Sanctions are survivable, just not such a great economy.

When President Obama began the sanctions on Russia, the leadership pulled up it's welcome map and became an isolationist power. That trend started before the sanctions actually. But, Russia is an example of a major power that can survive sanctions.

Russia's nationalism has created a country, with local trading partners, that can produce goods in isolation of the rest of the world. The isolationism of Russia can possibly bring about a sustainable economy as the Russian Ruble has been falling against the USA dollar for the past ten years. (July 2008 value 0.04306 American dollar and October 2017 value 0.01718). If the Russian people trade internally it brings about a dual reality, no different than China's dual currency system. Such isolationism creates an economy, but, not a vibrant economy with growth to attract investment. 

Can North Korea have a sustainable economy under sanctions? Sure. But, will it satisfy the people? If the North Korean people believe their suffering is to insure their survival against the "Great Satan" of the USA, they will appreciate the economy they have. The bombast of Trump fuels Un's economic strategy.

The picture below shows an Un that is a happy and jovial man. If he can throw a celebrity basketball game to the delight of the North Korean people; all the better. Un is feeling no pain these days, it is rolling his way and the USA has lost two warships to freighters over this mess.

October 10, 2017
By Karishma Vaswani

...Sanctions v Survival (click here) 

In his speech, Kim Jong-un also said that North Korea's economy is doing well, despite the sanctions put in place by the West.

That may be wishful thinking, given the fact that the sanctions are being enforced relatively stringently.

And that's affecting the economy.

Although it's hard to get reliable figures on North Korea's economy, some data has shown that gasoline prices have been volatile, and the cost of basic goods have reportedly been rising. That will hurt North Korean households.

"North Korean households are richer than they were before," Byung-Yeon Kim, author of the book Unveiling the North Korean Economy tells me from Seoul.

"Their consumption level has increased since the 1990s. A reduction in consumption levels for both the elites and the households will make them unhappy - and that will create a divide between Kim Jong-un and his people. That's dangerous for his political security."
So when sanctions target foreign trade it does start to bite. And that goes goes back to the central question of Kim Jong-un's political survival....

Trump loves to mimic "W." Get ready for the next "Axis of Evil" speech. Un should be across the border when Trump visits and at least wave hello. Maybe they could engage in a shouting match.

October 10, 2017

Seoul (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump (click here) may travel to the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea when he visits South Korea next month, the South’s Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday, citing a defense source.

The White House sent an advance team of working-level officials in late September to check candidate sites for Trump’s “special activity” in South Korea, the source was quoted as saying.

Trump was expected to send a significant message to North Korea, either verbally or “kinetically”, during his first trip to the peninsula as U.S. commander-in-chief, the source said.

The truce village of Panmunjom and the observation post, both inside the DMZ, were among locations Trump was considering visiting, the source said.

Yonhap did not elaborate and the White House did not comment....

Talk about soft targets. I do not understand the deaths. Why so many?

October 9, 2017
By Ryan Lillis, Molly Sullivan and Ellen Garrison

Santa Rosa - Wildfires driven by powerful winds (click here) tore through Northern California’s famed wine country Monday, killing at least 10, leveling neighborhoods and forcing thousands of residents to grab what they could and flee from fast-moving walls of flames.

Two huge fires in Sonoma and Napa counties were part of a series of blazes that raged across the north state, from Yuba and Nevada counties in the east to Mendocino and Lake counties in the west. Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said bone-dry conditions and high winds combined to whip sparks into firestorms.

“To be honest, pretty much anywhere in the state today (is threatened), and that’s not an exaggeration,” Pimlott said at a midday news conference....

This year is clear demonstration of the neglect of the American people. There have been catastrophic storms and now deadly wildfires. I think Californians are not used to the speed at which these fires started and moved. The ability to predict danger to Americans is becoming more and more diffuse.

These problems are brought on by planetary forces. The world cannot fight Earth. These forces are known to the world, but, this is the first time the USA is being plowed under by the ravages of nature.

There was the heat in France that killed over 10,000 French citizens, there were the fires in Russia that took the lives of 50,000 Russian citizens. That doesn't account for the losses due to typhoons in the Pacific. Even with all that reality in the face of the American people, no matter how much the conservation organizations tried, there was little to no reaction simply because it wasn't them.

October 9, 2017

KTVU staff - Fourteen fast-moving wildfires racing (click here) through Northern California Monday have destroyed at least 1,500 homes and commercial buildings, forced thousands to flee and killed at least 10 people with authorities now saying more fatalities are likely.

Sonoma County Sheriff's Department issued a news release at 4:38 p.m. confirming seven deaths. One person was killed in Mendocino County and a couple died in their home at the Silverado Resort in Napa. 

A Cal Fire spokeswoman in the Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit said power is still out in the St. Helena and Calistoga areas and there is no cell phone service.

According to the couple's granddaughter Ruby Gibney, Charles, also known as Peach, and Sara Rippey were unable to escape from their home, located on Atlas Peak Road, and died in the blaze. Gibney tells KTVU Peach had just turned 100 and Sara was 99. The couple had recently celebrated 75 years of marriage....

October 3, 2017
U.S. Drought Monitor
Continental U.S.

This is the drought map and there is absolutely no indication such wildfires were expected to erupt in California.

To the left is the current map as of October 10, 2017 showing the fires in California. There is no correlation between drought and these fires. None. Fourteen fires occurred for a reason, if it is arson there needs to be stronger programs to end such a threat.

A simple fire can become an inferno with high winds. That was the culprit in these fires that drove the danger to those caught in them. Some reports are saying ten dead, while another is expecting more. The winds. Californians are getting high sustainable winds that drive danger no different than the winds that lashed the Virgin Islands and other mainland areas. Perhaps California can try to stronger message about the winds and what can occur with such dynamics. The people are used to fires, they are not used to infernos driven by high wind.

Mr. and Mrs. Rippey were compliant in warnings regarding the fires, they were leaving to a safer place; it was the understanding of the speed the fires were traveling that trapped them. Mr. and Mrs. Rippey were vulnerable adults that need to be on the warning system map differently. 

This isn't about IQ tests; it is about a moronic agenda!

Aligning with Russia, alienating allies, placing Japan and South Korea in the cross hairs, taking for granted Israel can actually defend itself should the USA fall under attack for any reason and placing American National Guard Troops back in harms way and repeating the idiot practices of "W" are all components of the most moronic agenda of any administration in the history of the USA. Those are my words, I am sure Secretary Tillerson has other words indeed.

October 10, 2017
By Philip Rucker

President Trump (click here) proposed an “IQ tests” face-off with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after the nation's top diplomat reportedly called the president a “moron” and disparaged his grasp on foreign policy.

In an interview with Forbes magazine published Tuesday, Trump fired a shot at Tillerson over the “moron” revelation, first reported by NBC News and confirmed by several other news organizations, including The Washington Post.

“I think it's fake news,” Trump said, “but if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”

Trump's challenge is the latest evidence of what White House officials have described as a breach of trust between the president and the secretary of state....

During the elections of 2016, Vladimir Putin threw his support to Donald Trump in many ways other than ads on Facebook. Putin boldly STATED, "If Clinton is elected there will be nuclear war, but, not with Trump."

There isn't anything to say or understand beyond that. The Russian President much rather deal with a man afraid of him than with people that actually want to protect the national security of the USA.

During the time of "W," Russia's Putin and Medvedev made global trips to nearly every country on the planet. It was obvious they were preparing for a USA that was out of control and a threat to every human life on Earth. Well, the USA has achieved that status since global warming is ignored as God's will or some other silly nonsense. But, to war with the USA would require the entire cooperation of the global powers, including near shore powers of Latin America.

I actually believe the world is at the point of being able to cooperate with an agenda to disarm and cause submission of the USA. It is clearly demonstrated in the incredible power behind protecting sovereignty and defeating the charismatic movement that is Daesh.

With Trump as erratic in foreign policy as he is and completely disagreeable with most if not all his cabinet, there is no telling what is coming next. North Korea needs allies with Russia and China leading the list, but, to continually put the USA in a threatening posture, in my opinion, has caused freighter ships to come to the forefront as the force that can get the job done by sinking USA war ships.

This is not about IQ, it is about a man in the Oval Office that strokes his ego at the expense of everyone else, including world leaders. The Trump agenda is moronic, dangerous and set in stone only until the next Tweet.

Conway is scolding the country because of the truth telling and opinion makers that cast doubt and criticism of her boss. Well, honey, too bad. 

October 10, 2017
By Aaron Blake

...But while the White House thinks Trump's counterpunching is only fair, (click here) this is not a two-way street. And yet again Monday, those close to Trump made the case that it is simply not okay to criticize the president in the manner he goes after others.

After Trump attacked Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) over some veiled criticisms last week, Corker tweeted Sunday that the White House was an “adult day-care center” and later suggested Trump's threats to foreign countries could lead to World War III. Appearing on “Fox and Friends” on Monday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said that this was not okay.

Host Brian Kilmeade teed it up nicely, saying, “What a demeaning tweet at the president.”

“Well it is, and world leaders see that,” Conway responded. “We’ve all worked with Senator Corker over the years. We thank him for his service, but I find tweets like this to be incredibly irresponsible.”...

Donald Trump is paranoid. He trusts no one except his family and I am sure even his family walks a fine line to insure their good graces with the last will and testament. It is just that simple.

He is afraid of the loss of control and will put forward aggression against anyone. It is easy to be a counter-puncher. All that requires is criticism and an opposing opinion, RIGHT OR WRONG. Enough. Donald Trump needs to be President of the USA or get out! He needs to accept previous policy of the USA that reflects the best interest of the well being of the American people and not the greed merchants he considers his best friends. Except for the greed merchants, Donald Trump has no friends. His idea of friendship is to hold people hostage to power while they smile through the humiliation. 

In chronically talking about Trump removes the attention of serious issues facing the country and it's outcomes. Trump is a distraction to allow exploitation of the USA.

Dubai plans on being 10 years ahead of any other country, including technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Personally, I think Dubai can do exactly that.

October 8, 2017

...The PCFC’s new projects and initiatives (click here) include smart applications in fulfilment of 10X initiative which sees Dubai 10 years ahead of other countries.

InnoGate is one of the leading innovations that DP World and JAFZA will share with the world. It is a global innovation platform and a sophisticated online employee idea sharing system which connects 78 terminals.

Trakhees will have a number of innovations including the Smart Brochure; a smart augmented reality based mobile app which provides information about Trakhees to visitors at any place.

Sultan bin Sulayem, DP World Group Chairman & CEO and Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation said: ““PCFC has always put customers at the top of its priorities and offers new innovative services for investors and traders to carry out their transactions effectively and efficiently in record time.

“Our offerings at Gitex this year reflects our efforts in achieving the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai to transform our services into smart government services in order to achieve the highest level of happiness for customers and investors.”

He added that Gitex is a great platform to share experiences in IT Information with other entities taking part from other parts of the world. More than 4,100 ehibitors are taking part in this big event including 1,500 participating for the first time.

The event will feature a number of functions and there are more than 126 speakers and 230 sessions to cover health, retail, smart cities, finance, transport, logistical services, education and digital marketing sectors.

On his part, Ahmed Mahboob musabih, Director of Dubai Customs pointed out that Dubai Customs is following a clear vision that is based on innovation.

He added:” It’s very important to keep abreast of technological advancements in order not only to survive but to thrive in today’s market. That’s why we adopt the latest smart intelligence technologies such as Jawab service which the new artificial intelligence communication service, which connects Dubai Customs with its clients through social media platforms”....

'The Loneliest Polar Bear' coming October 2017

The Oregonian 

Published September 28, 2017

Be prepared to fall in love with Nora the polar bear. The two-year-old cub has overcome incredible odds. Abandoned by her mom, she was hand-raised by keepers. But big challenges remain for this little girl who lived a year in Portland and has built a legion of fans. Check out Chapter 1 of our special 5-part series “The Loneliest Polar Bear," our documentary and loads of kids activities -- all coming soon.

Wrongful practices of the USDA? That is a worry beyond this incident.

October 8, 2017

By Alicia Graef

...In another victory for animals in captivity, (click here) the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now going to have to defend renewing a license to a troubled roadside zoo in Iowa that has a long history of animal welfare violations.

The Cricket Hollow Animal Park, formerly known as the Cricket Hollow Zoo, has been in the spotlight in recent years over its failure to properly care for numerous species it holds captive.

According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), the USDA renewed the zoo’s license on the very same day it issued the zoo 11 violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) in 2014, and ongoing problems were acknowledged by the agency long before that. By 2015, the zoo had been cited for over 100 violations during five years, including inadequate staffing, unsanitary facilities and poor veterinary care.

Although the USDA did briefly suspend the zoo’s license, the agency’s failure to take meaningful action and allow the zoo to remain open prompted the ALDF and two Iowa residents to file a lawsuit, arguing that the license renewals violate the agency’s own regulations....

June 20, 2016

Cedar Rapids, Ia. — A federal judge (click here) has ordered endangered lemurs and tigers housed at a private northeast Iowa zoo to be moved within 30 days.

The order signed Friday by Chief Magistrate Judge Jon Stuart Scoles directs owners of Cricket Hollow Zoo near Manchester to move its lemurs to Special Memories Zoo in Hortonville, Wis., and its tigers to the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, Ind.

The decision stems from a 2014 lawsuit filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which alleged the zoo maintained deplorable living conditions. The fund's executive director, Stephen Wells, said he's disappointed about the decision. The group had recommended other locations for the animals. Wells said the group is evaluating legal options....

What type of leadership does not carry out a judge's order? Animals are already dead.

October 5, 2015
By Grant Rodgers

A northeast Iowa zoo (click here) that’s come under fire for deaths of tigers and lemurs in its care should have all its animals “rescued” and sent to sanctuaries, a California veterinarian told a judge on Monday.

The testimony opened the trial in a federal lawsuit against the owners of Manchester’s Cricket Hollow Zoo brought last year on behalf of several Iowans who reported seeing animals suffering in small pens filled with feces and buzzing with flies. Tom and Pamela Sellner, the zoo’s owners, have argued in court documents the claims against them are exaggerated.

But Jennifer Conrad, a Santa Monica veterinarian, testified to Chief Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles in a Cedar Rapids courtroom that the Sellners regularly fail to take steps to protect their animals from disease and injury. Conrad testified that five tigers have died at the zoo since June 2013. None of their bodies were lab-tested to find a cause of death....

There is institutionalized misogyny in the USA government.

October 8, 2017
By Emily Shugerman

...“We filtered out the mayor a long time ago, (click here) we don’t have time for political noise,” Mr Long said. “...We filter that out, keep our heads down, and continue to make progress and push forward in restoring central functions for Puerto Rico.”...

There needs to be an investigation into the allegations of "political noise" by the San Juan mayor. Brock Long's attitude may have caused the deaths of people that would have been alive today if there was adequate response on an appropriate timeline.

This is the most outrageous statement made to date about the devastation to Puerto Rico. I can't believe a national emergency director actually blamed a mayor seeking help for the people she serves and was minimized to her message. I don't believe any of Mayor Cruz's statements were political or out of line with the reality as it was happening.

Mr. Long should be investigated as well as his superiors that allowed and possibly encouraged this level of racism causing the deaths of helpless Americans.

Paddock gambled $1 million per night and took valium to cope with his addiction.

Police are still pondering a motive. (click here)

There are other reports that state gambling transactions in the tens of thousands, but, not a million per night. Evidently, there are reports from police that Mr. Paddock was planning bigger events to kill even more people. When I heard about the unrealistic world Mr. Paddock lived in, it reminded me of the Columbine shootings.

Dyland Klebold and Eric Harris carried the same outrageous ideology when cutting down innocent people in the high school. They were going to kill and bomb the school to end every life they could find and then they intended to fly a jet into a major USA city to further kill Americans along with themselves. 

The Columbine shooters never expected to die in their initial attack either. They ultimately would perish in a flame of glory when the jet crashed to the ground.

The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective. (click here)

Is there a mental health diagnosis that applies to people with these grandiose ideologies?

The tricky part is these shooters know if their intentions were to leak out to others, they could be taken into custody for evaluation to the intent of stating such ideas to others. One of the reasons a person is removed from their freedom is to determine if they are homicidal and/or suicidal. Mr. Paddock was definitely a man carrying a deranged sense of self with grandiose ideas about his personal power. The weaponry he obtained does prove Paddock was able to validate his great power by obtaining any sense of weaponry on the market, including, a very anti-social method of changing a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon.

Gun enthusiasts sometimes state, the government can't be trusted with their liberties, hence, the need for weapons of mass murder.

Steven Paddock was a wealthy man able to obtain any source of power, however, it was he that we should fear and not the government he profoundly sought to defeat in his choice of weapons. He was prepared to take on the authorities seen by a camera placed in halls. Is there any question Steven Paddock was an addict to gambling, Valium and power? No one saw this coming? No one detected his hubris in life? An ideology so toxic it kills?

Filling gaps left by trump, nurses and labor unions join puerto rico rel...

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

October 9, 2017

Turkey has issued an arrest warrant for a US consulate worker, (click here) the second in a week, media reports say.

The detention of a member of staff, a Turkish national, in Istanbul last week triggered a diplomatic row, prompting both sides to halt most visa services.

The first worker was held over alleged links to a cleric blamed for the failed 2016 Turkish coup, but no reason has been given for the latest warrant.

The row has driven down Turkey's currency and stocks.

Turkey has asked Washington to review its decision to suspend all non-immigrant visa services, taken on Sunday in response to last week's arrest.

On Monday Turkey's foreign ministry said the suspension was causing "unnecessary tensions".

Turkey has also suspended "all visa services".

I don't know how much anyone can believe "Sputnik" anymore, but, the fact is clear; Turkey is moving closer to Russia.

"Apparently, (click here) the final agreement on this issue [situation in Idlib] was reached during a meeting in Ankara between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. We can now say that  all military actions are being coordinated by these two parties," Oytun Orhan, an expert on the Middle East, told Sputnik Turkey.

Ankara should be cautious in it's approach to Russia. Originally, under President Obama, it was the three countries; Turkey, Russia and the USA; working together to stabilize Syria. Then Turkey shot down a Russian jet and now Moscow has moved in to secure Turkey so it won't happen again.

This is my particular point of view, but, the cooperation between Turkey and the northern Iraqi Kurds is astounding. It wasn't the USA that found a basis for that cooperation. I think relations between the Kurds and Turkey has to be settled with a peace for both sides, but, for it to move as quickly as it did, is a curiosity.

If Turkey gets too cozy with Russia it can slip into an unintended war with the USA backed rebels and the Assad forces. What side will Turkey take and what will be the outcomes for all countries involved?

I think the USA is sliding into an identity crisis, as one that cannot be trusted and apparently Ankara feels safe with Putin.

President given sweeping powers, (click here) with ability to enact laws by decree and dismiss parliament

...The decision has become, in effect, a referendum on Erdogan and the Turkey he has moulded in his image - fiercely nationalist, conservative and beset by problems.

This previously stable corner of the region has become consumed by terror attacks - once-rapid economic growth has stalled.

Dozens of journalists are in jail. Three million, mostly Syrian, refugees have poured into the country.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested or dismissed following the failed coup. The country's hope of EU membership is evaporating. And Turkey is arguably more politically polarised than ever.

But at the same time, Turkey has gone from a financial basket-case at the turn of the century into one of the world's top 20 economies.

The middle-class has hugely expanded. Millions of impoverished Turks have been economically emboldened under Erdogan's leadership.

Schools, hospitals, roads and giant infrastructure projects have transformed daily life. Pious Turks, who long felt excluded by an old secular elite, have been empowered. And Turkey has freed itself from the grip of a once omnipotent military....

"Good Night, Moon"

The waning gibbous

18.3 days old 

86.6 percent lit

October 5, 2017

A new study (click here) shows that an atmosphere was produced around the ancient Moon, 3 to 4 billion years ago, when intense volcanic eruptions spewed gases above the surface faster than they could escape to space.  The study was published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

When one looks up at the Moon, dark surfaces of volcanic basalt can be easily seen to fill large impact basins.  Those seas of basalt, known as maria, erupted while the interior of the Moon was still hot and generating magmatic plumes that sometimes breached the lunar surface and flowed for hundreds of kilometers.  Analyses of Apollo samples indicate those magmas carried gas components, such as carbon monoxide, the ingredients for water, sulfur, and other volatile species.

To right: Map of basaltic lavas that emitted gases on the lunar nearside. 

In new work, Dr. Debra H. Needham, Research Scientist of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and Dr. David A. Kring, Senior Staff Scientist, at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, calculated the amounts of gases that rose from the erupting lavas as they flowed over the surface and showed that those gases accumulated around the Moon to form a transient atmosphere.  The atmosphere was thickest during the peak in volcanic activity about 3.5 billion years ago and, when created, would have persisted for about 70 million years before being lost to space....

"The rest of the world."

It is vital First World countries find definitive solutions to waste and the containment of greenhouse gases. There is no saying no to that reality. This is a task that cannot fail.

The BRIC countries need to prove they can be world leaders and take on the challenges to pollution, especially greenhouse gases.

The Third World, which some of it is in the southern USA, is always given a pass on the issue of pollution. These countries need to be mentored into leadership that will provide pride for their people to accomplish something the USA is too lazy and greedy to accomplish; the elimination of GHGs in producing energy for their country. 

There is no excuse. Every country has to achieve a pollution free environment that protects air and water quality and also protects the troposphere. The issue of the Climate Crisis belongs to everyone.

Next week Hazardous Waste.

When it comes to making decisions that impact the climate, it is the OUTCOME that has to be met; if profit happens it is a side effect.

India:

September 25, 2017

Chennai: Greater Chennai Corporation's (click here) proposed solid waste management revamp plan will pollute the city less as the civic body has decided to make biomethanation a key link - apart from incinerator units - in the waste collection-treatment-disposal chain.

Alterations will be made to packages three and four of the civic body's four-part (each called a package) 1,442-crore solid waste management revamp plan, which TOI reported in June. According to the initial proposal, the city's landfill sites at Perungudi and Kodungaiyur would be shut and, in its place, the civic body would set up two waste-to-energy incinerator plants.

During a stakeholder's meet held in July, residents disapproved of the corporation's plan to prioritise investment in incineration units at the expense of bio-methanation and composting plants. Subsequently, the civic body's technical review committee, chaired by the special officer and commissioner D Karthikeyan, met and discussed the feedback received from residents....

Vietnam:

September 25, 2017

About 6,000 tons of solid waste (click here) is produced daily in Hanoi, 95 percent of which is buried, according to the city’s construction department.

Hanoi authorities have called on enterprises to invest in technologies to treat and recycle waste to turn waste into useful materials. 

Nguyen Phuc Thanh, general director of Enserco, said his company has a patent for technology to treat domestic waste by burning with heat recovery.

The technology reduces waste treatment costs as it uses less supporting fuel because it removes garbage components that cannot be burned and dries garbage to reduce humidity before burning. 

During the waste burning process, the heat from the incinerator emissions is used to dry garbage and heat the air provided to the incinerator. When sorting and drying garbage, workers use equipment to collect gas in the incinerator in order to reduce the discharge of bad odors into the environment.

Enserco’s waste treatment plant in Son Tay can treat 700 tons of waste a day.

Whoever thought industrial codes are listed with the "US Census Bureau." It makes sense as a place to consolidate information about the country, but, it wasn't my first thought.

Use the following industry codes (click here) (BOLD numbers in the shaded columns), when asked, to complete the following questionnaire. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes are listed for reference only.

Each one of those codes will result in understanding the stream of industrial waste facing the USA.

October 6, 2017

By Susan Mustapich

Rockport - More than 20 bales of mixed plastic stored (click here) at the Midcoast Waste Transfer Station in Rockport may be trucked to an incinerator unless a market is found for the material.

The mixed plastics in the bales at MCSW is made up of colored and clear plastic found in food containers and packaging, stamped with the numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Number 2 plastic, commonly used for milk and laundry detergent containers, is still sold for a profit. It is separated into natural and colored, which command different prices on the market.

At a Sept. 27 meeting, the MCSW board of directors gave the go ahead for disposal by incineration of the accumulated bales of mixed plastic. Interim Manager Beth Kwiatkowski said Sept. 28 she is researching options for trucking and disposal, while continuing to look for someone to recycle the material.

Kwiatkowksi, who is interim manager while Jim Guerra is on medical leave, said MCSW will have to pay for the materials to be removed from the transfer station, whether the bales are trucked out for disposal or for recycling, because buyers are no longer paying for mixed plastics. She is looking for the most cost-efficient choice. Trucking out recyclables, even when buyers are not paying, generally costs less than trucking out trash.

While prices for recyclables fluctuate, and are influenced by a global market, MCSW transfer station usually earns money for most of its recyclables. Natural (uncolored) number two plastic earns about $600 per ton, colored number two plastic earns $300 per ton, and cans, cardboard and paper continue to earn revenue, according to Kwiatkowski....                             

Industrial incinerators are always controversial and rightfully so, they can effect human health.

"Helios Incinerator System for Industrial Solid Waste" (click here)

Stepped Hearth incinerators (click here) have multiple hearths in cascading steps.  Waste is loaded by a ram feeder and begins combustion on the first level.  As new waste is loaded on the first level, it pushes partially burned waste to the next lower step or level.  A tumbling action results, exposing more surface to the combustion chamber and ensuring more complete destruction of the waste.
Each successive charge moves waste to the next lower level.  Automatic de-ashing systems can be used to remove the ash without needing the system to cool, so true continuous operation can be achieved.

Due to the methane content of landfills and the ever increasing need for landfill lands, the incinerator takes shape as an important process to handle solid industrial waste.

The stepped hearth incinerator has several burning chambers, whereby one is hotter than the next in exposing surface area in tumbling and prolonging the burning process to completion of all solid waste. 

Both the ash and the emissions of greenhouse gases into the troposphere is an issue. The question regarding the incineration of waste to produce energy is, will the offset of producing CO2 rather than methane in landfills be better in the long view to the troposphere and reducing anthropogenic footprint of Earth's physics.

The technology to capture CO2 from these processes are taking shape. The most innovative currently is in the Netherlands.

Patrick Huttenhuis, Andy Roeloffzenb , Geert Versteega. CO2 capture and reuse at a waste incinerator. Energy Procedia 86 ( 2016 ) 47 – 55

Twence is a waste processing and energy generation company (click here) located in the eastern part of the Netherlands. In the Twence plant waste is incinerated and in this process the waste is converted to valuable products like heat and power. In the flue gas produced from this Waste-To-Energy (WTE) plant a significant amount of CO2 is released to the atmosphere. Recently a new innovative process developed by Procede Gas Treating B.V. has been commissioned at line 3 of the Twence plant. In this process CO2 emitted to atmosphere, is scrubbed from the flue gas and this CO2 is used for mineralization. The CO2 is converted in an innovative new reactor configuration from sodium carbonate directly to sodium bicarbonate (SBC). The produced SBC slurry will directly be used at the WTE plant to purify the flue gas stream, before it is released to atmosphere. Due to the implementation of this process, which is unique in the world, the carbon footprint of the Twence installation is reduced. The new SBC plant produces 8,000 tons of sodium bicarbonate annually and to produce this amount of SBC 2,000 ton per year CO2 is captured from the flue gas.

Another venture in Norway seeks to deposit captured CO2 into the deep ocean where it will ultimately form hydrates. They also see CO2 capture as a method to bring oil and gas out of wells that have become low in gas pressure.

While these efforts by many countries pursuing carbon capture may prove to be only a temporary solution. The upper oceans are known to be melting methane hydrates. If that is the case the deep ocean can be an answer, but, in order to deposit the gas in the deep ocean, the gas has to remain either gaseous or liquid until the delivery point.

"Gas hydrates for deep ocean storage of CO2" (click here)

As long as it doesn't set off a geiger counter, it has promise.

October 4, 2017
By Dave Flaherty

A Mississauga-based company (click here) is interested in coming to the region, claiming it can take bottom ash from the Durham York Energy Centre and convert it into materials such as stone and asphalt.

Don Constable, president and CEO of Greenpath Eco Inc. spoke at a recent meeting of region’s Energy From Waste-Waste Management committee.

According to Constable, his company converts bottom ash, a material discharged from solid waste incinerators such as those at the DYEC, into materials such as concrete, aggregate, and hot mix asphalt.

Constable said the material his company produces is the same strength as regular concrete but hardens faster, does not crack or shrink, and is better suited to face Canada’s harsh winters.

Greenpath Eco Inc. has been testing its product since 2008, and since 2012, has been taking bottom ash from the Region of Peel’s solid waste incinerator in Brampton....

From a previous article:

To the left is the ? technology ? of mountaintop mining. Dynamite. Really?

Coal mining is a messy business. In parts of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Virginia, mining companies often get at underground coal seams by blowing up the tops of mountains — a process known as mountaintop removal mining. Once that’s done, they’ll dump the debris into the valleys below, which can contaminate streams and waterways with toxic heavy metals.

Appalachian Voices, (click here) an environmental group, estimates that coal companies have buried over 2,000 miles of streams in the region through mountaintop removal mining since the 1990s. And there’s growing evidence that when mining debris and waste gets into water supplies, the toxic metals can have dire health impacts for the people and mostly rural communities living nearby.

The toxic metals found in streams is not necessarily from the coal so much as the land being dumped into the water. The practice is ridiculous in the year 2017. Coal mining was something my grandfathers did for work. The mining technologies has replaced the 'human being' as coal miners. There are a few ten thousand miners left in the USA as technology replaced them.

These companies never bothered to realize the future of energy would look different, instead, they paid off politicians to prevent the future from arriving. The most hideous example of that is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He is a US Senator from Kentucky. He touts he is keeping the coal mining industry alive for those patriot coal miners in his state. Lies, lies and more lies.

...As anyone living in the coalfields knows, (click here) coal production and employment in eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia follow boom and bust cycles. But starting in the early 1980s, the close link between production and employment changed as mechanization and explosives replaced mine workers. Since then, coal production in Kentucky has declined by about 19% while employment has dropped by 62%....

By allowing toxic and radioactive pollution in our streams, does anyone believe that will bring back jobs? No. The "Age of the Coal Machine" is well underway and there is no future in allowing dumping all over again.

"Kentucky Quarterly Coal Report," (click here) the dinosaur is taking it's last breaths. The increase in Western Kentucky production is a whopping 0.2 percent. OMG. There is no future for this form of energy. 

Consumer based pollution of GHG has to come under control. The population increases can remove advancements in science.

October 8, 2017
By Paul Rosenberg

The Zero Waste International Alliance (click here) defines its goal as “ethical, economical, efficient and visionary," and also as a way to "guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use.”

If it sounds utopian, well, it is. It's a goal, after all. But 11 years after Los Angeles first adopted the “zero waste” framework, the city has put in place a sweeping new waste-management system, Recycle LA, that's guided by the zero-waste philosophy in the abstract, but is also fleshed out in ways that meet a wide range of more immediate goals, where progress — or lack thereof — can be measured, compared and tracked against expectations.

Translating the abstract into a nuts-and-bolts plan was largely the world of a wide-ranging coalition called Don't Waste LA, pulled together by the LA Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) in the late 2000s.

At the time, Hillary Gordon was chair of the Zero Waste Committee at the Los Angeles Chapter the Sierra Club. “A lot of zero waste work up until this point had been at the level of 'what can people do individually in their lives to take responsibility for the waste they are generating?'” she recalled in a recent interview....