One Earth Recycling

Google’s clean power ambitions are ramping up. The company has hired Philip Gleckman, former chief scientist at solar thermal startup eSolar, to work on solar tech internally for Google, Green Energy Reporter first reported, and we’ve confirmed with Google.

Google’s Parag Chokshi, who heads up Clean Energy Public Affairs, told me in an email that Gleckman “has a wealth of experience in this sector and his expertise will obviously add to our research and development work with RE

Google’s Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl has mentioned Google’s internal efforts to build solar thermal mirrors before. Solar thermal technology works by using large mirrors and lenses to reflect the sun onto a liquid that is turned into steam and runs a steam turbine, producing electricity. Utilities in California and other sunny states like Arizona, have been working with third parties like eSolar and BrightSource to get large utility-scale solar thermal plants built in the deserts.

Weihl told Reuters a year ago that Google had started developing its own solar thermal mirrors because there has been a lack of industry innovation around the technology — basically if you want something done right, do it yourself (even if it’s utterly outside of your scope of business). Weihl said back then that Google is looking to cut the cost of developing the solar mirrors by at least a factor of 2 (but ideally a factor or 3 or 4) by using unusual materials. A Google spokesperson said at the time that Google had a “handful of dedicated full-time green engineers” working on green technologies as part of its RE

Google has invested in both solar thermal companies eSolar and BrightSource, so is clearly trying to bring down the cost of solar in a variety of ways. This isn’t the first time that Google has decided to design hardware outside of its core competency. Google famously builds its own servers and data centers instead of contracting with third parties because the search engine giant says it can make them more efficiently.

Google also recently made a major move to buy clean power from a wind farm through its subsidiary Google Energy, which can buy and sell energy on the wholesale markets. I speculated in a longer article on GigaOM Pro (subscription required) that Google could buy the wind power potentially to one day use it to power data centers. On that note, Google could potentially build its own solar thermal farms with its own solar thermal tech to power its data centers. A stretch, but an idea.

Everybody knows there’s no fate worse than being a vegetable. Oh, how those healthy veggies must pine after hungry shoppers as they bypass nutritious stacks of produce en route to snack aisle nirvana. If only vegetables had bright packaging, adrenaline-packed commercials, and millions of dollars for marketing campaigns! Maybe then they could compete with the glitzy success of junk food.

Well, if you can’t beat ’em, you can sell out like “baby carrots” and join ’em.

“More crunchy than chips. More orange-y than cheese puffs. More addicting than any snack that ends in -itos. When you add it all up, baby carrots are the greatest junk food on the planet. The only thing missing is the junk food marketing … until now, peoplz,” boasts “A Bunch of Baby Carrot Farmers.”

August 16, 2010 by the Telegraph/UK Mankind Is Using Up Global Resources Faster Than Ever

The growing world population and increasing consumption has pushed the world into ‘eco-debt’ a month earlier this year, according to the latest statistics on global resources.
by Louise Gray

Think tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF) look at how much food, fuel and other resources are consumed by humans every year. They then compare it to how much the world can provide without threatening the ability of important ecosystems like oceans and rainforests to recover.
This year the moment we start eating into nature’s capital or ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ will fall on 21st August, a full month earlier than last year, when resources were used up by 23rd September.

Andrew Simms, Policy Director at NEF, blamed increased consumption.
He said people in developing countries like China are consuming more meat and demanding cars and other energy-intensive goods. Even with green developments and energy efficiency, rich countries are also consuming more as individuals demand the latest technology, food fad or car.
He explained that the earlier humans use up Earth’s resources, the more strain is put on resources, forcing up fuel prices and driving climate change. Ultimately ecosystems like fisheries and even the Earth’s climate system will suffer and future generations will experience food shortages and rising global temperatures.
Mr Simms called for a transition to a more sustainable way of living to prevent poverty and starvation in the future.
“The banking crisis taught us the danger of a system that goads us to live beyond our means financially,” he said. “A greater danger comes from a consumer culture and economic policy that pushes us to live beyond our means ecologically.”
© 2010 The Telegraph

Miramar Landfill

San Diego’s city website boasts that the Miramar Landfill “is the nation’s first municipally-operated landfill to earn ISO 14001 certification.”
A banner at the landfill office marks the same distinction, granted by a Switzerland-based group that publishes worldwide standards to promote the best management practices across business and government.
In the case of a landfill, that meant operators pledged to take specific steps to protect the air above and groundwater below the dump.
But the city stopped using the standards of the International Organization for Standardization just before preparing to privatize the landfill, The Watchdog has learned.
Weeks before Mayor Jerry Sanders announced in July that he is exploring the idea of “getting the city out of the landfill business,” his staff began informing workers that the city would no longer use the international standards.
“After a considerable amount of evaluation and thought, it was decided that we no longer have to maintain the ISO 14001 certification as the program has achieved our City goals,” according to a May 24 e-mail obtained by The Watchdog.
The e-mail offered no further explanation of the change. In response to questions from The Watchdog, Environmental Services director Chris Gonaver said the benefits of the certification have run out.
“Approximately $5 million in savings were realized initially, however no new new savings or environmental improvements, attributable to ISO, have been realized since 2005,” he said. “After a year of evaluation, the (department) determined that the essence of the ISO certification could be more successful and save resources if an internal environmental management system was adopted.”
The ISO did not return an e-mail seeking comment about its standards no longer being met at the Miramar Landfill. But critics are concerned that the city might be relaxing its operating practices so the landfill will be more attractive to private bidders.
They also worry that the privatization paperwork issued by the city includes provisions to expand the height of the landfill up to 20 feet and extend the boundaries to the west, making it more valuable.
“It’s like a pot of gold for trash,” said Murtaza Baxamusa, director of research and policy for the Center on Policy Initiatives, a pro-labor think tank based in San Diego. “It’s all about the capacity.”
Baxamusa, who holds a doctorate in planning, said that without the international certification, any private-sector operator is likely to save money.
“What you can extract out of every cubic foot of the land potential is what generates money,” he said.
The Miramar Landfill is the primary destination for most of the region’s solid waste and greenery. With approximately 1 million tons of refuse a year, the dump generates $50 million or more in revenue for the city.
Carolyn Chase, chairwoman of the San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club, was unaware the standards had been dropped.
“ISO standards matter,” she said. “I find it peculiar for the city to say the value is over because a certification is an ongoing thing. Anything without independent verification is always questionable from an environmental perspective.
“There’s something in there that somebody doesn’t want to keep doing. That’s what I’m worried about.”
The city operates the dump through an agreement with the U.S. government for 1,400 acres adjacent to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar that runs to 2045.
For years the city has expected to close the landfill and take its trash elsewhere, only to see its life extended.
Applications to assume operation of the dump are due at City Hall on Aug. 13. The privatization effort would require approval from the City Council and several members have endorsed the idea.

Thousands of seized guns melted for recycling

Ever hear of an “eco-fee”?  Neither had most consumers in Toronto, where the charge for recycling products like dish soap, batteries, and fire extinguishers quietly began appearing on some supermarket bills July 1.

If you look on your cash-register receipt, the item “ECOFEE” might even be mistaken for a Starbucks item.

The eco-fee has been called a “tax grab,” but it’s not a tax, insist Ontario provincial government officials. Stewardship Ontario, the industry group set up to oversee mandated recycling programs, says the “eco-fees” are neither mandatory or a tax.  Retailers have the option to pass the fees they must pay to Stewardship Ontario to safely recycle many products along to consumers, and many have, on hundreds of products ranging from pharmaceuticals and whipped cream to fire extinguishers.

You can be pretty sure that environmentally conscious cities like San Francisco and Seattle are paying close attention to all this.

One thing most people agree on is that consumers didn’t get adequate warning that these fees might begin appearing on their shopping bills before they quietly came ino effect and appeared July 1.

Some Conservative politicians have called it a tax grab, but the Toronto Star is reporting that Stewardship Ontario is urging companies to bury eco-fees in a product’s price so consumers are “none the wiser.”  Stewardship Ontario denies this, saying of the “media firestorm” that “the fees are a cost of doing business,” and the eco-fee may be reflected either in the product’s sticker price or itemized in the checkout receipt.”

None of the fees, the group says, go to Stewardship Ontario or to the government. Provincial Environment Minister John Gerretsen says the recycling fees are not a “tax grab.”

“We’ve allowed them a fee for recycling these products if the retailer wants to charge it,” he explains. “Sometimes the retailer charges it, sometimes they don’t.”

Stewardship Ontario denies it’s quietly urged retailers to put the mandated recycling fees in the sticker price so the consumer is none the wiser.

The nation’s largest-circulation newspaper, the Toronto Star, editorialized about the eco-fee uproar, calling  eco-fees a “laudable program,” but adding, “The problem is, the public wasn’t told about it in advance.”  It added the fee was rolled out in a “clumsy fashion”: by the government and Stewardship Ontario.  (The latter industry group ran newspaper ads as part of a $2.5 million educational campaign — but never mentioned the new fees. )

Products charged the Ontario eco-fee

–all aerosol containers, from hairspray to paint

–rechargeable batteries

–household bleaches, drain cleaners and detergents

–pharmaceuticals for humans AND pets, including prescription meds, OTC drugs, and natural health products

–fluorescent tubes, bulbs

–fire extinguishers

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/jul/09/questions-about-private-operation-miramar-landfill/

Questions Arise Over Private Operation Of Miramar Landfill

BY ED JOYCE.9Jul10.San Diego CA KPBS TV

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said he wants to sell the Miramar Landfill, but some people say privatizing the landfill may create an environmental problem.

Enlarge this image
Credit: City of San Diego Environmental Services Department
Above: Food waste at the Miramar Landfill. The mayor’s office is looking at outsourcing operations at the city-owned Miramar Landfill. The city council learned about the plan at its meeting on May 25, 2010.

The City of San Diego has put out a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), which is the first step toward getting a private operator to take over the Miramar Landfill.
The city has operated the landfill since 1959 on land leased from the federal government.
Murtaza Baxamusa with the Center on Policy Initiatives in San Diego said the city’s request for proposals does not include the same environmental operating standards the city has used.
“We are quite significantly concerned about the quality of how the management of that landfill will result in a deterioration of our water and our air,” said Baxamusa.
The City Council has the final say whether any proposals are accepted.
Councilwoman Donna Frye said she likes the idea of selling the landfill, but she’s not happy with the possibility that environmental standards could be less stringent under private operation.
Frye also said the council was not briefed and there was not an opportunity for San Diego residents to comment on the idea before the city posted the RFQ.

Check back often for updates!