Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 6, February
9,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
With a rumble, a big truck
moves on down the block bearing
away about 50 pounds of this
week's accumulation of garbage
you set out for the trash man.
Most times, that's the last
you'll even
think
about the
stuff you put in that big
container. Once it a while you
just might wonder where all
that stuff goes and what
actually happens to it. Never
fear, we're here to help ...
Let's review the basic Fate of
Your Trash, and see how this
waste game
works.
Some jurisdictions have you
separate the yard trimmings or
green waste into the green bin,
the stuff they identify as your
recyclables into the blue one,
and all the rest of that stinky
miss into the black bin. Where
we live it all goes into One
Big Bin. Either way, the next
stop may be the transfer
station on its way straight to
the landfill or the regional
Materials Recovery Facility
(MRF). Some of those pick-apart
plants are huge, handling
thousands of tons of raw trash
each day. The big trucks roll
onto a concrete pads and dump
their load; tractors with
front-end scoops push things
this way and that. Really nasty
wastes get pulled out and
secured off to one side. Really
clean stuff goes off in the
opposite direction. The bulk
starts up inclined conveyor
belts and on into the guts of
the facility.
MRFs employ people to stand
along those conveyors. Wearing
masks and gloves, they
methodically pull goodies off
the line: this guy grabs
plastic bottles, those two
ladies are after the cans.
Somebody focuses on cardboard,
wire has its place, newspapers
go somewhere else. When
everything works smoothly the
crew can reclaim almost half of
the amount that hit the
"tipping pad" out front. Too
often, the rate is around 25%.
The rest falls off the end of
those conveyors and gets
shipped out to the local
landfill. California's
regulations require 50% be
diverted from the landfill and
are hoping for 75%. They call
it recycling.
Funny thing though: if
cardboard sells for a half cent
a ton higher today, more
cardboard comes off the line.
When raw goods don't have a
decent market, it doesn't make
sense to spend the time and
money to pull it off the line,
and the whole lot can end up in
the dump. Most areas need more
regional reprocessing plants to
keep the reclaimed stuff local;
more than likely, those
recovered raw materials (and
jobs) are exported overseas.
Our Circular Economy of make,
use, reuse / recycle /
remanufacture is still a work
in progress.
Hey Rube!
There's these big drums with
fins on the inside called Dense
Media Separators. Mining
companies use them to sift out
minute amounts of precious
metals from mountains of dirt.
The grainy, moist, smelly grit
that falls off the end of an
urban MRF's conveyors is the
residue from everything
upstream, including broken up
electronics. Chances are, we
are consistently "tossing out
the baby with the bath water",
disposing of particles of
silver and gold, with the grit.
There are always more
opportunities for resource
recovery from
waste.
This Week's Extra
Reading
The
International Council on Clean
Transportation has released a
report entitled "Potential
low carbon fuel supply to
the Pacific Coast region of
North America." The
study evaluates potential
low-carbon fuel deployment
in the 2015–2030 timeframe
and finds that the policy
goals of British Columbia,
California, Oregon, and
Washington are
simultaneously
achievable.
This Week's Top Story
Maine MRC
Selects Fiberight to Develop
Hampden Waste Handling
Facility
At its February 4, 2015
meeting, the Municipal Review
Committee (MRC) Board of
Directors approved a
development agreement with
Fiberight, LLC after receiving
a report on a peer review of
its technology performed by the
University of Maine Engineering
Department.
02/06/2015
The Week's News
AnaeCo
Secures $4.6M Bridge Funding
to Complete WMRC
Project
Australian company AnaeCo
Limited has announced that it
has secured a $4.6 million loan
to fund completion of the
Western Metropolitan Regional
Council (WMRC) Project at the
JFR McGeough Resource Recovery
Facility (RRF) in Shenton Park,
Western Australia.
02/06/2015
EPA Issues
Final Clean Air Standards
for New Residential Wood
Heaters
The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has announced that
as of February 3, 2015, its
final New Source Performance
Standards for residential wood
heaters are in effect to make
new heaters significantly
cleaner and improve air quality
in communities where people
burn wood for heat.
02/05/2015
GLOBAL
BIOENERGIES Reaches First
Milestone in BioMA+
Project
France based GLOBAL BIOENERGIES
announced that it has reached
the first milestone of the
BioMA+ project.
02/05/2015
CH2M HILL
Designs Innovative Bioenergy
Pilot Project in Abu
Dhabi
Colorado headquartered CH2M
HILL is providing technical
support on a new research
project at Masdar City-the
world's first bioenergy
pilot-scale facility to use
seawater irrigated desert land
to produce both bioenergy and
food in the water.
02/05/2015
All Power
Labs Is Selected for $2M CEC
Grant to Commercialize
Powertainer
California based All Power Labs
(APL) has been selected to
receive a grant award of $2
million from the California
Energy Commission (CEC) under
funding opportunity PON-14-303
to complete commercialization
and deployment of the
Powertainer.
02/03/2015
Research
Documents Low Cost Tubular
Digester Works in Cold
Climate
Elsevier Publications'
ScienceDirect web service has
released a recent publication
by South American researchers
focused on cold climate
co-digestion of varied manure
types.
02/03/2015
UK Green
Investment Bank Launches
Small-Scale Advanced Waste
Fund
The United Kingdom (UK) Green
Investment Bank (GIB) has
announced a £50 million
investment into a new fund
targeting smaller-scale
recycling and waste projects
across the UK.
02/03/2015
UK Adds £25M
to Auctions to Support Low
Carbon Energy
Projects
The United Kingdom (UK)
government is making an extra
£25 million of funding
available through auctions for
low carbon support, following
high levels of demand for
contracts.
02/02/2015
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