Teru Talk Newsletter

Teru's Trash Talk

Yesterday was officially America Recycles Day! Did you Recycle? If you did, what did you recycle? How, where, and why did you recycle? What didn’t you recycle? Do you know what Recycling is?

For most folks, Recycling means that you separate out some of the bottles, cans, and maybe newspaper and cardboard from the rest of the trash. You put those chosen recyclables in the proper colored trash bin, and pray nobody looks too hard at your selections when the trash truck comes to haul it all away.

Reasonably, the waste management priorities of the National Hierarchy would have us first Reduce the amount we throw away. Next we’re supposed to Reuse items for some other purpose, appropriately called “repurposing”. We reduce the amount we toss by wearing that old coat one more year; we then reuse that coat as a hand-me-down to a younger brother. We collect the stuff we can’t reuse, and then we Recycle. Confused yet? Sit up straight, stop tapping your pencil on the desk, and pay attention: Recycling Class is in session.

In California, the Legislature defined Recycling in Public Resources Code Section 40180 as “the process of collecting, sorting, cleansing, treating, and reconstituting materials that would otherwise become solid waste, and returning them to the economic mainstream in the form of raw material for new, reused, or reconstituted products which meet the quality standards necessary to be used in the marketplace.”

You will notice that the law does not say that Recycling means to just separate out the easily salable items and have somebody else sell them off in bulk to a foreign buyer. But once those Recyclables have Gone Away, how do we know what actually happens? We’ve got the front end of Recycling Pathway covered. We collect and sort the recyclables separated from the trash. As for returning those goods to the marketplace, that must happen someplace else. We certainly don’t want those nasty industrial facilities that Treat and Reconstitute trashy resources anywhere near our communities. If that stuff is made to meet some Market Quality Standard, it sure isn't our quality standard. Ah, the resounding global impact of NIMFR: Not In My Frame of Reference.

When we ship Recyclables out of our communities, we lose many things. We lose most of the local jobs along the Flow of Goods & Materials circular pathway. We lose track of the precious natural resources that come in, and then just go away. We lose the remanufacturing plants that might be built locally, were there the ready access to locally-sourced raw materials. We certainly lose control of the environmental and socio-economic standards applied to the process. For real Recycling to become the reality, we need to concentrate on building the regional back-end of the circular path, the Reconstitute & Remanufacturing infrastructure near where the recyclables are generated.

Hey Rube!

This Wednesday, November 18th, the Southern California Waste Management Forum convenes this year’s Waste Management Conference and Exhibits with the theme "Past, Present and Future: The Continuous Challenge of Change". Come to Pomona and check it out. Teru will be part of the afternoon Roundtable Discussion, spinning our own take on the many Roads to Zero Waste.

This Week's Top Story

Roeslein's $120M Manure to Energy Project in Missouri Stays on Schedule

Missouri based Roeslein Alternative Energy, LLC announced during an event at Ruckman Farm, one of the nine Smithfield Foods Missouri hog production facilities involved in the largest livestock manure-to-energy project of its kind, that the plant will be operational by mid-2016. 11/09/2015

The Week's News

Joule and Red Rock Biofuels Merger Will Strengthen Renewable Fuel Platform

Massachusetts based Joule Unlimited, Inc and Colorado company Red Rock Biofuels LLC have announced their intent to merge. 11/13/2015

BDI Starts New BioLife Science Business, Receives Major Biodiesel Contract

Austria based BDI – BioEnergy International AG (BDI) has formed a new strategic BioLife Science business segment, and started construction of an industrial plant for the production of high valuable products from algae. 11/13/2015

EPA and Partners Launch Challenge to Recycle Nutrients from Livestock Waste

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is partnering with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), pork and dairy producers, and environmental and scientific experts to launch the Nutrient Recycling Challenge, a competition to develop affordable technologies that recycle nutrients from livestock waste. 11/13/2015

Goldman Sachs Sets Clean Energy Funding Target of $150 Billion by 2025

Goldman Sachs established a target in 2012 to finance and invest $40 billion in capital for clean energy globally over the following decade. 11/12/2015

Minnesota Invests $26 Million in Sweetwater’s Biochemical Facility

New York based Sweetwater Energy, Inc has announced receiving a commitment for $26 million in long-term loans from the State of Minnesota to construct a biochemical production facility near Mountain Iron in the northeastern portion of the state. 11/10/2015

Dyadic Sells Industrial Tech Business to DuPont, Retains Tech License

Dyadic International, Inc has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell substantially all the assets of its Industrial Technology business to DuPont Industrial Biosciences for $75 million in cash. 11/10/2015

Praj and Gevo Sign Licensing and Joint Development Agreements

Gevo, Inc and Praj Industries Limited have announced entering into a license agreement and a joint development agreement to enable the licensing of Gevo’s isobutanol technology to processors of non-corn based sugars, including the majority of Praj’s global customer base of ethanol plant owners. 11/10/2015

Turboden Supplies ORC Turbogenerator for Sheffield Biomass Power Plant

London company Kantor Energy Ltd, the EPC principal contractor of the largest ORC biomass power plant in Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK), has selected Italy based Turboden Srl to supply the clean electricity generation equipment for the project. 11/10/2015

ENER-G Leads 1st Independent Landfill Gas Project in South Africa

A consortium led by ENER-G Systems is investing £11 million (circa 230 million rand) in five landfill gas generation plants in Johannesburg, South Africa, the largest landfill gas-to-power project to be developed in the country. 11/10/2015

Northern Ireland’s Largest Energy From Waste Plant Secures Funding

UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) has committed £47m of equity to a new £107m Energy from Waste (EfW) plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 11/09/2015

CEC Schedules EPIC Innovation Symposium to Showcase Energy Projects

The California Energy Commission (CEC), Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E), and Southern California Edison Company (SCE) will host the first Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Innovation Symposium on December 3, 2015. 11/09/2015

The Week's Action Items

Due 12/08/2015: Small Business Innovative Research Phase 1 Proposals to NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has opened his year’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program solicitation. 11/12/2015

Due 12/15/2015: Renewable Power Proposals to City of McPherson, Kansas

The City of McPherson, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking up to 20MW of renewable energy to expand the BPU's portfolio. 11/13/2015