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As Eric knows, I work a lot on waste/recycling issues in Latin America & the Caribbean (wrote a book on it, as a matter of fact), and over the last 3-4 years have seen several techs cum marketers (that's the nice term for many of them!) show up in Caribbean and Central American capitals with this plasma technology, slick presentations and promises of getting rid of all the landfilled waste (as if many real landfills -- vs. glorified dumps -- even existed in many of these countries) -- even HAZARDOUS waste (yes, I've actually heard that claim with my own ears) "for free" and providing cheap electric power, as well as "cheap" and "chemically inert" road-building and construction materials, all "at no cost" to the local government and "absolutely no pollution." Local politicians inevitably get super-excited, thinking they'll solve their solid waste problem, solve their power generation problem, get useful byproducts, have to spend nothing or next-to-nothing and they'll not harm the environment. Then people like me start asking the tech proponents the hard questions (since I was raised to believe that if it sounds too good to be true, chances are that it is). Oh, what environment authority of which major developed nation has approved this technology for full operational scale? Can we see the EIA? What kind of monitoring/emissions controls does EPA (or its equivalent) require of you? What city/county in which country is already running this successfully, and who should we contact there for data about costs, emissions, and chemical test results for the end- and by-products? Are you saying that this process totally removes all traces of heavy metals, PCBs, furans, etc without having to pre-sort the wastes? If pre-sort is necessary, who do you expect to do that and at what cost and to what specs? Etc etc Funny thing -- usually after a battery of such questions, most of these guys quickly fade away. FYI -- in each question, I also checked on the "company" making the presentation, and found most had slick promotional materials but little other information, and usually very little corporate history in the usual places of record... I never could figure out the economics of the tech. How could you make a solid ROI if the government wasn't subsidizing you, if you were not paid to take the trash, and you consumed at least 1/3 the power generated (given that we're talking plasma tech, I'm also a bit suspicious of the cited energy needs for the process)? Maybe the tech is for real, and maybe it can do some percentage of what its proponents claim. But I remain skeptical. If it was so good, so cheap, with so many clear side benefits (generating power, neutralizing toxics, etc), then I have to think it'd already be spreading like wildfire in Europe, North America and Japan. Since it's not, I figure there's part(s) of the story we're not being told... ----------------------------------------------- Sr. Keith Edward Ripley Temas Actuales LLC telefono: 703-731-7108 e-mail: keith.ripley@no.address <http://www.temasactuales.com/> http://www.temasactuales.com <http://www.dr1.com/blogs/?u=environment> El Equipo Verde Autor del libro "Solid Wastes and Recycling Policy in Latin America & the Caribbean" <http://www.temasactuales.com/temas_in_print/index_wastebookpromo.php> http://www.temasactuales.com/temas_in_print/index_wastebookpromo.php Noticias ambientales de América Latina y el Caribe: <http://www.temasactuales.com/whats_new/index.php?page=1> http://www.temasactuales.com/whats_new/index.php?page=1 Las leyes/los reglamentos ambientales de todo America Latina y el Caribe: <http://www.temasactuales.com/laws_policies/LawDbase.php> http://www.temasactuales.com/laws_policies/LawDbase.php Perspectivas sobre la evolucion de politica sobre el medio ambiente, salud publica y defensa del consumidor en America Latina y el Caribe: http://www.temasactuales.com/temasblog Este mensaje es solo para el uso del Destinatario y puede contener información que ES CONFIDENCIAL. Si usted no es el recipiente destinado, mediante la presente usted esta notificado que se prohíbe estrictamente la diseminación de esta comunicación. Si usted ha recibido esta comunicación por error, por favor borrar todas las copias del mensaje y sus anexos y nos notifica inmediatamente. Gracias. _____ From: GreenYes@no.address [mailto:GreenYes@no.address] On Behalf Of Eric Lombardi Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 11:17 AM To: GreenYes@no.address Subject: [GreenYes] Plasma in Panama... sounds like a bad movie The ZW movement in the US has always paid attention to the ?good news? from around the world, but what about the bad news? We love how the EU is forging ahead and cutting a path through the forest with EPR and the prohibition on landfilling biowaste. But there is also some serious bad news abroad that we should be speaking up about. This little blurb to me just as easily could have added a few sentences to the bottom ? which I did just for fun ? 4. STARTECH SIGNS CONTRACT FOR PLASMA FACILITY IN PANAMA Startech Environmental Corp. (Wilton, CT) announced that its exclusive Panamanian distributor Sicmar International Panama S. A. has signed a contract with the city of Las Tablas under which Sicmar has secured the land and waste volumes required for the construction and operation of a Startech Plasma Waste Converter (PWC) facility. The new plant will be designed to process 200 tons of municipal solid waste per day and will be the first of five to ten such facilities planned for operation in Panama. Commissioning for the Las Tablas facility is tentatively scheduled for early 2008. The deal has been financed by the World Bank and guarantees an annual put-or-pay fee to the mayor of Las Tablas of $200,000 per year. The Panamanian corporation, Sicmar, owned by the President of Panama, has announced plans to expand this new sanitary incinerator throughout Central America as a way to shut down the open dumps in the region. The project will create 10 jobs compared to the hundreds of jobs that a Zero Waste public policy would have created, according to the recently deceased head of the national environmental lawyers guild, La Vita. The world is still looking at waste as something to get rid of. We need to make it something that you want to embrace. Eric Eric Lombardi Executive Director/CEO Eco-Cycle Inc Boulder, CO. USA 303-444-6634 www.ecocycle.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GreenYes" group. To post to this group, send email to GreenYes@no.address To unsubscribe from this group, send email to GreenYes-unsubscribe@no.address For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/GreenYes -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- |
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