Teru Talk News

Teru Talk Newsletter

Volume VI, Issue 10, March 7, 2016 
Teru Talk by Michael Theroux (pronounced "Terú")  

Teru's Trash Talk

Resources have a shelf-life; everything outlives its usefulness eventually. Whether apples, fashion, or tractors, things become outdated and need to Go Away. At today's pace, obsolescence comes sooner, rather than later. No wonder there's more Trash.

We can drag our heels to slow the pace, making things last a little longer. On an on-going basis, we can use every food scrap in the refrigerator. We can do our level best to hang onto things and make do, squeezing more useful life out of our gizmos and gadgets – but home repairs only goes so far. With some outside help, we can send stuff back around the Use Wheel again when we're done with it, either refurbished as-is or repurposed as it never was. But there will always come a day …

Most children learn if you don't put away your toys, you may not get any more toys. Global resources are like that. If we can't learn to put raw resources back into the materials flow, sooner rather than later we won't get any more of that particular resource. Any farmer worth her beans knows that you have to replenish the soil, because what you grow takes out stuff and you need to somehow put it back. It's a balancing act, learning how much you can take away, and how much you need to return.

It's natural to see conversion of waste back into raw materials as a means of getting more raw materials. But there's another reality to consider as well. We can't just dump crud alongside the road, we know that doesn't work so well. It has sufficed to put the discards in landfills for quite some time, but this concept of Zero Waste to Landfill is really  catching on, especially with the monster international corporations. So if you don't want to dispose  of your trash, and yet you can't personally Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle everything , what happens to the rest? The old stuff needs to be unmade, and remade into something entirely different, into something new.

Waste conversion isn't just a means to the end of returning critical raw materials to the flow of goods, and a way to replenishing the nutrients and carbon we withdraw from the earth. The clean technical conversion of waste must become the method by which we avoid burying ourselves in our own detritus. Whether based on kinetics, chemicals, heat or microbes, the process of dismantling discards down to their molecular constituents must replace  disposal and destruction. Once discombobulated, we can creatively meet the foundation materials specifications for remanufacturing, and all our old stuff can again become new stuff.

Without this crucial 'waste conversion' dismantling stage requisite to remaking, we'll not only run out of new resources, we'll run out of places to put all the old stuff.

Hey Rube!

Here in the 'civilized world', all the standards and the regulations that protect us must be met in order for anything  to be built and that certainly applies to systems capable of breaking down waste into useful materials. But consider the collaborative work of SNV Netherlands: coaxing, instructing, even financing rural populations to hand-build many thousands  of small, functional anaerobic digesters to turn the local manure, food scraps, and green waste into home-burnable biogas and farm-ready fertilizer. Try taking plans for that  to your local Building Department.

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This Week's Extra Reading

WBA Issues New Factsheet on Global Biomass Potential Towards 2035

The World Bioenergy Association (WBA) has announced the release of the factsheet ‘Global biomass potential towards 2035’ – the ninth in the series of publications. 03/03/2016

This Week's Top Story

Another 10,000 Biogas Plants Will Be Installed in Tanzania

The Tanzania Domestic Biogas Programme (TDBP) will continue to install 10,000 more biogas plants over a two-year period (2016-2017), following the implementation of 12,000 bio-digesters that have already benefitted more than 70,000 Tanzanian people. 03/02/2016

The Week's News

GIB and Equitix Commit £10m to Expansion of Wick District Biomass CHP Plant

United Kingdom (UK) Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) and Equitix have announced the £10m acquisition of Ignis Biomass Limited, the owner and operator of a 3.5 MW combined heat and power (CHP) plant and associated district heating scheme in the north of Scotland. 03/05/2016

Alberta Bio-Industrial Opportunities Schedules BIO WEBinar Spring Series

The Alberta, Canada, Agriculture and Forestry Department has announced its up-coming no-cost BIO WEBinar Spring Series 2016, presented by its Bio-Industrial Opportunities Branch. 03/05/2016

Study Identifies New Process For Bioethanol Production From Potato Waste

The results of a new study on An environmentally friendly and productive process for bioethanol production from potato waste have just been published in the online journal, Biotechnology for Biofuels. 03/04/2016

Canada's BNDC Will Lead Bioeconomy Trade Mission to Nordic Countries

Canada's Biomass North Development Centre (BNDC) will lead a Canadian delegation of up to 25 people on Nordic Bioeconomy Trade Mission 2016 to Sweden and Finland from May 22 to May 29, 2016. 03/03/2016

Mid American Agri Products/Wheatland Brings Edeniq Cellunators Online

California company Edeniq, Inc has announced that Mid American Agri Products / Wheatland (MAAPW) has installed Edeniq’s Cellunator technology at its ethanol and biodiesel plant located in North Platte, Nebraska. 03/03/2016

Forester Media Hosts Waste Gas-to-Energy Project Webinar

Forester Media is hosting a webinar on March 22, 2016 at 11:00 am - 12:30 pm PDT exploring waste gas-to-energy applications, technologies, real-world case studies (e.g., DC Water and Hickory Ridge Landfill), and how you can select, design, and implement waste gas-to-energy at your waste site. 03/03/2016

Blue Sphere to Develop Waste-to-Energy Project in The Netherlands

Blue Sphere Corporation has announced that it has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with BTPB Holdings BV, a private company incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands to develop a waste-to-energy facility in the Brabant province of the Netherlands. 03/02/2016

Toronto Environmental Alliance Releases Zero Waste Toronto

The Canadian non-profit Toronto Environmental Alliance has released a brief report providing concepts for the city's waste management strategies over the next 50 years. 03/01/2016

EPA SBIR Funds Small Businesses to Develop Environmental Technologies

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced eight contracts to small businesses to develop innovative technologies to protect the environment, funded through EPA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. 03/01/2016

Anellotech Granted Patent for Process to Convert Biomass into Biochemicals

New York based Anellotech, Inc has announced that it has been granted US Patent Number 9,249,080 that describes a catalytic process for converting non-food biomass into a wide range of intermediates for the chemical industry. 03/01/2016

The Week's Action Items

Due 04/13/2016: Canadian SME Tech Proposals to Reduce GHG Emissions

The Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) and the Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) organization have jointly released a Call for Funding Applications, seeking pre-commercial stage development proposals from Canadian small and medium enterprises. 03/01/2016

Due 05/31/2016: Blue Sky Renewable Energy Proposals to Pacific Power

Pacific Power, a utility serving areas of Oregon and Washington, is seeking proposals for the 2016 Blue Sky funding awards, which cover up to 100 percent of the capital costs to install qualifying, new renewable energy systems at non-residential sites within the Pacific Power service area. 03/05/2016

Due 07/01/2016: Offers to SDG&E for 2016 Preferred Resources LCR

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) issued its 2016 Preferred Resources Local Capacity Requirement (LCR) Request for Offers (RFO) to solicit bids   in accordance with Decision (D.) 14-03-004 – Decision Authorizing Long-Term Procurement for Local Capacity Requirements due to Permanent Retirement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (the "Track 4 Decision" ) on February 26, 2016. 03/02/2016   

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Featured Events:
 
7th Biomass Pellets Trade & Power, May 16-19, 2016, Tokyo, Japan
 

 Waste Conversion Technology Conference & Trade Show, Aug 15-17, 2016, San Diego. CA

 

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Recommended Reading:

 CHAGALL: The Recycling Dragon
CHAGALL: The Recycling Dragon
by Marty Strauss

Out of the Wasteland: Stories from the Environmental Frontier by Paul Relis  
Out of the Wasteland: Stories from the Environmental Frontier by Paul Relis

 

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Teru Talk is an online publication of JDMT, Inc with the goal of opening the dialogue and providing current news and commentary on issues and successes associated with waste conversion to renewable energy, biofuels and other bio-based products for resource recovery.

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