Monday Jan 13, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Today is Tuesday, January 14 and our show today is brought to you by Largess Forestry, our first podcast sponsor. Forest preservationists and licensed arborists, no one will care for your trees better than Matt Largess and his crew. If you’ve got a tree or a woodlot in need of some sprucing up, call Matt today for a free consultation at 849-9191.
Rhode Islanders can expect rain and warm weather today, with temperatures getting close to 50 degrees. In other words, it will be easy even for the simple-minded to recognize the planet is warming today. Thanks God, for making it a little harder for the right-wing spin machine to spread lies about the health of our planet…
And speaking of conditions that question our assumptions about the world … General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, it seems, will be running for governor as a progressive. Her campaign logo even looks like RI Future’s!! For royalties, we only request that you pay us a visit here at the Shady Lea Mill and be our guest on the podcast.
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This year there is both a new location, Johnson & Wales University graciously agreed to host the conference, and a new format including a variety of panels focused on developing the compost industry and practice in Rhode Island.
The keynote speaker will be Gretel Clark, the spark behind the successful Hamilton MA compost collection program, which has spread from a pilot to a full community program. She will have much to offer us.
Other featured speakers include Mike Merner of Earthcare Farm, Ken Ayars, chief of the RI Division of Agriculture, Matt Genuso of Chez Pascal discussing how to collect compostables at a restaurant, state representative Art Handy, chair of the House Environment Committee, Dr. Robert Rafka of the URI Master Composters speaking on compost science, Paul Frade of PF Trading discusiing the ahauling of commercial food scrap for composting, and vendors for Big Hanna and Biogreen 360, in vessel aerobic systems for institutions. We will see more sectors of the industry than at previous conferences and more for home composters than ever.
The trade show will include a number of compost oriented businesses highlighting new trends in the industry and products individuals and businesses can use to help them manage their food scrap.
Registration is available at http://www.environmentcouncilri.org/content/compost-conference-registration. For information Environment Council of Rhode island 401-621-8048
Trade show participants include:
RI Compost Conference and Trade Show Friday February 8, 2013
Johnson & Wales University Harborside Recreation Center
SCHEDULE
8:30 AM Registration begins and trade show opens.
9 AM Welcome Greetings From hosts, conveners, and dignitaries
9:25 AM Charge for the day
9:35 AM Keynote Gretel Clark Hamilton MA compost program
10:15 AM announcements
10:20 AM head to workshops
First session of panels 10:30 to 11;25
Solutions for restaurants Matt Genusio Chez Pascal Paul Frade PF Trading
Home composting Nancy Warner Worm Ladies of Charlestown Reinhard Sidor URI Master Composters
Compost science Dr. Robert Rafka URI Master Composters
The environment in RI for advances in composting Frank Jacques Buxton Hollow Farm Greg Gerritt RI Compost Initiative
Second session 11:35 to 12:30
Solutions for institutions Scott Miller JWU Jim Murphy RIC David Temple Vegware
The state of compost on Smith Hill Rep. Art Handy
In vessel aerobic composting John Clifford Big Hanna Bill Hanley Biogreen 360
Compost, soil, and food in Rhode Island Mike Merner Earthcare Farm Ken Ayars RIDEM
Lunch and Trade Show at 12:30 in the exhibition hall
2 PM panel what next Panelists Michael O’Connell RIRRC RIEDC invited
3 PM next steps closing
3:15 PM Trade show
Several sponsors, including ecoRI, Full Circle Recycling, Shapiro Enterprises, and Waste Management have already signed on to support the event. In addition to the sponsors there are commitments for exhibits from Big Hanna, Earth Appliance, Vegware,RI Resource RecoveryCorporation, EarthCare Farm, Ecoassets, and the URI Master Composters Program.
Registration is available on line at http://www.environmentcouncilri.org/content/compost-conference-registration
8:30 AM Registration begins and trade show opens.
9 AM Welcome Greetings From hosts, conveners, and dignitaries
9:25 AM Charge for the day
9:35 AM Keynote Gretel Clark Hamilton MA compost program
10:15 AM announcements
10:20 AM head to workshops
First session of panels 10:30 to 11;25
Solutions for restaurants Matt Genusio Chez Pascal Paul Frade PF Trading
Home composting Nancy Warner Worm Ladies of Charlestown Reinhard Sidor URI Master Composter
Compost science Dr. Robert Rafka
The environment in RI for advances in composting Frank Jacques Buxton Hollow Farm Greg Gerritt RI Compost Initiative
Second session 11:35 to 12:30
Solutions for institutions Scott Miller JWU , Jim Murphy RIC David Temple Vegware
The state of compost on Smith Hill Rep. Art Handy (invited)
In vessel aerobic composting John Clifford Big Hanna
Compost, soil, and food in Rhode Island Mike Merner Earthcare Farm Ken Ayars RIDEM
Lunch and Trade Show at 12:30 in the exhibition hall
2 PM panel what next Panelists from RIRRC, RIDEM, Massrecycle.
3 PM next steps
3:15 PM Trade show
The issue with Rhode Island’s instantly-infamously loan guarantee program is not that the public sector is helping the private sector, it’s that former Carcieri and former EDC chief Keith Stokes made a monumentally awful decision to give one company a huge sum of taxpayer money, not even to mention that it was a video game company run by an ex-baseball player.
Even ask House Minority Leader Brian Newberry, a fiscal conservative who told the Projo, he eventually voted for the loan program because he assumed the addition $75 million would be spread out around the free market. Nobody anticipated the EDC would give away the store to one company,” he told the Projo. “Who does that?
Scott MacKay of RIPR has a great op-ed today on how Gov. Chafee has to again clean up a mess left by Carcieri.
Massachusetts has better funded public schools than Rhode Island, they beat us to the casino punch and knew better than us to avoid financing Schilling’s pipe dream … here’s another way our neighbor to the northeast is serving its citizenry better.
File this one under education inequality in the Ocean State: At high schools in Woonsocket, Central Falls and Pawtucket students sometimes have to share textbooks because there aren’t enough to go around, while in East Greenwich the school committee is considering getting every high school student an iPad.
Did you know the Southside Community Land Trust operates about 40 community gardens on vacant lots all over the city? How cool is that!
Good for Congressman David Cicilline for taking issue with some of the often-oversimplified opinions of Projo columnist Ed Achorn … we keep wondering how Achorn will manage to blame the 38 Studios debacle on Stephen Iannazzi and public sector unions (just wait, it’ll probably happen!).
Congrats to Maureen Martin, who GoLocal Prov honors as a “Power Player” this week.
]]>It seems the seagull problem at the Central Landfill in Johnston has been rectified, at least temporarily, but the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) continues to address the problem of odors emanating from the landfill and, given the fact that organic matter continues to be buried there, will probably be dealing with this issue well beyond the estimated 20-year remaining lifespan of the facility.
Meanwhile, the local environmental advocacy community and renewable energy business sector continue to fret over Rep. Jon Brien’s, D-Woonsocket, proposal to overturn Rhode Island’s ban on waste incineration and reclassifying any energy produced through the process as renewable.
The short remaining lifespan of the state landfill is of paramount concern to taxpayers. When the landfill is closed — in about 20 years, if we continue our current disposal habits — Rhode Island will most likely have to ship its waste out of state, either by land or by sea, and that added transportation cost will undoubtedly cause the cost of waste disposal to skyrocket overnight.
Waste-to-energy (WtE) incineration may seem like a solution to some, but the burning of anything — whether it be landfill gases or garbage — carries with it a host of environmental problems. And as we learned last year with the failure of the gas collection system at the landfill, even the strictest environmental controls — like all manmade things — can, and usually will, eventually fail.
It’s no secret that waste incineration, as an industry, is historically notorious for polluting our air and water. The clouds of noxious gases that emanate from improperly controlled, monitored and/or maintained incinerators have racked up many a violation of the federal Clean Air and Water acts.
WtE incinerators, however, don’t eliminate the need for landfills. Most of the ash that is produced by the industry is landfilled, but some states have issued beneficial use determinations for bottom ash, allowing it to be used for road building and, oddly enough, landfill cover.
Landfills carry their own set of ecological problems. Leachate from lined and unlined, closed and open landfills can contaminate ground and surface water. Most modern landfills have sophisticated leachate collection systems, but keep in mind that these systems can and do fail. Our own Central Landfill, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Enforcement & Compliance History Online database, has been out of compliance with the Clean Water Act for the past three years.
The real question for Rhode Island isn’t whether to burn or bury our waste, but how do we reduce our need for either of these options as we move forward? Producer responsibility, changing our approach from encouragement to enforcement of recycling laws in the business sector, composting food waste on a large scale and increasing our municipal recycling rates should be the focus.
Read the full article on ecoRI News.
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