Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume VI, Issue 9,
February 29,
2016
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"TerĂº")
Teru's Trash Talk
This must be Leap Day, the
once-every-four-years 29th of
February. Let's make the most
of it, shall we? Here's a short
list of Circular Economy Leap
Day Decrees:
This morning, let's check to
see if we can use what we've
got a little bit better and
longer. And let's see if we can
hand off what we don't want to
someone who just might actually
need
that
would-be discard. Cup of
coffee in hand, let's
walk around the palace
halls and hang a tag on
anything we haven't even
thought to pick up in six
months, much less even
use. Look in the corners,
under the bed, behind the
coats in the
closet.
Lunch time will be here soon,
so we check the refrigerator
for food that if left another
few days will go green and
fuzzy. Make soup, make a
sandwich, make
lunch
outta
those left-overs, and
avoid running out to the
local Grab-and-Gag for
another burger. Heat 'em
up and eat 'em up.
Leftovers for Lunch: what
a concept. Full and happy
(burp), we can walk the
perimeter grounds. Any
food stuff that didn't
make the lunch cut goes
into the compost. More
lost goods appear for
tagging, in the garage
corners and behind the
workshed. More tagged
items fall into the
Useable but unwanted
category, and get
shuffled into the Charity
box (probably
boxes
by
now). We'll encounter
more Reuse goodies than
anticipated, so there
goes the
afternoon.
But there will always be Old
Stuff that we won't eat,
shouldn't compost, can't think
of any way anyone else could
use, and just generally is in
the way. Into the Trash Bin it
goes, right? But this is Leap
Day, and with its special magic
we get to see where that bin
goes and what at least
could
happen
next. The big trucks come
and go, to dump their
loads at the regional
Materials Recovery
Facility, our friendly
local MRF. Most days, we
would find a third of
that old stuff gets
pulled out and sold off
to somewhere else as the
Recyclables. Everything
else would be Dumped and
Buried, to fester to leak
goo down and spew methane
up. What a
waste.
But this is Leap Day. Today
every trash scrap has some sort
of Waste Conversion kit just
waiting to turn it back into
something useful. Plastics not
suitable for making new
plastics go into that heater,
and the fumes get sucked off to
make fuels and chemicals. Paper
with fibers too short to make
new paper gets crunched and
cubed; some gets sent to make
heat and power, some gets
dissolved into wood sugars and
fermented into fuel. The cell
phones, TVs and computers that
can't be stripped down and
rebuilt get ground up,
separating glass, plastic and
metal parts. And with pure Leap
Day Magic, out that electronic
waste comes a thimble-full of
precious metal. We've turned
trash to
gold.
But wait: if we can do this on
Leap Day, what's to stop us
from doing this every day? Why
are we still wasting the very
resources we work so hard to
acquire? As Walt Kelly's
character Pogo informed us on
Earth Day in 1971, "We have met
the enemy, and he is
us."
Hey Rube!
Reports are coming in from the
wealth of this year's monster
waste management and bioenergy
conferences, and the message
seems consistent. While petro
fuel prices are being held so
unnaturally low, turn waste and
biomass into chemicals. Why
work to sell an alt-fuel gallon
for a buck, when you can sell a
gram for $10?
This Week's Extra
Reading
US Chamber
Foundation Issues Report on
Circular Economy Business
Value
The US Chamber of Commerce
Foundation Corporate
Citizenship Center has issued a
new report detailing the value
businesses can find in viewing
waste as a resource and
engaging in the circular
economy.
02/22/2016
This Week's Top Story
DONG Energy
Constructing Waste
Conversion Bio-Plant in the
UK
Denmark based DONG Energy will
finance, build and operate the
world's first bio-plant that
uses enzymes to handle unsorted
household waste without prior
treatment.
02/23/2016
The Week's News
New Research
Published on Efficient
Production of Ethanol from
Dairy
Waste
A new research article on a new
method for efficient production
of ethanol has just been
published in the online journal
Biotechnology for Biofuels.
02/27/2016
GE Chosen to
Build 100% Biomass-Fired
215MW Power Plant in
Belgium
GE has announced its selection
by Mechelen-based Belgian Eco
Energy (BEE) to build the
largest greenfield, 100 percent
biomass-fired power plant in
the world.
02/27/2016
Alliance
BioEnergy Acquires Remaining
Interest in AMG Energy
Group
Florida based Alliance
BioEnergy Plus, Inc has
announced that its board
approved a plan (the Merger
Plan) on February 22, 2016 to
merge privately held AMG Energy
Solutions (Solutions) into
wholly owned Company subsidiary
AMG Renewables (Renewables),
and to acquire all remaining
outstanding ownership interest
in AMG Energy Group (Group).
02/25/2016
Hawaii
Sponsors New $6.8 Million
Waste to Energy System
Demonstration
The High Technology Development
Corporation’s (HTDC) Hawaii
Center for Advanced
Transportation Technologies
(HCATT) has sponsored a
demonstration of a $6.8 million
renewable and clean, waste to
energy generating system.
02/25/2016
ElectraTherm
ORC to Generate Clean Energy
from Biomass in
UK
Nevada based ElectraTherm has
announced the shipment of its
Power+ Generator 4400 to a
chicken farm in the United
Kingdom (UK), its second
application in the country to
utilize biomass to generate
emission-free electricity.
02/24/2016
Scotland's
Circular Economy Strategy
has 33% Food Waste Reduction
Target
The Scottish Government has
announced the publication of
Scotland’s first ever strategy
aimed at helping move the
country towards a more circular
economy.
02/24/2016
American
Chemical Society Launches
New Journal - ACS Energy
Letters
The American Chemical Society
is launching a new
peer-reviewed journal, ACS
Energy Letters, that will focus
on rapid communication of
research from across the energy
field, including energy
capture, conversion, and
storage.
02/23/2016
WELTEC Group
Acquires 3.3MW
Decommissioned Biogas Plant
in
Germany
WELTEC BIOPOWER has announced
that its subsidiary Nordmethan
GmbH purchased a decommissioned
biogas plant in Falkenhagen,
Brandenburg, Germany, last
month.
02/22/2016
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