Guide
Oregon based legal firm Stoel
Rives has announced release of
"The Law of Biorefineries and
Advanced Biofuels", which
covers issues such as early
stage financing, business
models, intellectual property,
regulatory and permitting
requirements, real property
procedures, contracts and
incentives.
11/11/2012
CalRecycle
Hosts 2nd MRF Technical
Workshop in LA on Standards,
Residuals
The California Department of
Resources Recycling and
Recovery (CalRecycle) has
announced that it will host the
second in a series of workshops
on November 26, 2012 at the Los
Angeles County Department of
Public Works Main Building to
explore developing possible
performance standards for
Materials Recovery Facilities
(MRFs).
11/11/2012
Houston
Places in Top 20 of
Bloomberg Philanthropies'
Mayors
Challenge
The City of Houston has
announced its placement among
the top 20 US cities in the
Mayors Challenge, the latest
initiative of Bloomberg
Philanthropies to "spread
proven and promising ideas
among cities."
11/10/2012
Cleantech
Open's 2012 Global Forum
Announces This Year's
Finalists
The Cleantech Open has
announced "category winners"
following last week's Global
Forum held in San Jose,
California.
11/10/2012
WRAP
Releases Household Waste and
Recycling Centre
Guidance
The United Kingdom Waste &
Resources Action Programme
(WRAP) has announced the
release of a new guidance
document focusing on best
management practices in
handling household waste and
recycling centers.
11/10/2012
Covanta
Refinancing Three
Waste-to-Energy Plants with
$335MM in
Bonds
New Jersey based Covanta
Holding Corporation has
announced that it has priced
new tax-exempt bonds totaling
$335 million and are expected
to close later in the month.
11/10/2012
Edeniq and
Aemetis Form Advanced
Biofuels Implementation
Partnership
California based biochemicals
and biofuels specialist Edeniq,
Inc has announced an agreement
with advanced biofuels producer
Aemetis to install Edeniq's
biomass pre-treatment
technologies in Aemetis'
biofuels plant.
11/10/2012
Viridor and
South London Waste
Partnership Sign 25 Year
Contract
Pennon Group Plc has announced
that its subsidiary Viridor
South London Ltd has signed a
25 year waste treatment
agreement with the South London
Waste Partnership.
11/06/2012
BioAmber,
Faurecia-Mitsubishi Chemical
Collaborate for Automotive
Bioplastics
BioAmber, Inc has announced
that it will supply biobased
succinic acid to the
Faurecia-Mitsubishi Chemical
partnership for production of
automotive plastics.
11/06/2012
Campbell
Soup and CH4 Biogas Partner
on Ohio's 1st Biogas Power
Plant
Campbell Soup Company has
announced a partnership with
Florida based CH4 Biogas LLC to
develop Ohio's first commercial
anaerobic digestion (AD)
facility for generation of
methane-rich biogas to
electricity.
11/06/2012
Vision
Plasma Systems Signs
Brazilian Manufacturing
Agreement
Nevada based Vision Plasma
Systems, Inc. has announced
entering into an agreement with
the Mayor of Londrina, in the
State of Parana, Brazil,
promising incentives to develop
a manufacturing facility.
11/05/2012
Renmatix
Signs Russian Biochemical
and Biofuels Development
MOU
Pennsylvania based cellulosic
sugar production company
Renmatix has announced signing
a Memorandum of Understanding
with the Russian State
Corporation "Bank for
Development and Foreign
Economic Affairs"
(Vnesheconombank) and the
venture capital firm Bright
Capital Management.
11/05/2012
SDSU
Researchers Develop Bio-Oil,
Biochar, Activated Carbon
Process
South Dakota State University
(SDSU) researchers in the
Department of Agricultural and
Biosystems Engineering have
used Sun Grant funds to develop
a cost-effective rotating
fluidized bed reactor for
conversion of agricultural
residues and other biomass into
bio-oil.
11/05/2012
Alter NRG
Closes $10MM Strategic
Financing
Round
Alberta, Canada based Alter NRG
has announced an agreement to
issue 30,769,230 common shares
to three new strategic
investors at a price of $0.325
per common share for total
gross proceeds of approximately
$10 million.
11/05/2012
BIOGEN
Secures Agreement for 2nd
Food Waste AD Plant in
Wales
Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
based BIOGEN (UK) Ltd has
announced an agreement with the
North Wales Consortium
(representing Denbigshire
County Council, Conway County
Borough Council and Flintshire
County Council) for development
of an anaerobic digestion (AD)
facility in Waen, St. Asaph,
Denbigshire, Wales.
11/05/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
11/30/2012: Renewable Energy
Project Proposals to
SCPPA
The Southern California Public
Power Authority (SCPPA) has
released a Request for
Proposals (RFP) seeking
renewable energy products as
structured projects.
11/10/2012
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