Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 34, August
24,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Tossing stuff in the can that
ends up in the dump also
trashes useful gases like
methane that then spit into the
atmosphere unless we are
really, really careful. And
"throwing away" stuff also
wastes water. Now is NOT a good
time to waste water, especially
if you happen to be trashing in
the tinder-dry US Pacific
West.
But that concern is restricted
to places where we know we are
short on water. The same water
wastage takes place in Europe,
where there's so much water
that it seems to not make a
difference at all. When places
continually flood, nobody even
thinks about having too little
water. And that is the problem:
we don't think about water,
until that proverbial well, or
aquifer, runs bone dry. Then we
worry; then we get
thirsty.
Juicy tomatoes, long before
they reach our grocery store
shelves, suck up an enormous
amount of water, and then hold
their water (so to speak) until
we get a chance to slice and
dice. By the time we eat one
tomato, more than two tomatoes
have been thrown away along
with all their water, amounting
to more than 50% of their
weight. The sleeper, according
to brains in Europe, was that
wasted meat and cereal
accounted for the most trashed
water.
To convert organic wastes to
biomethane and fertilizer, we
process dirty soup and in doing
that processing, we clean the
water. But it is also all too
easy to just trash the water
generated during the waste
conversion process. You
actually have to value the
water to justify spending the
project money it takes to clean
it. If you don't happen to be
dying of thirst, it probably
isn’t particularly interesting
how much dirty water you can
clean. Off it goes down a sewer
or maybe at best, to water
nearby landscaping. Get it
together folks: that water
isn't trash.
For about forever, boiling
water has been used to kill off
the bad bugs and make good
water. Filter out enough chunks
and grit, and you can make that
water drinkable again. But boy
oh boy, don't tell anyone their
fresh clean water came from
converting waste! That paranoid
knee-jerk even was given a
name: "toilet-to-tap." Yeah,
granted the Yuck Factor is
pretty high there, but pick a
food, for that matter pick
almost any consumer product and
somewhere back along the value
chain from raw materials to
finished product there will be
parts of the sausage making
most people just don't want to
watch.
A line in an old song (anybody
remember?) warns, "Be careful
not to muddy the water; you may
have to drink it soon." Thing
is, it is always a lot harder
to clean dirty water than it is
to dirty clean water (get it?)
and when we trash stuff
containing lots of water,
everything gets
dirty.
Hey Rube!
Teru spotted many a loyal Trash
Talk reader at last week's
Waste Conversion Technology
Conference and Trade Show in
San Diego. What a treat! Gene
and Dana Jones just did a
bang-up job and "a good time
was had by all." Our world is
trying hard to recovery from
being In The Dumps since, oh,
what? 2008? And things are just
starting to pick up in the
Resource Recovery Project
realm. It really, really helps
to get the old soldiers and
teeth-clenched survivors into
the same box and give 'em a
good shake, and this
get-together was planned to
make it especially comfortable
for just that critical
networking. Well done - Now,
let's Do It
Again!
This Week's Top Story
4FRI
Thinning Project Begins on
Williams Ranger District in
Northern
Arizona
Tree removal has begun on a
1,646-acre project on the
Williams Ranger District of the
Kaibab National Forest
associated with the Four Forest
Restoration Initiative (4FRI).
08/20/2015
The Week's News
BETO
Schedules BioenergizeME
Webinar: Biomass
Basics
The US Department of Energy’s
Bioenergy Technologies Office
(BETO) is hosting the Biomass
Basics webinar on August 27,
2015, from 4:00-4:40 pm Eastern
Daylight Time (EDT).
08/21/2015
Scottish
Biofuel Programme Secures
£219,000 in Additional
Funding
Following its successful run,
the Scottish Biofuel Programme
has been awarded a combined
£219,000 from funders Zero
Waste Scotland, Scottish
Enterprise, and Transport
Scotland as part of a quarter
of a million pound program to
continue its support to
Scottish business until the end
of 2015.
08/21/2015
New Research
Considers Acidosis Process
Failure in Anaerobic
Digesters
Volatile fatty acid
intoxication (acidosis) is a
common process failure recorded
in anaerobic reactors that
leads to drastic losses in
methane production.
08/21/2015
WELTEC
Biomethane Plant in France
Is Now Live and Feeding
Grid
Germany based WELTEC BIOPOWER
has announced that the
Longchamps biomethane plant in
the Franche-Comté region in
eastern France went live on
August 5th.
08/20/2015
Greenbelt
Resources Selected to
Compete in Food Waste
Start-Up
Challenge
California based
Greenbelt Resources Corporation
has announced that it has been
selected to compete in the Food
Waste Start-Up Challenge hosted
by the Food Marketing Institute
(FMI) and Grocery Manufacturers
Association (GMA) during the
Global Sustainability Summit.
08/20/2015
Harris Gas
Begins Distribution of
MagneGas Fuel in California
and
Nevada
MagneGas®
Corporation has announced
that Harris Industrial
Gases (Harris Gas) will
begin distributing
MagneGas2® for metal
cutting. Harris Gas will
source their fuel from
MagneGas partner Placer
Power, LLC of California.
08/18/2015
EPA Proposes
Additional Methane Emission
Reductions from MSW
Landfills
The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has issued two
proposals to further reduce
emissions of methane-rich gas
from municipal solid waste
(MSW) landfills.
08/17/2015
EU Consumer
Food Waste Results in Lost
Water and Nitrogen
Resources
Environmental Research Letters
has published an article on
Lost water and nitrogen
resources due to EU consumer
food waste to address a lack of
data on national food waste
statistics, and finding that
Europe as a whole wastes 22m
tonnes of food a year.
08/17/2015
The Week's Action
Items
Due
08/28/2015: Interest in
Small Scale Waste-to-Energy
Project in
Alaska
Gershman, Brickner &
Bratton, Inc. (GBB) has
announced the release of a
Request for Expression of
Interest and Qualifications
(RFIQ) from the Metlakatla
Indian Community (MIC), located
in Southeast Alaska.
08/18/2015
Due
09/03/2015: Renewable Power
Proposals to San Francisco
CleanPowerSF
The San
Francisco Public
Utilities Commission has
issued Request for Offers
(RFO) CS-1032 seeking
eligible renewable energy
and resource adequacy
supplies for
CleanPowerSF, San
Francisco's Community
Choice Aggregation
program.
08/18/2015
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