Teru Talk Newsletter

Teru's Trash Talk

Today is my mother's 85^th birthday and to honor her, I'd like to follow up on some sage advice she gave me some time back about Recycling. When I scolded that what she was depositing into her Big Blue Bin was not really recyclable, she quickly responded, "Well, It Should Be!"

So what about all that stuff we toss that the Powers That Be say isn't recyclable. Why not?

An open market provides a path for private industry to make a buck. If it costs me to manage something and you can make it cost me less, that’s Business. If you can pay me a little something, better yet: we move my Liability into the Asset column. But Communities band together to get done what the market can't provide. Roads are like that, and making sure everyone gets clean drinking water fits into that scenario; we all pay something. Until the day when resource recovery pays for itself, Recycling is one of those Community Expenses for which we pay. If we really counted, the cost of sending our resources, our jobs, and our dirty laundry to someone else is more than the expense of doing the recovery work in our own Community.

Let’s pick on something everyone thinks is Recyclable. The market for recovered glass is low right now, so less is pulled from the sorting lines and the crew’s attention is directed toward other stuff that right now has higher value. It's not that glass isn’t recyclable; it's just that it isn’t recycled as much. We depend on some distant market to buy that glass, while paying, paying, and paying again for disposal of what's left over. How about paying for Recovery? What about paying, to have that unwanted glass melted down, reformed and sold as something new, locally? If the remanufacturing cost is less than the all-in disposal cost, the Community comes out ahead with less cash out of pocket, less enviro-damage, more jobs - more commerce.

Some plastics are easy to reclaim; many are not. What we can't sell off, our community pays for the costly Dump Thing. But there are lots of ways to take apart even the cruddiest plastic. Once pulled apart into the components, that Old Plastic Stuff can be reformed into fuels, lubricants, and all sorts of polymers. It can all be melted down and squished out into the shape of parking lot bumpers and fence slats. And we’re not even talking about waste plastic's energy value as refuse derived fuel - do you really think it is dirtier to incinerate plastic waste than coal?

Shrimp and crab shells soaked in ionic liquids convert to the high priced chemical Chitin. Used carpet can be pulled apart for its organic fiber or vaporized, if it's a synthetic blend. Wood can be dissolved into sugar with the right treatment, and sugar makes fuels and chemicals. For that matter, any sort of organic goo can be turned back into commodities. Aluminum can be separated from the plastic in those laminated drink packages that are so popular. Even the gray grit that falls off the back end of an urban material recovery facility's sorting conveyor belt probably has enough particles of rare and precious metals in it to be worth processing as ore. When all else fails, instead of paying to store garbage in a hole in the ground, turn the burnable crud into heat and power. We can't get to Zero Waste, waiting for someone else to do the work.

Hey Rube!

Around the globe, the buzz is about closing the loop in the Circular Economy by converting our wastes back into usable resources. Resources need to be kept in the usage cycle as long as possible. It's really only a waste if we waste it.

This Week's Top Story

Alliance BioEnergy Plus Partners with RRDA to Develop 56 CTS Plants

Florida based Alliance BioEnergy Plus, Inc (Alliance) has entered into a non-exclusive development agreement with Delaware company Renewable Resources Development of America, LLC (RRDA) for the construction and operation of up to 56 cellulose conversion plants both domestically and abroad. 08/07/2015

The Week's News

Pacific Ag Raises $7 Million from Advantage Capital Agribusiness Partners

Oregon based Pacific Ag has announced a $7 million investment from Advantage Capital Agribusiness Partners LP to accelerate the expansion of its crop residue supply business across the country. 08/07/2015

CSU Fresno to Host Summit on San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Future

California State University, Fresno (CSU Fresno) will host a one-day summit to explore the opportunities to build a clean energy economy in the state's San Joaquin Valley. 08/06/2015

SWANA and CRRA Form Partnership for Zero Waste Course and Certification The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) and the California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) have announced the approval of a strategic partnership to develop and offer a Zero Waste Principles and Practices course and certification program throughout the United States and Canada. 08/06/2015

Mitsubishi Contracts to Build 245 tpd MSW Incineration Plant In Japan

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (MHIEC), has received an order from the Kouza Clean Association, an organization encompassing three municipalities in central Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, for the construction and operation of a municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration plant. 08/06/2015

WEF Honors Carbon Clean Solutions as 2015 Technology Pioneer

Carbon Clean Solutions (CCS) has been honored as one of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) “technology pioneers”, a selection of the world’s most innovative companies. 08/05/2015

United Nations Proposes Final Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda

The United Nations (UN) is in the process of defining a sustainable development agenda for post-2015. 08/05/2015

LWARB Setting Up Private Equity Fund to Grow London’s Circular Economy

The London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) has announced its strategy to invest up to £3 million into a private equity fund. 08/04/2015

UK's DECC Issues Waste Heat to Electricity Conversion Equipment Guidance

The United Kingdom's (UK) Department of Energy & Climate Change has released the eligibility criteria for products in the waste heat to electricity conversion equipment category to be included on the Energy Technology List. 08/04/2015

ENER-G CHP Reduces Manchester Town Hall and Library's Carbon Footprint

United Kingdom (UK) based ENER-G has announced the role of its combined heat and power (CHP) technology in the multi-million pound refurbishment of the Manchester Town Hall Extension and Central Library. 08/03/2015

BioLite Raises $5M to Fuel Growth in Off-Grid Energy Products

New York based social enterprise BioLite, Inc has announced that it has raised $5 million in growth capital to accelerate the expansion of its off-grid energy products. 08/03/2015

BTEC to Create 1st Thermal Test Method for Commercial Biomass Boilers

The Biomass Thermal Energy Council (BTEC) has announced plans to release a draft of the first thermal efficiency test method designed specifically for commercial-sized boilers that utilize solid biomass as a fuel stock (including pellets, chips, briquettes, and cordwood). 08/03/2015