Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 22, June 1,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
So what’s all this hub-bub
about a Circular Economy? The
phrase has been bandied about
for a number of years now,
especially in Europe. It sounds
like maybe that school-yard
whisper game; you tell me a
secret, I tell the next guy and
see what it says after going
full-circle.
Not too far off, actually, but
done with resources. You give
me what you don’t want; I tear
it apart, make something else
out if it, and pass on what’s
left to the next guy. Sooner or
later, bits of that first
discard will make the full
circle. Our global resources
are the basis of every
country’s economy. The idea is
to pass those discarded
resources around the production
circle instead of digging up
new resources, instead of
throwing away the very
resources that we then have to
mine.
Sometimes going around that
circle is a quick lap. An
aluminum can gets melted down
and made into another aluminum
can, saving money, time, and
energy by not having to tear up
the ground to dig up more
aluminum-bearing ore. More
often, there’s a whole string
of work to be done along that
circular path. But this
pass-along of resources
maintains some of the value of
the materials and the energy
used in each step, instead of
constantly devaluing everything
everywhere. Now, we have
resources, where before we had
waste.
This Circular Economy concept
touches everything we do
everywhere, and requires a
careful re-think of how we
manage the repeated
transformation of materials to
goods. It helps to see the
long, strange trip of resources
to products as having a life of
its own. Each change from use
to discard and every return of
the base materials to the flow
of goods can be tracked as
the
life
cycle
of
those resources. Watch
those changes closely
enough, and we’re bound
to think of clever new
reuse, recycling, and
remanufacturing schemes.
Count the beans, keep
track, and learn how to
improve the efficiency of
that conversion of waste
to goods, and we will
slowly improve the
broader economy. Once a
costly waste, every
recovered and
reconfigured material now
accrues added value as a
resource at every
step.
It’s just
natural: we focus on one thing,
and then turn our attention to
another. In this business of
waste conversion, right now we
think anaerobic digestion of
food waste is the hot topic.
Tomorrow, it’ll be something
else. But myopically staring at
one part and forgetting the
whole won’t get us to where we
want to be. The European
Commission wants to shoot for a
“comprehensive and coherent
approach that fully takes into
account interactions and
interdependence across the
whole value chain, rather than
focusing exclusively on one
part of the economic cycle”.
The rest of the world should
watch and take notes, and join
Europe in a “thorough
reflection on how the objective
of circular economy can be
reached in an efficient way
that is fully compatible with
the jobs and growth
agenda.”
Hey Rube!
Fly
maggots! We’ve talked about my
wee beasties before, those
voracious Black Soldier Fly
grubs we feed with Teru's own
household organics. They
convert more veggie and meat
scraps into fertilizer than any
other way we try to compost,
and kill off anything that
tries to compete. Texas A&M
also seems fascinated with
them, and put out a good read.
But weird weather did in our
grubs this year. They got all
excited with that early warm
spell, then it turned cold and
they up and died. The ants and
spiders moved into our upright
composter. Not a pretty
picture.
This Week's Top Story
ElectraTherm
and Air Burners Commission
First Whole Log Bioenergy
Plant
Nevada based ElectraTherm, Inc
partnered with Florida company
Air Burners, Inc to develop the
first whole-log wood waste
burner utilizing ElectraTherm’s
Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC)
power generating technology.
05/27/2015
The Week's News
Converde
Energy Acquires XFuels LLC
and Combines the
Companies
Converde Energy USA, Inc has
acquired Oregon-based XFuels
LLC, combining the companies
and assuming the brand name and
existing joint ventures.
05/29/2015
Therma-Flite's
Thermal Oil Recovery System
Ships to European
Refinery
California based Therma-Flite
Inc has announced shipment of
its thermal desorption system
to a European oil and gas
refinery.
05/28/2015
US EPA and
Army Finalize Clean Water
Rule Expanding Federal
Jurisdiction
The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the US Army
today announced finalization of
the new Clean Water Rule.
05/27/2015
Ag Residue
Harvesting for Biofuels
Impacts Soil Carbon
Balance
The U.S. Department of Energy’s
Argonne National Laboratories
has announced findings of
research into the impact of
harvesting agricultural
residuals like straw and corn
stover for making cellulosic
biofuels.
05/27/2015
Wheelabrator
Receives Planning Approval
for Wales Energy Recovery
Facility
Wheelabrator Technologies Inc.
has announced that Flintshire
County Council's Planning and
Development Control Committee
has approved the Parc Adfer
Energy Recovery Facility in the
Deeside Industrial Park in
North Wales.
05/26/2015
North
American Energy Ministers
Establish Climate Change
Working
Group
The Honorable Greg Rickford,
Canada’s Minister of Natural
Resources; Pedro
Joaquín-Coldwell, Mexico’s
Secretary of Energy; and Ernest
J. Moniz, U.S. Secretary of
Energy, have announced the
establishment of a North
American Energy Ministers’
Working Group on Climate Change
and Energy.
05/26/2015
Black
Soldier Fly Larvae Process
Food Waste and Could Be
Livestock
Feed
Black soldier fly larvae excel
at eating food waste,
especially when it comes to
nasty stuff that we don’t want
around or wouldn’t think of
eating ourselves.
05/26/2015
The Week's Action
Items
Due
08/20/2015: Comments to EU
on Circular Economy
Package
The
European Commission (EU)
has announced a Public
Consultation on its
recently released
Circular Economy Package
and is seeking
stakeholder comment.
05/29/2015
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