Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume VI, Issue
1, January 4,
2016
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"TerĂº")
Teru's Trash Talk
Let's remake
ourselves for the New
Year. Reduce, Reuse, and
Recycle is
so
2015!
In Jolly Ol' England, the
non-profit Waste and Resource
Action Programme, fondly called
WRAP, is proposing instead that
we globally adopt the
3Rs of the
Future:
Re-Invent
at the
'design stage',
Re-Think
a
product's 'use phase',
and
Re-Define
each product's
'end-of-life'. The
organization's reasoning
makes as much sense for
North America as for
Europe.
Modern waste management needs
to find its rightful place
within the concept of a
circular materials pathway
rather than the traditional
linear make-use-dispose
economy. It makes sense to
stretch our thinking around the
entire pathway of resource
events: new stuff to old stuff,
back to new stuff. In other
words,
circular.
We know that just
good
waste collection doesn't solve
the problem of recovering
resources from trash. We
understand that shipping the
'recyclate' goodies off to
distant markets may cause more
harm than good, given the
transport emissions and loss of
local benefit. We can break
down otherwise unusable crud to
the basic raw materials. If we
get the conversion
that
far, it
is a no-brainer to feed those
foundation resources to
remanufacturing industries. Now
let's translate these steps
into the New & Improved
3Rs. We can start anywhere in
the cycle; to really understand
how this fits in the new
concept, let's move backwards
along the circular
path.
Start with the Remanufacturing
stage, and Re-Invent how we
make new things, where we make
things, and what materials we
use to make those things. The
new design should result in a
product that is simpler to pull
apart into reusable and
recyclable components, use
increasingly more raw materials
converted from the local
discards, and go back into the
marketplace with far less
packaging.
Re-Thinking how we use goods
'wraps' around the current
mantra of waste prevention,
encompassing Reduce and Reuse,
redistributing edible but
unmarketable produce, more
carefully portioning and
serving food in our
restaurants, and remaking used
textiles into new clothing. Any
time we can short-circuit the
process of new things becoming
old things, we have extended
that thing's useful life and
saved money, energy, and
resources in the
process.
Now Re-Define what comes next
when a product hits the end of
its useful life. Clean and
local waste conversion is a
logical end-point of recycling
and the starting point of the
remanufacturing stage. To make
that step work, we must meet
remanufacturer's
specifications. Higher quality
and quantity foundation
resources will attract
industries that can use those
materials. New business will be
attracted to areas where it is
cheaper to manage the types of
waste they generate. Everything
we need to make new stuff is
right there in our old stuff.
Think backward along the path
of the Circular Economy to
build out the supply chains,
and the market draw will
follow. That just makes good
business
sense.
Hey Rube!
This notion of the 3Rs of the
Future applies across the
spectrum from individuals to
communities, institutions,
companies, and countries. Teru
will be stretching around the
concept this quarter; we ask
that each of you try the ideas
on and let us know how they
fit.
The Week's News
Dyadic
Closes Sale of Industrial
Technology Business to
Dupont
Dyadic International, Inc has
completed the closing of the
previously announced sale of
substantially all of the assets
of its Industrial Technology
business to DuPont’s
Industrial
Biosciences business for $75
million in cash.
12/31/2015
Ener-Core
Signs Definitive Agreements
for Private Placement
Transaction
California based Ener-Core, Inc
has announced that it entered
into definitive agreements on
December 30, 2015, with certain
institutional and other
accredited investors for a
private placement of 625,000
shares of common stock.
12/31/2015
Blue Sphere
Increases Working Capital
with $3M
Financing
Blue Sphere Corporation has
announced that it closed on a
debt financing round on
December 23, 2015 of US
$3,000,000, consisting of
company Notes and warrants to
purchase shares of Common
Stock.
12/30/2015
GM Now Has
131 Landfill-Free Facilities
Globally
General Motors Company (GM) has
announced the addition of six
landfill-free sites in Mexico
and England, making a total
count of 131 landfill-free
facilities.
12/30/2015
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