[Gasification] Trash talk: the green versus the ugly - Ottawa Citizen - 2006.10.06

[LINVENT at aol.com]

My what a charmingly optimistic and rose colored story. Unfortunately, the 
whole story is a great deal more realistic and not as slanted as the reporter 
has created. Toronto has been searching for answers and has had composting 
operations run by private companies in the area for several years, most have closed 
due to lack of an adequate market for their product. This is the case with 
many composting operations, a huge investment and when the operating entity gets 
tired of subsidizing it, it closes. 
     The City of Albuquerque spent $25mm on a building to compost their waste 
and sewage sludge and some organic industrial wastes. The last public 
presentation by one of the managers said tha they never made money and virtually give 
the stuff away to local compost marketers. Their initial objective was to 
sell it for $100/ton which they announced when they started construction of the 
plant. 
     A major waste management concern built 42 Municipal Refuse recovery 
Facilities (MRF) and shuttered 24 of them at the last count. San Diego and the 
surrounding counties spent $150mm of bond funds with Thermo Electron to build a 
complete MRF to the extent that the used tennis shoes were sent to Mexico. The 
plant was shuttered, Thermo Electron got it's lifetime profit payment and the 
bond holders got the shaft. 
     Arcadia, California has the highest recycling rate in the US, and still 
doesn't meet California standards mandated by the Assembly, some 10-12 years 
ago.   Basically all of the homeowners do the recycling or else the garbage 
isn't picked up. 
     Several years ago Toronto issued a RFP for gasification of their MSW to 
power. It was a very comprehensive program and from the responses, they 
decided to ship the waste to the US until the technology moves forward. They have 
their priorities and plans. They may not have wanted to subsidize a long term 
failure. 
     I have had direct involvement, communications and have significant files 
on most of these parties.


Sincerely,
Leland T. Taylor
Leland T."Tom" Taylor
President
Thermogenics Inc.
7100-F 2nd St. NW Albuquerque, NM 87107
Phone:505-463-8422 Fax:505-268-9206 (call first)
Web:thermogenics.com