Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 27, July 6,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Dame Ellen MacArthur has a
Toolkit for building the
Circular Economy. First, the
starting position: we determine
our current status of turning
waste back into goods instead
of throwing our resources away.
Next, we pick apart the paths
and barriers, sector by sector,
and jot down notes about needed
fixes. Before we wrap up our
initial take of the problem and
roll up our sleeves, we have
one more task: step back and
remember that everything is
connected to everything else,
and figure out how our
“improvements” will impact the
surrounding
community.
OK: Step One, Current Status.
Uh - pretty pitiful. The EPA’s
most recent Solid Waste Facts
and Figures (they are up to
counting 2013) says we dumped
over half our trash, sent a bit
for energy and managed a meager
34.3% recovery. Paper made up
about half the materials
recovered from the trash we
generated; another a quarter
was yard trimmings that
probably went to composting. We
grabbed metals off the conveyor
lines, especially steel and
aluminum, but still threw away
more than half by weight. Then
there’s Food Waste: we only
recovered 5% of those sloppy
discarded organics. Not
surprising: we don’t separate
the stuff as it is generated,
we haven’t really figured out a
way to collect and aggregate it
effectively, and once it’s
mixed in the trash, food waste
is almost impossible to sort
out and
reclaim.
That’s a good place to go to
Step Two: Paths and Barriers.
We’ve got haulers and
pick-apart stations, but they
aren’t set up to collect all
the wet organics. We’ve got the
trucks,, but if we use as-is,
the rich and gooey gets stirred
into the dry and dirty. We can
separate out a lot of goodies,
but you have to
do
something
with them if they are not
simply going to end up in the
landfill. We’ve got some
markets for the separated stuff
now, but those markets have
notoriously slim margins and
tend to dry up - then off to
the dump we go, yet again. Even
when there are recycling
markets, things tend to get
shipped half way around the
world, stripping out our native
resources
and
our
jobs. We need local
processing and
remanufacturing.
(Big sigh) Step Three:
Collateral Damage. We can
unwrap our trash into usable
raw materials, and we can
rebuild the stuff we need from
the parts we’ve been tossing -
but what happens to the Economy
as it becomes Circular? Think
of it this way: roads are great
to get us there, but they cost
mightily to build in the first
place. We are attempting to get
somewhere, back to managing our
own localized resources, but we
generally lack the path that
gets the waste back into goods.
We lack infrastructure,
and it's a big capital
investment. It isn’t
going to be as cheap as sending
plastics to China and turning a
blind eye on what happens next.
We’ll have to actually LOOK at
the mess as we make it, and at
the industrial processes that
tear things apart and put them
back together again. I know:
big Yuck Factor like lancing a
boil, but we have to get
better.
This Circular Economy business
takes a lot of planning, a lot
of money, and a lot of people
to put it into place. It takes
concerted collaboration between
Industries, Agencies, and John
Q. Public. Closing the gap by
recovering and remaking new
stuff from the old stuff we
throw away, just makes sense.
And the alternative to building
out the Circular Economy?
Sooner or
later we will run out of raw
materials.
Hey Rube!
Not clear enough yet? Here’s a
treat: Watch Dame Ellen present
her Circular Economy concept in
her March 2015
TED Talk, “The surprising
thing I learned sailing solo
around the world.” Hint: it
isn’t about sailing
…
This Week's Top Story
Food and
Drink Waste Could Boost
Scottish Economy by Up to
£800M
Scotland's Food Secretary
Richard Lochhead has announced
that waste from the food and
drink industry – specifically
from the beer, whisky, and fish
and shellfish sectors – could
help the Scottish economy tap
into an estimated £500 million
to £803 million each year.
07/02/2015
The Week's News
NYC Mayor
Proposes Organics Recycling
for Large-Scale Food
Establishments
New York City's (NYC) de Blasio
administration has announced a
proposal to require large-scale
commercial food establishments
to separate organic waste.
07/03/2015
Canada
Fibers Announces Bold Solid
Waste Recycling
Initiatives
Canada Fibers Ltd has announced
that it has taken steps towards
the creation of superior value
from municipal and commercial
solid waste through solid waste
recycling initiatives.
07/03/2015
Ellen
MacArthur Foundation
Launches Circular Economy
Toolkit
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation
has launched the results of its
latest research which provides,
for the first time, an
actionable toolkit for
policymakers who wish to embark
on a circular economy
transition.
07/02/2015
ANDRITZ
Supplies Power Boiler for
South Korean Waste-to-Energy
Plant
ANDRITZ has received an order
from POSCO E&C to supply
key equipment for a 50-megawatt
bubbling fluidized bed boiler
fired with refuse-derived fuel
for the greenfield
waste-to-energy plant in
Pohang, South Korea.
07/02/2015
ADBA
Releases UK Anaerobic
Digestion Market
Report
The Anaerobic Digestion and
Biogas Association (ADBA) has
released its July 2015
Anaerobic Digestion Market
Report on the occasion of
Biogen's commissioning of the
400th ad plant in the United
Kingdom (UK).
07/01/2015
Green3Power
Wins Contract to Build Waste
Gasification Facility in
Florida
BioPower Operations Corporation
has announced that its
wholly-owned subsidiary
Green3Power Operations Inc
(G3P) has been awarded a
contract to build a $175
million renewable energy
facility which will convert
waste into ultra-low sulfur
synthetic green No. 2 diesel
fuel.
07/01/2015
B&W
Celebrates New Advanced
Waste-to-Energy Plant in
West Palm
Beach
The Babcock & Wilcox
Company (B&W) has announced
the grand opening of the Palm
Beach Renewable Energy Facility
2 (PBREF2) in Florida, the
Solid Waste Authority (SWA) of
Palm Beach County’s new
advanced waste-to-energy
facility.
06/30/2015
Amyris and
Total Proceed with
Restructure of Jet Fuel
Joint
Venture
California company Amyris, Inc
has announced its agreement on
key business terms with Total
Energies Nouvelles Activités
USA (a wholly owned subsidiary
of France based Total S.A.)
(Total) for restructuring its
fuels joint venture to open the
way for proceeding with
commercialization of its jet
fuel technology over the coming
years.
06/30/2015
United
Airlines Invests $30M in
Fulcrum
BioEnergy
California based Fulcrum
BioEnergy, Inc and United
Airlines, Inc have announced
that United Airlines has made a
$30 million equity investment
in Fulcrum and will have the
option to directly participate
in Fulcrum's waste-to-jet fuel
plants across North America.
06/30/2015
McInnis
Cement and ACF - St. Elzear
Sign Biomass Cooperative
Agreement
Quebec, Canada company McInnis
Cement and the Forestry
Cooperative Association - St.
Elzear (ACF – St. Elzear) have
announced the signing of a
cooperative agreement to study
the feasibility of using forest
biomass as an auxiliary fuel
for the cement plant under
construction in
Port-Daniel-Gascons.
06/29/2015
Oregon
Enacts Law Exempting
Biomass CO2 Emissions as
Carbon
Neutral
On the 18th of June Oregon's
Governor Kate Brown signed into
law Senate Bill 752, which
exempts carbon dioxide
emissions from the combustion
or decomposition of biomass
under Oregon law, except where
necessary for compliance with
the federal Clean Air Act.
06/29/2015
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