Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume IV, Issue
42, October 20,
2014
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
The warm
and fuzzy feeling a
civilized society gets from
separating out the cans and
bottles from trash is all
well and good, and
certainly is better than
the callous disregard of
earlier eras. Yet let's
face it: this economy has
itself "been in the dumps"
for the past seven years,
and satisfying recycling
mandates does as little to
put beans on the table as
does transatlantic
recyclate shipment. We need
to build out the local
processing infrastructures
that can convert Garbage to
Goods, Waste to Wealth.
Communities need the local
jobs and the ready access
to materials that the clean
conversion of our discards
can provide.
Roadmaps
to Compliance are dandy, as
long as that shining light
in the distance was put
there for the good of
whole, rather than to
benefit the few. The
premise that anyone doing
business should be
responsible for reducing
their own waste generation
and increasing resource
recovery is sound. But you
have to ask yourself, where
is all that recycled stuff
going to go, and who pays,
really, to get it
there?
Years
ago, the California Water
Board was on the verge of
regulation demanding that
dairymen no longer let cow
manure contaminate the land
and groundwater. The Good
Idea was that this would
clean up the environment
while driving use of dairy
digesters. Problem #1: not
enough digesters were being
built to accommodate the
need even if the money was
there to build them, and
#2: all those cows
continued to poop. The
legislative effort was
tabled in preference for
State help to build out the
digester knowledge, systems
availability, and
supportive
programs.
We're not
talking about massive
plants that must be fed
everything in sight to stay
alive. We need Business to
Business (B2B) synergy,
networks of local,
community scale tools that
put people to work, cut
transport emissions, and
return resources to that
same region. Visualize
interconnected modules in
community-centric
hub-and-spoke
configurations that gather
up and process separated
types of crud, shipping the
pre-treated gases, liquids
and solids off to final
stage remanufacturing
centers.
If indeed
we accept that the
Government Knows Everything
about all of us, then it is
reasonable to assume that
Leadership can also figure
out what is discarded from
where, in what quantities,
and where it should go
next. Then the task before
us becomes a process of
identifying and encouraging
the development of B2B
synergy and conversion
infrastructure that we need
to locally intercept the
waste flow and close the
loop. We know how to find
out what is missing: it's
just a new version of that
old-school truancy test:
"Raise your hand, everybody
who's not here."
Hey Rube!
LA County's proposed Roadmap
posted in this week's news (see
below) goes a long way
exploring the paths to resource
recovery from the garbage we
generate. Read, and appreciate:
then ask yourself what is
missing, who pays for this
Plan, and who actually
benefits.
This Week's Top Story
Xergi Biogas
Plant Will Convert London
Food Waste into Energy and
Fertilizer
Denmark based Xergi A/S has
announced that it has been
selected by Willen Biogas Ltd
to build and operate its new
27,000 tpa waste to energy
plant in Enfield, North London.
10/15/2014
The Week's News
Los Angeles
County Proposes Sustainable
Waste Management
Roadmap
The Los
Angeles County Department
of Public Works has
developed a Roadmap to a
Sustainable Waste
Management Future that
will be considered for
adoption by the Board of
Supervisors at their
regularly scheduled
meeting on October 21,
2014.
10/19/2014
Global Clean
Energy Secures Waste Tire
Supply Contract with Liberty
Tire
Texas
based Global Clean
Energy, Inc (GCE) has
announced securing a long
term supply agreement
with Liberty Tire
Recycling to provide tire
chips as feedstock to GCE
for its planned tires to
fuels project.
10/19/2014
ILG to Host
Webinar on Financing
Recycling Programs in
California
The Institute for Local
Government (ILG) has scheduled
a webinar on Financing
Recycling Programs: Applying
Existing California Law for
November 4, 2014 from 10:00am
to 11:00am PST.
10/17/2014
ADBA Lauds
Opening of Bio-Thermal
Research Plant at Cranfield
University
Anaerobic Digestion and
Bioresources Association (ADBA)
Chief Executive, Charlotte
Morton, officially opened
Cranfield University’s new
anaerobic digestion (AD)
research plant yesterday
(October 16).
10/17/2014
Minneapolis
Mayor Pushes for Expanded
Food Waste Recycling
Program
Minneapolis, Minnesota Mayor
Betsy Hodges joined city
leaders at the home of a local
resident last Wednesday to talk
about the success of recent
drop-off organics recycling
programs throughout the city.
10/17/2014
Waste and
Biomass Conversion Rank High
in Green Chemistry
Challenge
The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has announced the
2014 Presidential Green
Chemistry winners, and as
companies making chemical
products from waste and biomass
sources appear prominently in
almost every category.
10/17/2014
ANDRITZ to
Supply Waste-To-Energy Plant
to Finish Power
Company
Austria based ANDRITZ AG has
been selected by the local
utility company Riikinvoima Oy
to supply a waste-to-energy
power plant to be sited in
Leppävirta, Finland.
10/16/2014
Green
Biologics Named to This
Year's Global Cleantech 100
List
England based Green Biologics
Ltd has announced that it was
named in the 2014 Global
Cleantech 100,
a
comprehensive list of private
companies with the highest
potential to make the most
significant market impact.
10/16/2014
Lockheed
Martin Will Manufacture
Concord Blue Gasification
Reformer
Maryland headquartered Lockheed
Martin has signed a
manufacturing agreement with
Concord Blue to provide all
manufacturing support for the
Concord Blue Reformer®
technology, which converts
waste to energy using advanced
conversion technology.
10/15/2014
Valmet to
Supply Biomass Power Plant
to Skövde Värmeverk AB in
Sweden
Finland
based Valmet Corporation
will supply a complete
biomass based power plant
to Skövde Värmeverk AB in
Skövde, Sweden.
10/13/2014
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