Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
49, December 9,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Just what
is this thing we call
"waste" anyway? The concept
seems simple enough: waste
is stuff you don't need,
left-overs, clutter that
you throw away. Ah, if only
it was that simple. A wise
old Botanist once told me
that a "Weed was a Plant
out of Place." Perhaps we
can extend this, to say
that a Waste is a Resource
out of
Place.
EPA says solid waste is
"any garbage or refuse,
sludge from a wastewater
treatment plant, water
supply treatment plant, or
air pollution control
facility and other
discarded material,
including solid, liquid,
semi-solid, or contained
gaseous material resulting
from industrial,
commercial, mining, and
agricultural operations,
and from community
activities." EPA concludes
with a Teru-ism: "Nearly
everything we do leaves
behind some kind of
waste."
There are
just so many onerous rules,
regs, and policies layered
on Waste Management,
perhaps rightfully so, but
good grief: there
has to be an
end-point. If you throw it
away or otherwise discard
it, then it is a Waste. I'd
contend that we have to
figure out where that
unwanted stuff, that
resource, actually
has an appropriate place
before it becomes a
waste. Otherwise, the
challenge becomes removing
the Waste label once it is
assigned.
If you
use your own tail-end cuts
from making furniture to
fuel a furnace for space
heating, those leftover
chunks of wood never become
a waste because you
recycled them instead of
tossing them. If your
market is paying to have a
ton or two of "food waste"
carted off to the landfill
each day, it can put in a
digester and make biogas
and fertilizer, and then
"food waste" is not a waste
at all. It's a
resource.
Now, if
your Trash is destined to
be my Treasure, it makes
sense that there should be
some rate of exchange. We
can tell the agencies that
we are accepting the
responsibility of
Waste-to-Resource
conversion by paying
for it. If only a buck a
ton, but something is
warranted to herald the
transfer of ownership. A
Bill of Sale says, "OK, I
agree: safely and cleanly
managing this
almost-a-waste as a
Resource is now my
responsibility."
Lemme
make this clear; it
shouldn't matter what kind
of material it was.
If you intend to use it as
a resource you must
accept the duty of safety
and cleanliness. If you
fail, the stuff does
becomes a Waste, with all
the attendant rules and
regs. Recycling's aim is to
get waste-sourced materials
ready again for the
marketplace, but recycling
cuts both ways: it is all
too easy to go from
waste-sourced materials to
resource and back to waste.
Truth is, we make waste
when we recycle, too: it's
all just part of the
real Circular
Economy.
Hey
Rube!
The US is finally
starting to see some real
progress in thermal waste
conversion to fuels and other
commodities, although maybe not
exactly how folks would have
guessed. Syngas to fermentation
… who would have thought …I
guess "hydrocarbons is where
you find
'em."
This Week's Top Story
Concord Blue
and LanzaTech Partner to
Produce Fuels From Waste
Biomass
Los Angeles based Concord Blue
USA, Inc and New Zealand
company LanzaTech have
announced entering into an
agreement to integrate their
individually proven
technologies to demonstrate the
production of fuels and
chemicals from waste materials.
12/07/2013
The
Week's News
NOTE:
If you are using IE10 and our
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GM Invests
$24MM in Two Landfill Gas
Projects to Generate Over 14
MWe
General Motors (GM) has
announced a $24-million
investment in electrical
generation equipment that will
allow the company to use more
landfill gas at its Fort Wayne,
Indiana, and Orion, Michigan,
assembly plants.
12/08/2013
Global Clean
Energy Plans Waste to
Plastics Plant in Nova
Scotia
Texas based Global Clean
Energy, Inc (GCE) has announced
that Halifax, Nova Scotia, may
be the location for the
company's first Waste Plastics
to Fuel Plant. GCE spent time
in Halifax meeting with a
number of government
representatives and private
sector recyclers.
12/08/2013
Fortum
Inaugurates New
Waste-to-Energy CHP Plant in
Sweden
Finland based Fortum
Corporation has announced the
startup of a new
waste-to-energy unit at the
Brista combined heat and power
(CHP) facility in Sigtuna,
Stockholm.
12/07/2013
National
Grid Connects First
Commercial Biogas Plant to
Gas
Network
The United Kingdom (UK) energy
company National Grid has
announced the successful
commissioning of its first
commercial biogas project,
connecting biomass operators
Future Biogas to the gas
network in Yorkshire.
10/07/2013
Amyris and
TOTAL Form Joint Venture to
Commercialize 2nd Gen
Biofuels
California based Amyris, Inc
and French company TOTAL, S.A.
have announced the formation of
Total Amyris BioSolutions B.V.,
a 50-50 joint venture that now
holds exclusive rights and
license to Amyris’ technology
platform.
12/06/2013
Cirque,
Northrop Grumman Join Forces
for Deployable Gasification
Unit
Michigan company Cirque Energy,
Inc (formerly Green Energy
Renewable Solutions) has
announced entering into a Joint
Development Agreement with
Virginia based Northrop Grumman
Corporation for the development
of a Deployable Gasification
Unit (DGU).
12/04/2013
GM Rochester
Facility Accomplishes Zero
Waste for Landfill-Free
Status
General Motors (GM) has
announced that its Rochester,
New York, manufacturing
facility is landfill-free after
four years and seven attempts
to recycle a challenging oily
filter sludge generated from a
machining operation.
12/04/2013
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