Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 36,
September 8,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
What we really want to be
developing is a Net Zero
Waste policy. That makes more
sense (and cents) than thinking
our communities can somehow
stop generating trash. Trying
to plug the flow of that 40,000
tons per day of garbage
generated is a Gross
Zero Waste
policy.
It’s the total amount left over
that counts. Communities should
continue to encourage their
citizens to Reduce, Re-Use, and
Recycle; up to that stage
there’s a pretty good Path
carved out. Then things get
tricky. We can collect and sort
trash. We can clean and sell
recyclables. Beyond that we
lack local markets for those
recognizable, recyclable
materials. There are even fewer
ways to pull things apart to
their basic components. We pay
for the Input of new goods, we
pay to send valuable Output
Resources out of the
area, out of the local economy,
and then we pay to store the
rest in a dump. Those bits are
Potential Resource Assets, not
just Trashy
Liabilities.
It’s the rest of the Materials
that need our focus, the
recoverable fibers, the basic
structural commodities, the
foundation chemicals that need
to be recovered from the
post-recycling left-overs. The
goal is to cleanly take our
trash apart near where it is
generated, and remanufacture
the goods we need, also near
our own communities. Separating
and cleaning the raw materials
from trash and getting it ready
for remanufacturing is
recycling by legal definition.
If we pick away at our
discards, adding resource
recovery and remanufacturing
infrastructure as needed, over
time the amount going to the
dump will be reduced to
zero.
Humans are inventive creatures,
and when a need presents
itself, someone will find a way
to meet that need. In the last
couple centuries, we have found
incredible ways to make such an
amazing diversity of New Goods.
This century, we are making
progress in creating tools that
can then take those goods back
apart. By now globally, there
are very few manufactured goods
that cannot be cleanly
converted back to the basics
and be manufactured into
something
again.
We must count everything,
identify the pieces and parts,
and figure out what makes up
the input-output flow of
resources in our region, in
each region. See what
take-apart tools are already
there, and what remanufacturing
complements are nearby. From
that knowledge we can attract
in the locally missing pieces
and integrate those needed
systems within our community
commerce. When we can start
with 40K a day of garbage and
recover the resources from
everything, that’s when
we will achieve Net Zero
Waste.
Hey Rube!
The new AB 341 Report to the
Legislature is out from
CalRecycle (see news item
below). Concept 11 says
“Develop a technology-neutral
standard for post-recycled
residuals that promotes removal
of a sufficient amount of
recyclables before residuals
are used for energy recovery.”
Well, that’s at least partly
right. If we make some form of
Energy out of those residuals,
we’re Recycling, not Disposing.
What is defined as Energy? What
about foundation materials?
Here we go again, getting lost
in the definitions and
buzz-words. Read the report,
think about Zero Waste. We’re
not there
yet.
This Week's Top Story
Hoosier
Energy, Randolph Farms
Partner for Landfill Gas to
Energy
Project
Hoosier Energy and Randolph
Farms Landfill have announced a
partnership that will turn
landfill gas into a renewable
energy resource for Randolph
County, Indiana.
09/01/2015
The Week's News
CalRecycle
Releases AB 341 Report to
Legislature, Supports Waste
Conversion
California's Department of
Resources Recycling and
Recovery (CalRecycle) has
released its Report required
under Assembly Bill (AB) 341 to
the Legislature on strategies
to achieve the goal of 75%
waste to landfill reduction.
09/05/2015
New York
Governor Announces Food
Waste to Energy Project on
Long
Island
New York Governor Cuomo has
announced the launch of a clean
energy project on Long Island,
the first large-scale anaerobic
digester in the New York City
metropolitan area.
09/05/2015
New Report
Guides Rural Electric Co-ops
in Financing Distributed
Renewables
The 25x'25 Alliance has
released a new research report
designed to assist rural
electric cooperatives in
attracting local funding to
build distributed scale
renewable energy generation
projects.
09/04/2015
Studstrup
Power Station Reaches
Milestone in Coal to Biomass
Conversion
DONG Energy's Studstrup Power
Station in Denmark supplies
district heating to
approximately 225,000 Aarhus
residents.
09/04/2015
IBI Launches
2015 Surveys of Biochar
Businesses and
Volumes
Building on the feedback and
results from its 2013 and 2014
State of the Biochar Industry
reports, the International
Biochar Initiative (IBI) has
launched an online survey to
collect data in order to
continue reporting on 2015
biochar industry trends.
09/04/2015
Bio-on Invests
$1.4M for
Biomass-to-Bioplastic
Research with UH,
Mānoa
Italian company Bio-on S.p.A.
and the University of Hawaii at
Mānoa (UH, Mānoa) have signed
an exclusive global research
contract to further develop the
technology for the production
of bioplastic
polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs)
using lignocellulosic materials
(wood processing waste) and
domestic or agricultural waste
as the raw material.
09/02/2015
Royal
Inauguration Was Held for
Valmet Biomass CHP Plant in
Sweden
The inauguration of Oskarshamn
Energi's new biomass-fired
power plant was held on last
Friday, August 28th, 2015.
09/01/2015
The Week's Action
Items
Due
09/21/2015: Concept Papers
for US DOE Bioenergy
Technologies
Grants
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced up to $10
million in funding to advance
the production of advanced
biofuels, substitutes for
petroleum-based feedstocks and
bioproducts made from
renewable, non-food-based
biomass, such as algae,
agricultural residues, and
woody biomass.
09/01/2015
Due
10/14/2015: Applications for
Canada's SDTC Tech and Gas
Fund
Grants
Sustainable Development
Technology Canada (SDTC) of
Ottawa, Canada, is offering the
opportunity to get funding for
cleantech development projects.
09/01/2015
Due
12/15/2015: Proposals to CEC
on Three Concurrent Grant
Opportunities
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) has announced
three concurrent Request for
Proposals (RFP) for grant
opportunities, with pre-bid
conferences and question due
dates also scheduled to occur
together.
09/03/2015
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