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things become outdated and need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.
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
|
