We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program . . .

This is a challenging post. First, it's not green oriented, so "off-topic" charge could be leveled. Second, I'm touting myself, so the cynic could sardonically ask what about the five qualities of the Green Knight's star, or where's the license for shameless self-promotion?



I don't have answers but to say that if a writer must write, then when that writing gets published a writer must engage his/her brand. And tomorrow begins my life as a published book author.



Arcadia Publishing releases my pictorial history of New Garden Township (Pa.) for its Images in America series. I've got my own ISBN (139780738572673). I'm permanently lodged into the Library of Congress. My resume attains added luster. (Now, I await the call from Hollywood!)



Green-wise, the tome will be available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites, so if you are so moved to purchase, do so without driving!



I now return you to your regularly scheduled, albeit sporadic, green programming . . .



This Tuesday, 7/20/10 between 6 - 8, Green Drinks will be served at 821 Chelsea Tavern on Market Street in Wilmington, DE (for those living in close proximity of the Green Write). Lori Lake is once again in charge, the weather will be warm, the drinks cold, and the palavers about all things green should be incisive. And of course, wherever you live, you can see if Green Drinks are served by checking the global schedule on the top banner at http://www.greentv.com/.

GreenTV: Initial Encounter!

Did the Green Drinks networking event in Newark on Tuesday and met Lori and Jon Lake, green mavens, entrepreneurs, and all-around good folk from Delaware. Check out their baby -- GreenTV -- at http://www.greentv.com/. Humorous. Fun. Informative. Provocative. Be prepared to spend some time at GreenTV getting a conscience-ful amount of keen ideas to keep this good old earth (or at least life on it) spinning greenly. This is but a brief entry as a new job has kept me busy this week. More to come this weekend.
Be green. Be great.

Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge

A good friend always encourages working on the solution, not focusing on the problem. After all, a solution awaits; the problem is history. Consider the gulf oil spill. Or any oil spill. Consider all the finger pointing at any ecological boogey man: industrial emissions, toxic run-off from mineral mines, poisonous leaching into the ground, nuclear waste.

Disasters happen and somebody takes the fall, perhaps rightly. But you'd think that maybe, once in a while, an ecological disaster would be averted, neutralized by some bolt of inspiration. Instead of waiting to form a solution once the problem commences, a solution -- or two or three -- was already in place.

Only a cynic possessing extreme conviction could admit that no disaster is ever averted -- or inadvertent; after all, what kind of headline is "good news" worth? Still, efforts continue to ameliorate potential, looming disasters. But without interest, few of these stories ever get to a mass audience.

Ergo, The Green Write. And today's post links to Reuters.com and a summary of winners in the annual Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge. The first link is the article. The second is the EPA website that explains the PGCCA.

So, if you know of any chemists worthy of national recognition for green practices -- for heading off future problems by addressing solutions now, let 'em know about this.

I'm thinking my friend Ron Simonetti and his MCR, LLC are deserving.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS16160649420100622

http://www.epa.gov/gcc/pubs/pgcc/presgcc.html

BP's Big Problem

I couldn't help but wonder as the Gulf disaster has unfolded, why, despite the extreme physics involved, a faster, swifter, surer solution wasn't readily at hand. How can an enterprise fraught with high risk not have a number of backup plans? While Youtube.com has some poignant (read: funny) parodies on the catastrophe, none of these are solutions. And while the public laughed at Kevin Costner's technology to clean the oil from the water, his is an effort at cleaning up the mess as it is happening. Yet, the disaster continues with experts saying the leak is more than a month away from being shut down. The great mystery? Business and politics, it seems. Costner testified before the Senate this week. The following link gives a clue as to why BP has egg all over its face and the Gulf has oil all over.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/17/smallbusiness/small_business_bp_hearing/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin

Here's the link to Costner's venture: http://www.ots.org/

And another link to Microsorb: http://www.microsorb.com/about.html

More will follow on oil collection technologies, but it seems a grassroots effort to demand having worst-case-scenario solutions in place henceforth would be something the government should legislate. Like emergency response after 9/11, perhaps environmental emergency response will be the upshot of this disaster. We'll see.

TerraPower - Virtually waste free nuclear energy?

Intellectual Ventures' explanation of Bill Gates' backed TerraPower's Traveling-Wave Nuclear Reactor can be found at the following link:

http://intellectualventures.com/Libraries/TerraPower/IV_Introducing_TWR_February_2010.sflb.ashx

MIT's technology review has this to say about TWR:
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22114/?a=f

Intriguing stuff.

Bill Gates & Spent Nuclear Waste Recycling

Perhaps another example of cradle to cradle, closed-loop industrial process is an idea Bill Gates has been backing for a few years now - using spent nuclear waste to generate power. A recent investor infusion of a cool $35 million dollars is enabling the idea -- only on paper right now -- to move forward.

But what a concept! Take the waste of those controversial, Homer-Simpson-operated nuclear plants and burn it further into more energy, thus eliminating those toxic, nuclear wastes while providing requisite energy. No more Yucca Mountain controversies?

The following link at Reuters.com provides and exclusive overview of the latest round of fund-raising and background on the idea.

Of course, nothing is mentioned about the waste that will be generated from Gates' plant -- to what degree would it be harmful or harmless.

Still, it's a green idea worth following.

Enjoy the read: http://http//www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65D4FG20100614

MCR, LLC Grand Opening: Cradle to Cradle Carpet Recycling

Modular Carpet Recycling, LLC opened its first, commercial "waste carpet refinery" on June 7, 2010, in New Castle, Delaware.

Founder and CEO Ron Simonetti explained to Governor Jack Markell, County Executive Chris Coons, Carpet America Recovery Effort Chairman Frank Hurd, Delaware Economic Development Office Director Alan Levin, and three dozen guests that MCR will recycle waste carpet and purify the used nylon to above 99% purity, and re-sell that nylon back to the carpet industry and create manufacturing jobs for the state.

The inception of MCR's first plant is an ecological, economical, and profitable enterprise that solves a looming problem with waste carpet disposal.

Before his comments, Simonetti explained "each person in the US consumes 15 pounds of waste carpet a year - whether or not they like how it tastes." Such waste totals 5 billion pounds that taxes landfills, squanders 5 billion pounds of water used in new manufacturing, and dumps 5 billion pounds of equivalent CO2 emissions into the air. These are huge environmental drawbacks that demand alternatives.

MCR is the latest, most innovative alternative. Simonetti said, "We're chemically processing the waste carpet and removing the nylon in solution. Even the chemicals used are recycled and we don't use intense heat or depolymerization process: so no chemical emissions or harmful discharge. We take waste carpet, recycle it into a reusable product, and leave very little impact on the environment. We're looking at moving toward for 100% recycling. Zero waste is our goal."

That's the Holy Grail of cradle to cradle recycling, a phrase coined by chemist and author William McDonough who calls any closed-loop, industrial process "common sense." Citing that human enterprise can follow nature's lead and laws, McDonough insists that raw materials can be returned to the manufacturing process ad infinitum -- a continuous regeneration of product.

MCR's goals over the next five years are to build out its international network of 4 plants that operate with 0 on the job injuries, raise the purity of its Renewlon to approach virgin quality, and deliver on time 100 milloin pounds of pelletized Renewlon to MCR buyers. Reaching these goals will render an estimated $100 million for MCR.

Simonetti said, "It's what I've always wanted to do: start a small business that has positive impact on society and in this case happens to be green. If you can be competitive when making a green product - that is really something. You can really create a sustaiinable business model."

For his green inspiration, sound environmental business plan, and grand opening, Founder/CEO Simonetti and his MCR, LLC earn the first Green Star from The Green Write.

Learn more at: http://www.modularcarpetrecycling.com/

Read more about MCR's grand opening at: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100608/BUSINESS/6080334/Nylon-recycling-facility-will-create-30-jobs

http://plasticsnews.com/headlines2.html?id=18811