Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 29, July
20,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Some folks are confused about
what happens when they throw
something away and who owns it.
The question of trash ownership
has now reached the Seattle
courts. If the stuff is still
your stuff, you can expect
other people, neighbors,
vagrants, cops, and the local
municipality to not poke around
in it and respect your right of
privacy: it is still your
stuff. But if you give a box of
old stuff to Aunt Betty, the
Salvation Army or your town’s
contracted trash collector,
that box and all its contents
then belong to that person,
company, or
agency.
The laws in most places are
pretty clear about who owns the
trash. If you don’t cause
problems for others, you can
keep your stuff and do with it
what you want. But if you have
crud you don’t want, you can
(and many places
must
)
pay
others to take it away. We call
that stuff you discard Trash,
and we call those we pay to
come along and gather it up,
Trash Collectors. For trash to
be picked up, you set out the
trash can at the curb. From
there, managing that trash is
up to their route timing and
their collection
labor.
Here’s the way it works: if you
discard something and expect
someone else to come along and
deal with it, that stuff that
was yours now becomes their
stuff. You threw it away,
remember? For trash to be
picked up, you transfer
ownership when you set out the
trash can at the
curb.
If you live somewhere with
rules for what you throw away,
play by the rules, change the
rules, or move on. That sure
goes for food waste, the source
of the problem in Seattle. Some
folks there want to change the
rules, a little anyway: "I am
ready to comply, so long as I
am not inconvenienced." Yes,
make the nasties go away, but
don’t peek. How embarrassing …
and pretty soon, costly. Fines
are going to accompany bad
choices about what you put into
which can for the Trash Man.
Yes, somebody is now looking in
the cans so the system will
work.
This is
simple. If you don’t want
others pawing through your
stuff, don’t give it to them.
At the very least, pay
attention to what you toss,
because until stuff is actually
set out to the curb, it remains
in your ownership, under your
control. You transfer ownership
to your waste hauler when you
put the trash can out to the
curb. You can indeed get rid of
your objectionables by giving
them up to your friendly local
garbage service en route to
pick-apart facilities and
eventually that big local
landfill, but once you release
ownership of your trash, your
"expectations of privacy" are
gone.
Hey Rube!
We’ve had
a Big Week for News. Folks all
over are busy turning trash
from being a Liability into
being an Asset. Hospital food
waste now gets converted
on-site into their own heat and
power. Coffee grounds become
fuel pellets, while dreaming of
becoming biodiesel. Petro Power
Plants pay for Dairy Digesters,
sort of. DOE’s ARPA-E wants to
boost residential CHP, while
the EPA shines the Bright Green
Light on waste to biomaterials
successes. Hawaii’s biodiesel
family joins hands and parties,
mahalo. The Aussies turn MSW to
Biogas. Russia gets Waste to
Energy; China gets Big
Cellulosic Ethanol. Companies
glom onto industrial refinery
CO2 and even strip it right out
of the air we breathe, all to
make non-petro commodities. Ya
gotta love
it.
This Week's Top Story
ArcelorMittal,
LanzaTech, Primetals Partner
to Construct €87m Biofuel
Facility
ArcelorMittal, the world’s
leading steel and mining
company, LanzaTech, the carbon
recycling company, and
Primetals Technologies, a
leading technology and service
provider to the iron and steel
industry have announced
entering into a letter of
intent to construct Europe’s
first-ever commercial scale
production facility to create
bioethanol from waste gases
produced during the steelmaking
process.
07/13/2015
The Week's News
DuPont Signs
Deal to Bring Cellulosic
Ethanol Technology to
China
DuPont and Jilin Province New
Tianlong Industry Co., Ltd.,
(NTL) have announced a
licensing agreement to begin
the development of China’s
largest cellulosic ethanol
manufacturing plant, located in
Siping City, Jilin Province,
China.
07/17/2015
HZI to
Furnish Swiss Technology to
Russia for Energy from Waste
Project
Zurich, Switzerland based
Hitachi Zozen Inova AG (HZI)
has signed a memorandum of
cooperation with the Government
of the Moscow region of Russia
and the Russian State
Corporation Rostec for Energy
from Waste (EfW) development.
07/17/2015
WELTEC
Builds Biogas Plant on
French Farm with Heat
Benefit for
Hospital
German manufacturer WELTEC
BIOPOWER has announced that it
will building a 255-kW biogas
combined heat and power (CHP)
plant in Mirecourt,
Lorraine/France, together with
its partner Domaix Energie.
07/16/2015
California
Awards Cap-and-Trade Funds
for 5 Dairy Digesters in
Central
Valley
The California Department of
Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has
selected five projects for
approximately $11.1 million in
grants to implement digester
technology on California dairy
operations to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions (GHGs) from dairy
manure.
07/16/2015
Praxair
Signs Long-Term Supply
Agreement for Refinery’s
Carbon
Dioxide
Connecticut based Praxair, Inc
has signed a long-term
agreement with Delaware City
Refining Company to purchase
crude carbon dioxide from the
refinery.
07/16/2015
UK Railway
Stations and Bio-Bean
Convert Coffee Waste to
Biofuels
United Kingdom company Network
Rail has signed an agreement
with bio-bean for a new
recycling project that is
turning coffee waste into fuel
and helping cut the cost of
running the railway.
07/16/2015
Newlight
Signs 20-Year Contract with
Vinmar for 19B Lbs of
AirCarbon
PHA
California based Newlight
Technologies, LLC has signed a
master off-take agreement with
Texas company Vinmar
International Ltd for the sale
of 100% of AirCarbon PHA from
Newlight’s planned 50 million
pound per year production
facility for 20 years.
07/15/2015
AnaeCo
Completes Biological Ramp-up
Phase at WMRC Project in
Australia
AnaeCo Limited has announced
completion of the Biological
Ramp-up phase of commissioning
at the Western Metropolitan
Regional Council (WMRC) Project
in Western Australia, now that
the biogas scrubber has been
commissioned.
07/15/2015
Pacific
Biodiesel Technologies and
Big Island Biodiesel
Unite
Members of Pacific Biodiesel
Technologies, LLC (PBT) and Big
Island Biodiesel, LLC (BIB),
unanimously voted to combine
the Companies, making BIB a
wholly owned subsidiary of PBT
as of July 1, 2015.
07/15/2015
EPA Honors
20th Annual Presidential
Green Chemistry Challenge
Awardees
The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is recognizing
landmark green chemistry
technologies developed by
industrial pioneers and leading
scientists that turn climate
risk and other environmental
problems into business
opportunities.
07/13/2015
DEINOVE
Reaches 3rd Milestone of
DEINOL Program Using Waste
Biomass
France based DEINOVE has
announced that it has reached
the third of four milestones of
its DEINOL project, which is
supported by Bpifrance, and
validating the work of
DEINOVE's proprietary platform.
07/13/2015
The Week's Action
Items
Due
08/17/2015: SBIR/STTR
Applications to DOE for
Residential CHP
Systems
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) has released Funding
Opportunity Notice
DE-FOA-0001380 for the second
round solicitation for
'Generators for Small
Electrical and Thermals Systems
(GENSETS) -SBIR/STTR.'
07/17/2015
Due
09/10/2015: Response to New
York City RFI on Renewable
Power
Supply
New York City has issued a
Request for Information (RFI)
seeking responses from all
entities involved in and
supporting the renewable energy
sector.
07/16/2015
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