Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 45,
November 16,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
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
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