Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume VI, Issue 15, April
18,
2016
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
If we keep pouring water in a
bucket, it may
fill up.
It depends, doesn't it? Maybe
some critter will come along
and lap up water from one side
while you pour it in the other.
Maybe it'll evaporate; maybe
there's a hole in that bucket.
But just maybe the bucket will
fill up, and
spill.
If we keep pouring separated
items into the Recycling
market, we had better hope
something
is going
to happen to remove them faster
than we add to the pile. We've
made laws that
demand
we keep
digging the recyclables out of
our tsunami of trash; it just
stands to reason that we have
also created functional
pathways for use of the stuff
we collect. Nope, not so
much.
We know two things from our
meticulous attention to the
flood of data regarding waste
management trends. We should
all implement recycling. It's a
good thing to do, it makes us
less trashy, and … it's the
law. We also know that the
global recycling market is down
and appears likely to stay that
way for awhile, although just
why, or what we should do about
the calamity, remains up for
grabs. At this point and until
we figure this mess out, we
probably should stop trying to
pour water into that full
bucket. We can't, because (oh
my) the only other alternative
we have is to
waste
those
resources! C'mon, really:
is that the only
alternative?
Waiting for someone else to
come along and clean up our
mess is a child's approach to
the problem. One thing's
certain: if we just ignore the
ugly reality of less resources
and more waste long enough,
this all becomes a self-curing
problem: we'll run out of key
raw materials, and then we
won't make new things that can
be used and then thrown
away.
A curious trend is slowly
taking hold around the planet,
based on something we've all
known forever it seems: one
person's trash is another's key
raw materials. We are starting
to put that basic idea into
practice, moving stuff from one
industry to another. Here and
there, really smart (and
particularly persistent) folks
are linking public and private
waste generation to local clean
resource recovery and
remanufacturing. From this, we
learn that what we use in any
one area somehow is reflected
in what we throw away. And
amazing as it seems, what
someone needs
in any
one area is magically to be
found in what someone else has
thrown out as
trash.
Most
governments are very good at
pushing 'proper waste
management' forward with a
legislated stick, demanding we
keep finding more recyclates to
add to the pile. Government is
also very good at maintaining
barriers to implementing
environmentally sane,
economical solutions. It is
only right and proper: We the
People have instructed our
representative to do so. It is
equally appropriate that we
reverse this self-destructive
trend, and start putting in
local tools to convert local
waste back into local raw
materials. By all accounts, our
recycling bucket is
full.
Hey Rube!
There's
been lots of activity in our
agencies lately, mostly focused
on Climate Change and how We
the People can solve this
global problem. Better resource
management is certainly part of
that solution, and California's
air and waste agencies have
scheduled key meetings and
workshops addressing the
challenges, and the tasks
before us. CalRecycle will work
on recycling and organics
topics at this month's public
meeting on April 19th; the Air
Board steps up on the 26th. As
California goes, so goes the
planet (some say) so show up if
you can, or at least tune into
the agency's webcasts - take
notes, and speak
up.
The Week's Top Story
CO2 Recovery
Plant Starts Operation at
Neste's Singapore
Refinery
Finland based Neste Corporation
has announced that the carbon
dioxide (CO2) recovery and
liquefaction plant built at
Neste's renewable products
refinery in Singapore has
started commercial operation.
04/12/2016
The Week's News
CalRecycle
Posts Recycling and Disposal
Reporting Workshop
Agenda
The California Department of
Resources and Recycling
(CalRecycle) has posted the
agenda and presentation for the
first Stakeholder Workshop on
new recycling and disposal
reporting requirements per
Assembly Bill (AB) 901,
previously announced in March.
04/16/2016
California
Agencies Will Co-Host
Workshop on Agricultural
Sector
Emissions
California's Department of Food
and Agriculture, Natural
Resources Agency, and Air
Resources Board are jointly
hosting a public workshop on
the agriculture sector on April
27, 2016 from 10:00am to
1:00pm.
04/16/2016
DOE
Announces FOA for Bioenergy,
Bioproducts Facilities
Development
Plans
The US Department of Energy's
(DOE)Office of Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy
(EERE) intends to issue, on
behalf of the Bioenergy
Technologies Office, a Funding
Opportunity Announcement (FOA)
entitled "Project Definition
for Pilot and Demonstration
Scale Manufacturing of
Biofuels, Bioproducts, and
Biopower (PD2B3)".
04/15/2016
AGH
Announces 2016 Pellet Stove
Design Challenge
Winners
The Alliance for Green Heat
(AGH) has announced the winners
of the 2016 Pellet Stove Design
Challenge.
04/15/2016
Acme-Hardesty Is
New Distributor for Green
Biologics' Renewable
Products
Acme-Hardesty and Green
Biologics, Inc. have signed a
two year distribution agreement
to market and sell renewable
n-butanol and acetone to the US
market.
04/14/2016
WELTEC
BIOPOWER Builds 2 New
Agricultural Biogas Plants
in
UK
WELTEC BIOPOWER UK Ltd. has
reported orders for two new
agricultural biogas plant
projects in England and
Northern Ireland.
04/14/2016
PROBIO
Energy Exports Scottish
Refuse Derived Fuel to
Scandinavia
Hartlepool based PROBIO Energy
Limited has entered into a
three-year contract
with
recovered materials recycling
company Newport Paper Ltd to
export 100,000 tonnes of baled
Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) to
Scandinavia.
04/13/2016
Xergi
Delivers 3rd Biogas Plant to
Danish Client, Introduces
X-chopper to
UK
Food waste and livestock manure
are being transformed into
biogas and green fertilizer at
the biogas plant NGF Nature
Energy Midtfyn, which was
inaugurated on April 8, 2016.
04/13/2016
RSB Webinar
on New Developments in
Aviation Biofuel Production
and
Regs
The Roundtable on Sustainable
Biomaterials (RSB) has
scheduled a webinar on April
28, 2016 at 7:00am PDT covering
New Developments in Aviation
Biofuel Production and
Regulation.
04/12/2016
CARB
Schedules Workshop on Draft
Short-Lived Climate
Pollutant
Strategy
The California Air Resources
Board (CARB) has released its
Proposed Short-Lived Climate
Pollutant Reduction Strategy
(SLCP Proposed Strategy) and
the Draft Environmental
Analysis (EA) for public
review.
04/12/2016
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