Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
31, August 5,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Oh, no!
Just collecting, sorting,
and brokering stuff
separated outta trash isn't
really what the law says is
Recycling! But if Recycling
is not really what we have
been doing all these years,
just how are we supposed to
get on
track?
One of
the most difficult changes
we humans face comes when
we've long ago decided what
is right and proper, and
now we find that not to be
the case. Those underlying
precepts become the
cornerstones for so many
later decisions, and color
how we interpret what we
observe. Organizations go
through the same stages of
denial, anger, depression,
and acceptance as we do.
When those organizations
are agencies that have been
charged with making and
enforcing the rules the
rest of us live by, there
is a lot to
untangle.
It is
also hard to lead from
behind, and California is
used to staying at the
front of the line. Yet
world-wide, agencies and
the communities they serve
are avidly applying new
technology to take apart
trash and turn it back into
goods, basing tech-neutral
decisions on solid science,
system performance, and
operational cleanliness.
The whole Circular
Economy process seeks
to ensure "highest and best
use": Try to reuse that
plastic container to hold
something else, when it's
empty. If not, turn it back
into another plastic
bottle. That won't work?
Then convert it to oils and
chemicals. Still too
cruddy? Then for goodness
sake, at least squeeze
every last drop of energy
outta it, and turn it into
electricity and heat. You
Can't?? Whadda ya
mean, the state's
"Resource Recovery" agency
won't permit it?
When
those "you can't do that"
anti-waste-conversion rules
were made well over a
decade ago, we really
couldn't accomplish
most of the clean
conversion from crud back
to goods that we can these
days. The agencies based
the laws, rules, and
policies on what they saw
and heard at the time.
There certainly weren't so
many examples you could go
see work and ask questions
about. The Internet
couldn't instantly bring
you case studies from the
UK, from Norway, France and
Germany, and there wasn't
even Teru Talk to do the
digging for you
(gasp!).
That's
all changed with the rapid
growth and global
integration of clean waste
conversion as the last step
in Recycling. The tired old
excuses don't hold water
any more. The laws have
been changed to promote
technology neutral,
science-based
"reconstituting" of
recyclates back into those
raw materials needed for
remanufacturing. There are
timelines now for the key
agencies to implement those
laws with transfigured
regulations. But before we
can turn that corner to
Recycling Sanity, there's
this thing called policy to
overcome. Policies are
those arbitrary decisions
humans make when they lead
agencies.
It's not
a lack of technology. It
isn't even the letter of
the law that's in the way.
It's humans, and their
stubborn determination to
cling to entrenched
precepts about what is and
what isn't acceptable,
based not on today's
knowledge, but on what they
knew a decade
ago.
Hey
Rube!
This week, really read the News
items we've posted: you'll find
case after case of waste being
cleanly turned into goods. Then
pick a News link and send it to
an Agency
Administrator.
The
Week's Extra Reading
See
the
Bioenergy
Producers Association's
comments
to
CalRecycle, re: MRF
Performance Standards and AB
341.
This Week's Top Story
Neste Adds
'Technical Corn Oil' to
NExBTL Renewable Diesel
Feedstock
Finland's Neste Oil has
announced addition of another
non-food waste / residual
feedstock into the production
of its NExBTL renewable diesel:
technical corn oil (TCO), a
residue generated during
ethanol production.
07/31/2013
The
Week's News
NOTE:
If you are using IE10 and our
website isn't loading as
smoothly as you would like or
the page jumps when you click
on a link to go to a certain
news item, just change to
"compatibility view" and all
will be
fine.
JBI
Participates with Crayola in
New 'COLORCYCLE' School
Program
New York headquartered JBI,
Inc. has announced its
participation in Crayola, LLC's
"COLORCYCLE" school program to
turn used Crayola markers into
clean energy.
08/02/2013
ENER-G Will
Furnish CHP System for Fife
Anaerobic Digestion
Facility
Manchester, England based
ENER-G has announced that it
will supply
a high efficiency combined heat
and power (CHP) system for its
new anaerobic digestion
facility at the Lochhead
landfill site in Dunfermline.
08/02/2013
UK DfT Plans
£25MM Competition for
Advanced Biofuels Demo
Projects
The United Kingdom (UK)
Department for Transport (DfT)
has announced that it will make
£25 million of capital funding
available to enable the
construction of
demonstration-scale waste to
fuel and other advanced biofuel
plants in the UK.
08/02/2013
RES Receives
UK Government OK for 100 MWe
North Blyth Biomass
Plant
Headquartered in the United
Kingdom (UK), Renewable Energy
Systems Ltd. (RES) has
announced UK governmental
consent for development of its
100 megawatt electric (MWe)
North Blyth Biomass Power
Station to be located at
Battleship Wharf in
Northumberld's Blyth Estuary.
08/01/2013
Integrated
Biomass Resources Funded to
Complete Oregon Facility
Expansion
United States based investment
firm Advantage Capital has
announced that its
small-business lending division
BizCapital has provided $3.7
million to Integrated Biomass
Resources (IBR) for completion
of the company's forest-sourced
biomass products manufacturing
and distribution center in
Wallowa, Oregon.
08/01/2013
ZeaChem
Biorefinery Receives EPA
Registration for Cellulosic
Biofuels
Colorado-based ZeaChem Inc. has
announced that it has
successfully secured US
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) registration of the
company's Boardman, Oregon
demonstration facility to
assign Renewable Information
Numbers (RINs) for cellulosic
biofuels.
08/01/2013
INEOS Bio
Produces Waste-Sourced
Cellulosic Biofuel at
Commercial
Scale
Illinois-based INEOS Bio has
announced that its Indian River
BioEnergy Center is now
producing cellulosic ethanol at
commercial scale with the first
ethanol shipments being
released this month.
08/01/2013
APL
Completes USAID-Sponsored
West Africa Biomass
Gasification
Tour
Berkeley-based All Power Labs
(APL) has posted news of the
firm's demonstration and
installation workshops this
month in Liberia, Nigeria and
elsewhere in the West African
region.
07/31/2013
Global Clean
Energy adds AD through Full
Circle Renewables Joint
Venture
Texas based Global Clean
Energy, Inc (GCEI) has
announced entry into a joint
venture with California's Full
Circle Renewables, LLC (FCR) to
co-develop waste to fuels
projects.
07/30/2013
GIB Backs
15.8MWe Biomass Plant as
First Northern Ireland
Investment
The United Kingdom's Green
Investment Bank plc (GIB) has
announced its first investment
in Northern Ireland of £20
million in collaboration with
the investment management firm
the Foresight Group.
07/30/2013
Gevo Ships
Biobutanol to US Coast Guard
for Marine Engine
Testing
Based in Colorado, Gevo has
announced that it has begun
supplying initial quantities of
16.1% renewable isobutanol
blended gasoline to the US
Coast Guard (USCG).
07/26/2013
Energos
Receives Planning OK for
Northern Ireland Waste
Gasification
Plant
United Kingdom (UK) based
Energos has announced receipt
of planning approval for an
80,000 tonne per year waste
gasification facility to be
developed in Lisburn, Northern
Ireland at the site of the
former Burn House Rendering
plant.
07/25/2013
RWE Begins
Commissioning of Markinch
Biomass CHP Plant in
Scotland
The Fife Council in Scotland
has announced a key milestone
in bringing the Markinch
Biomass CHP plant on-line with
RWE npower renewables feeding
seven hundred tonnes of wood
chip into the plant's feed
handling system.
07/25/2013
DOE Awards
$11MM to Small Businesses
for Clean Energy
Technologies
The Department of Energy (DOE)
Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy (EERE) has
announced awards of almost $11
million for projects focused on
clean energy technologies with
a strong potential for
commercialization and job
creation; a list of the awards
is provided.
07/25/2013
Appalachian
State Researchers Receive
Biofuel / Biochar Research
Grant
Appalachian State University
(App State) has announced
receipt of a $45,000 grant from
the non-profit North Carolina
Agricultural Foundation for a
project to economically convert
biomass to biofuel and biochar.
07/24/2013
Biffa
Partners with Jewson for
Green Energy and Zero Waste
to
Landfill
The United Kingdom (UK) based
Biffa has announced entering
into a partnership agreement
with Jewson Ltd., the
construction materials supply
and distribution subsidiary of
Saint-Gobain.
07/24/2013
Solarvest
Bioenergy Secures Key
Canadian Support for Algal
Research
Canadian algal specialists
Solarvest Bioenergy have
announced receipt of approval
for two research support
programs through the Natural
Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada
(NSERC).
07/23/2013
Construction
Starts in Alabama on
Advanced MRF with BHS
Recycling
System
Oregon based Bulk Handling
Systems (BHS) has announced the
ground-breaking ceremony for a
highly-automated and integrated
materials recovery facility
(MRF) and zero waste conversion
complex in Montgomery, Alabama
for recycling the region's
municipal solid waste (MSW).
07/22/2013
UK's ORG
Releases Guidance for Land
Application of Organics from
MSW
The United Kingdom (UK) based
Organics Recycling Group (ORG)
has announced release of a
guidance document addressing
standards for land restoration
with the separated organic
materials (SOMs) fraction of
municipal solid waste (MSW).
07/22/2013
The Week's Action
Items
Due
08/19/2013: Proposals to NSF
on Advanced Dry Cooling for
Power
Plants
The Directorate of Engineering
at the National Science
Foundation (NSF) in
collaboration with the Electric
Power research Institute (EPRI)
has announced release of a
solicitation seeking solutions
to address the critical problem
of water usage and consumption
at power plants for cooling.
07/23/2013
Due
09/06/2013: Comments to CEC
on Distributed Generation
Costs
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) has announced
a workshop scheduled for August
22, 2013 exploring the costs
and impacts on the electricity
system associated with
increased distributed
generation (DG) installations
in California, and how costs
and impacts change based on
interconnection location,
distribution feeder
characteristics, load types,
and project size.
08/02/2013
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