Teru Talk News

Teru Talk Newsletter

Volume VI, Issue 13, April 4, 2016
Teru Talk by Michael Theroux (pronounced "Terú")  

Teru's Trash Talk

There’s nothing like moving to smaller quarters to let you know you have accumulated too much stuff. Teru Talk’s team is mid-move, an all-consuming exercise, especially when trying hard not to simply toss the excess into the back bin. Time to assess what to keep, what to part with – yet as careful as we can be, we are making more trash in a month than we’ve let loose in a year. Apparently, just storing odd items does not equate to Not Making Waste.

We’re pretty much obsessed with making as little trash as possible, but good grief! It seems every desk drawer, closet and cubby hole is full of stuff and very little of it has risen to the We Need That level in a long time. If we have really converted from paper files to digital records, why oh why do we still have so much paper? Binders from the distant past; manila folders holding letters for projects long since closed. And the mementos! How can we possibly get rid of that beee-uutiful Lucite whats-it we won for being so special, for something or another so long ago. A sturdy rollie-cart becomes rubbish since the behemoth work station it once carried is now Waste Electronics - whatever we did on that beast can all be accomplished on our cell phone. Useful in their day, still functional if the things were still needed - which they are not. Now what?

So far we’ve sent a couple truck loads to local charities, swapped perfectly useful but unneeded bookcases and such for fresh eggs and veggies (that was cool) and have been selling a continual stream of identifiable items online. We’ve barely made a dent. What sort of detritus ends up in the dumpster, when Zero Waste fanatics have to accept that we too are trashy? Broken chairs, mildewed boxes, out-of-date business cards, envelopes with the wrong address, and that easy-erase white board someone used a permanent marker on – tossed.

Where we are located, everything goes in one big bin, and ends up at the massive central Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). Yep, they’ll separate out white paper, cardboard and wire cables, anything else that fits one of the umpteen categories designated as Recyclable by the plant’s administration on that particular day. The decision to pull an item from the MRF conveyer belt line is a complex one, a balance of cost of the separation and cleaning versus the spot price for the particular recyclate. But those prices are down, and when the sorting is done, half or more of all that stuff that came in the front, goes out the back and on to the dump.

For almost six years now Teru Talk has yammered on about all the currently available clean tools and cool techniques we can use on the trashy residual left after recycling to convert it into useful solids, liquids and gases – into foundation materials, reclaimed resources. Meanwhile the Powers that Be have continued to rely on the market price of recycled bottles, glass, cardboard, and metal to dictate what does or does not end up in the dump. We are still paying to bury half of the discards we generate. Resource recovery can be more economical and far more environmentally sane than pillaging for virgin materials, but it takes work and doesn’t happen by accident.

Hey Rube!

With our all-consuming move, our newsletter schedule has become somewhat varied. The news continues however, and progress is evident globally on all fronts. Many cool tools and advanced techniques are surging forward for turning waste into non-waste. Pick a favorite or two, contact the blokes involved and let ‘em know that Humans actually are paying attention to their efforts.

Sponsored Link:  
  Solar Cooker Balloon Energy System by California Sunlight

Solar Cooker Balloon Energy System by California Sunlight

This is the most compact, light weight, and durable portable solar cooker in the world. Complete kit includes everything you need to cook outdoors (except the sun).

The Week's Top Story

Tytec Recycling Launches Green OTR Tire Recycling Solution

The new Australian company Tytec Recycling is launching environmentally friendly off the road (OTR) tire recycling process this year. 03/31/2016

The Week's News

BETO to Host Bioenergy 2016, Releases Multi-Year Program Plan Update

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that its Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) will host the ninth annual conference on July 12–14, 2016: Bioenergy 2016: Mobilizing the Bioeconomy through Innovation. 03/31/2016

Orange County Landfill Gas to Energy Project Powers Up

A ribbon cutting ceremony has been held to officially open the Bowerman Power Project renewable energy facility at the Frank R. Bowerman landfill in Orange County east of Irvine, California. 03/30/2016

Rivertop Renewables and DTI Facility Exceeds Nameplate Capacity

Montana based Rivertop Renewables has announced that it exceeded the nameplate capacity of its first commercial production facility during benchmark testing. 03/30/2016

ElectraTherm Power+ Generators Shipped to Biomass Plant in Italy

Nevada based ElectraTherm has shipped two Power+ Generator 6500’s to a biomass facility site in Italy. 03/29/2016

Farmers and Comet Biorefining to Develop Biomass Supply Chain

Canada based Cellulosic Sugar Producers Cooperative has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Comet Biorefining to collaborate on the development of a sustainable agricultural biomass supply chain in southwestern Ontario. 03/28/2016

Oregon Council Schedules Biomass Market Fundamentals Workshop

The Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council (COIC) is hosting the Biomass Market Fundamentals Workshop as part of the Central Oregon Woody Biomass Cluster Development Project (Project). 03/28/2016

CalRecycle Hosts Composting, Recycling and Solid Waste Facility Workshops

The California Department of Resources and Recycling (CalRecycle) will conduct the first two workshops in a series for stakeholder feedback on regulation development for the new recycling and disposal reporting requirements per Assembly Bill (AB) 901 (Chapter 746, Statutes of 2015). 03/25/2016

CBEA Supports AB 2700-Energy Procurement to Update California's RPS

The California Biomass Energy Alliance (CBEA) is supporting Assembly Bill (AB) 2700 - Energy Procurement, introduced by Assembly Member Rudy Salas last month to update the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to provide an incentive for utilities to procure biomass resources. 03/25/2016

Aemetis Licenses LanzaTech and Edeniq Technologies for Cellulosic Ethanol

Aemetis, Inc. has announced the acquisition of exclusive rights to LanzaTech's patented technology for the conversion of agricultural waste, forest waste, dairy waste, and construction and demolition waste (CDW) to ethanol in California. 03/24/2016

Pork Power Gets New Meaning with Duke Energy Deal in North Carolina

Duke Energy has announced that it will buy swine and poultry waste power from a facility planned for eastern North Carolina using the captured methane gas to generate renewable electricity at four power stations. 03/23/2016

 

View in browser
 
Follow TeruTalk on Twitter
Like Teru Talk on Facebook!
 
 

Teru Talk Home

 
Current News at Teru Talk
 
Teru Action Items
 
 
TERU Focus Reports
 

Articles at Teru Talk

 
Sponsors:
 
JDMT, Inc
 
 Meo & Associates
 
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

 

SEE YOUR EVENT HERE!
 

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

 

© Copyright 2016 Teru Talk by JDMT, Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

Please do not reply to this email because the mail box is not monitored and we might miss it. Please click here to Contact Us.

If you received this from someone else, subscribe so you can have your own. You may also unsubscribe or update your email preferences
by clicking one of the links below.

The Teru Talk Newsletter is published weekly or more or less frequently, primarily depending on what is going on in the world of waste conversion or ours.