July 25, 2024 • 41 mins
Discover the secrets to transforming waste into valuable resources on our latest episode of "What's Happening MoCo." This week, we sit down with Eileen Kao, Chief of the Waste Reduction and Recycling Section, who shares her invaluable insights on how Montgomery County is leading the way in waste reduction and recycling. From practical tips on reusing and repairing everyday items to the county's innovative textile recycling program, Eileen's expertise will inspire you to rethink your waste habits and contribute to a more sustainable community.
Hungry to know how Montgomery County is tackling food waste? We'll explore the county's forward-thinking approach to food scrap management, launched in 2018. Learn about the "Food is Too Good to Waste" campaign, which educates residents on reducing food waste through smart meal planning and portion control. Additionally, you'll hear about the award-winning Commercial Food Scraps Recycling Partnership Program that helps businesses convert food scraps into renewable resources and the efforts in edible food recovery to support those in need.
Finally, witness the groundbreaking work of DC Water under the stewardship of Chris, Director of Resource Recovery. Chris takes us through the process of turning human waste into "Bloom," a nutrient-rich fertilizer that's revolutionizing gardening and farming practices. Steve Dubik from the Montgomery County Master Gardener Program joins us to discuss ornamental horticulture and the fantastic resources available to residents, such as plant clinics and demonstration gardens. This episode is packed with inspiration and practical advice on how to live more sustainably and make the most of our resources.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day and welcome to what's Happening MoCo, a
podcast from your award-winninggovernment television station,
county Cable Montgomery.
Now here's your host, derekKenney.
Good day, welcome to what'sHappening MoCo.
Today we have another knockoutedition of what's Happening MoCo
, and today we're talking aboutwaste reduction, we're talking
(00:21):
about recycling, we're talkingabout all the ways that
organizations in the county well, particularly the community,
but also using technologies andusing our good efforts to find
(00:49):
ways to be better world citizens, and one of those ways is
through the waste reduction andrecycling section of Montgomery
County, maryland.
And to talk about what that is,we have the chief, eileen KO.
How are you today, eileen?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I'm very well, thanks , derek.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
All right, well, thank you so much for being here
.
In some ways, the title WasteReduction and Recycling Section
speaks for itself, but in someways it's hard to totally
understand what a governmentagency does when it comes to
what they do.
So what can you tell us aboutwhat your area does?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
County and folks visiting Montgomery County to
reduce the amount of waste thatthey create, to begin with, to
reuse items over and over againto maximize their useful life,
and then to be sure to recycleeverything that's possible to
recycle.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Oh, wow, okay, and so that.
So you, it's more of a kind ofan outreach thing.
So you do you, your team,educates people, provide them
with tools.
What are some of the ways thatyou're educating people to
reduce waste or to recycle intheir own homes?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, absolutely we.
We do a lot of outreach,education, technical assistance
and training and we do thatacross the board.
So, you're right, we do thatfor single family residents,
residents that are in singlefamily homes.
We also do that for residentsof multifamily apartments and
condos and co-ops.
(02:37):
We also do that for businessesand organizations, and we define
a business as anything that'snot residential in nature.
So that means it's yourconventional enterprise
businesses, it's also yournonprofit organizations and its
government facilities at everylevel federal, state and local.
(02:59):
So for my team and myself, ourclients, our customers, it's
literally everyone in MontgomeryCounty, whether you're living
in the county, working in thecounty or visiting the county.
So we do a lot of outreach,education, trainings, all of
(03:20):
that, all of that.
And again, we really focus onkind of the whole loop in terms
of how to sustainably managematerials.
Really, it starts with tryingto get people to reduce the
amount of waste they create tobegin with.
Right, looking at things thatyou're thinking of purchasing or
(03:45):
thinking of using and reallyfocusing on do you really need
that item?
Oh, wow.
And so we really want people toreduce the amount of waste that
they create to begin with, andthen the things that we do have
and use, and you know, we allknow, in the course of a day,
there are a lot of things thatwe actually do need, right to
(04:07):
accomplish things, and so it'sabout reusing those things over
and over and over again, reallymaking sure that their useful
lives go on as long as possible.
So you know, for example, ifyou have an article clothing and
maybe you've lost the buttonsover time, well, it's going back
(04:29):
to basics and saying, okay,well, how can I fix this,
literally, how can I repair thisand keep on wearing?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
it.
Keep on using it, hold on.
So you're suggesting thattoday's modern resident, instead
of throwing away a shirt thathas a missing button, we can get
that repaired?
Yeah, and then that reduceswaste.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
You don't have to throw a shirt away.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Absolutely, you don't have to spend extra money, so
that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Okay, it's kind of getting back to basics isn't it?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, really.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
And focusing on those things.
Yeah, and maybe if it'ssomething, for example, if you
have children and they'veoutgrown clothing, which we know
that happens even with adultssometimes, and so you know.
I do too, I do too, and so, youknow, one of the things is
thinking about well, if it'sstill in good condition dignity
(05:21):
condition then we should reallythink about donating it, giving
it to someone else who couldthen use it, and again, that's
extending its useful life, rightyeah, yeah, how can we do that?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
or where are some of the places we can donate
clothing?
Or do we just google donateclothing?
Or how does that work well,there are.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
there are so many places.
There really are so many placesthese days, right, and so, of
course, google is our friend.
It's like, what did we dobefore Google existed?
And so, yeah, you can Googleand and find a lot of places
locally near you where you candonate items.
You know, and that comes.
It comes in all forms.
(06:04):
It comes in charitableorganizations or philanthropic
organizations.
It comes in the form of justother organizations that are,
again, they're thinking aboutthings that they need and
looking at ways that they cansecure those items, but maybe
(06:25):
with either a limited budget orin ways where there's less waste
, so thinking about, well, maybesomeone else has excess of
those items that we need andwould be willing to donate them.
Wow, yeah, yeah, now there doescome.
Sometimes.
You, you know I mentioneddignity condition.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I think that you know , we also need to consider when
we're trying to donate items forreuse.
You know, is that somethingthat's really something that you
would offer to someone and say,hey, I can't use this anymore.
Would you like to use it?
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
There are times when things may be too soiled or too
torn that they really can't,they're not in dignity condition
and they really can't be, youknow, used again, for example,
clothing, textiles, whatever.
And for those, for those itemsactually we do have in our
division we've got a greattextile recycling program.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Oh really, yeah, you can recycle.
I mean textiles.
You can recycle clothing orfabrics.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Again, we're looking for highest and best use.
So of course, if it's somethingstill usable and in good
condition, then we alwaysadvocate well, donate it to a
charitable organization or giveit to someone else who can then
use it in its original form,right what it was intended to be
used for.
But if it's been used over and,over and over again and it's
(07:57):
seen better days and it reallycan't be used again in that form
, then yeah, we have this greattextiles recycling program and
people can drop off at ourtransfer station, which is very
conveniently located in thecenter of Montgomery County.
They can bring those textilesto us and those will actually
(08:17):
get recycled.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It'll get used to.
Other materials would beprocessed and, you know, chopped
up and reformatted and used tomake things like insulation,
cleaning cloths, that again,these are new items that have a
new purpose, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It's great that you're using innovation or like
technology or just rethinking.
You know it's like you don'tjust throw.
You don't want to throw thesethings away.
There's still value there, soyou're going to use it.
You're not just recycling likecans.
So you think you think aboutrecycling.
And when I think aboutrecycling it's usually just
bottles, plastics, can, tin cans, but you're talking about
(08:56):
recycling clothing.
That's amazing.
What other innovative things?
I think you mentioned somethingwith food earlier innovative
things I think you mentionedsomething with food earlier.
What other ways can residentsknock out?
You know the ways to actuallybe better, to reduce that
footprint?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, yeah.
So, Derek, you know we do havea very ambitious goal here in
Montgomery County.
Our goal is to reduce waste andrecycle more, aiming for zero
waste, no waste.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Zero waste, zero waste.
Okay, I don't know how that'sgoing to.
All right, it sounds great.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It is ambitious.
We we know, we're confident, wecan make a lot of headway and
we can make a lot of progresstoward this goal.
And one of the areas, one ofthe many areas that we are
currently focusing on, has to dowith food scraps.
In some jurisdictions they callit food waste and in some
(09:51):
periodicals articles you'll seethe term food waste.
We actually don't call it foodwaste.
We refer to it as food scrapsbecause the material it's not a
waste.
It's a really great materialthat can be renewed again and
made into something new again.
Oh, wow, Okay yeah yeah, so in2018, we published a strategic
(10:15):
plan to address food scraps.
Right To try to advancecomposting, compost use and food
scraps diversion here inMontgomery County.
Diversion, meaning, divert itfrom the waste stream.
Oh, wow, right.
Okay, so we are going full boreon food scraps in a lot of
(10:37):
different aspects, and thereason is we do something kind
of interesting, I would say On aperiodic basis in our division
we do a waste composition study.
So what we do is we literallygo through the waste, take a lot
(10:57):
of samplings and we sort thewaste into many, many different
categories and through thisstudy, this periodic study, what
we have seen is that the nextmaterial that is, in the
greatest quantity that we finddisposed in the trash is, in
fact, food scraps, and we knowthat there is a way to separate
(11:23):
those food scraps and recyclethem.
But again, even before that,one of the aspects of what we
are doing is we are trying toreally focus attention on ways
to reduce the amount of wastedfood in Montgomery County.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
To begin with, and so we have this education campaign
.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It's called Food is Too Good to begin with oh, wow.
And so we have this educationcampaign.
It's called Food is Too Good toWaste Okay, all right.
Yeah.
And we have a lot of great tipsand recommendations on you know
ways that we can all reduce theamount of wasted food that we
(12:03):
create.
Amount of wasted food that wecreate.
It's everything from makingsure that you plan your meals
ahead of time.
Plan and see what you need.
Take a look at your pantry,take a look at your refrigerator
, see what you need, whatingredients you need in order to
make those meals.
So have that as a shopping listand when you go and shop, try
(12:25):
to make sure that you are buyingthings that you actually are
going to use, right.
And then it's that we have tipson how to have creative recipes
and do meal preparation in waysthat really cut down on waste.
It also has to do with servingportions as we enjoy our meals.
(12:50):
We really could go to a pointwhere we're not supersizing
things but we're right-sizingthings and just prepare what is
necessary.
And when you do have leftovers,or if you are proactively
cooking for a number of mealsahead and you wanna you know,
(13:15):
you know sort of save for thosefuture meals, then we have tips
on how to safely store those.
You know those pre-preparedfoods and you know everything
from using reusable containersto freeze these items, labeling
the day that you've frozen theitems and what's in that
(13:38):
container, the day that you'vefrozen the items and what's in
that container.
So, yeah, so it's interesting.
It's really trying to remindourselves to kind of go back and
consider some real basics,right?
The other thing that we areworking on is edible food
recovery.
On is edible food recovery andwhat that is.
(14:07):
If you have food that is inexcess of your needs and this
holds true whether you're aresident or whether you're a
restaurant or a food preparationbusiness if you have foods that
are in excess of your needs,then let's increase the amount
of this type of food that wedonate to organizations that are
(14:30):
food assistance providing,because there are so many
residents, so many neighbors, somany people in our community
that actually they struggle,they are experiencing food
insecurity and they have unmetneeds and they really need
access to consistent, consistentaccess to nutritious, good
(14:52):
foods.
So so we want to increase thedonations of edible foods so
that others may, you know, maybenefit and use those.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So by reducing waste you can also benefit our
neighbors and friends that maybe food insecure at the same
time, so you have a doublebenefit there as well.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
That's amazing.
It's good that you're doingthat, and then you're doing it
through education, doing itthrough programming, helping
people be more thoughtful, moremindful as they think about
getting rid of old clothing, asthey think about finishing that
last meal, as they think aboutgoing shopping, or before they
go to McDonald's and decide tosupersize or right size their
(15:40):
meal, so that we're not fillinga trash can up with french fries
right, or cheeseburger bits orwhatever else there is.
What other ways, what otherthings did you want residents of
the county to know about beingmindful when it comes to waste
management in the county?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
being mindful when it comes to waste management in
the county.
Well, I would like people toknow that we continue to work on
other aspects of reallyrecycling food that is not
edible any longer.
Right, we have some awesome,creative, award-winning programs
that we have in place, and Ithink I want to share that
(16:22):
information and really getpeople to help us spread the
word.
One of the programs is ourCommercial Food Scraps Recycling
Partnership Program, and thisis aimed towards or geared to
the commercial sector, thebusinesses, and so for any of
the businesses and organizationsthat generate food, that
(16:45):
prepare food and generate food.
We have this program that Icall it a training wheel program
.
It's a really cool programwhere we intensively will work
with any of the partners thatsign on to this program
intensively over the course of acouple of years.
They're with us in this program.
(17:07):
We provide outreach, education,technical assistance, training.
We help them to set up foodscrap separation in their
restaurant or their grocerystore or their bodega, in their
cafeteria.
We actually will then alsoprovide collection services.
(17:27):
We will collect those foodscraps they put together on a
periodic basis and we willdeliver those materials, the
food scraps, to a facility inthe region where we have secured
processing capacity and wedeliver that food scraps,
material there and it isactually composted into a new
(17:50):
product, a soil amendment.
Yeah, that then appears.
It's bagged and it appears onthe shelves of different stores
and landscapers and homeownersand everybody can purchase that
material and use that material.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Oh wow, Can you describe that process again?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Sure Well, commercial generators of food scraps can
contact us.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And we will start to look at how much food scrap
material they generate.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And work with them.
It really needs to be abusiness or organization that
has never done this previously,and so we will take them through
(18:43):
on setting up theinfrastructure internally to
separate their food scraps forrecycling.
We provide them the containersthat they will put the food
scraps into.
We provide them training forall of their employees.
And we have a lot of differentmaterials posters, stickers,
labels, everything that theywould need and we are always
(19:04):
available to them to help themtroubleshoot if there are any
bumps in the road or issues thatcome up.
But then, furthermore, weactually have two of our own
trucks small trucks that we useto collect food scraps for
recycling, and so each week, ona schedule, regular schedule, we
will pick up the food scrapsthat they have collected up and
(19:26):
stored up.
And we pick up the food scrapsmaterials.
We weigh we like to get a lotof data and a lot of great
information we weigh thatmaterial and then we take that
material and we transport it anddeliver it to a composting
facility in the region where wehave previously already secured
(19:48):
a certain amount of tonnagecapacity that that facility has
guaranteed we have access to.
So we provide that food scrapsmaterial, they process it and
what they process it into theyadd grass, they add leaves, they
add materials and it becomes asoil amendment.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Oh, wow, yeah, A soil amendment, soil amendment, yep,
yep.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
It's marketed under the product name Leaf Grow Gold.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
That's a pretty name Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, and it's sold on a retail basis, and then
people can purchase thatmaterial and use that in their
gardens and their flower beds.
Wow, all right.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That's really in line with what we'll be talking
about next.
Thank you so much for beinghere, miss KO, and I like to say
I think that's a great namebecause it just reminds me to
knock out.
You know, knock out the things,obstacles to climate change,
knock out wasting food, knockout not using utilizing food
(20:58):
scraps efficiently, and justknock it out.
Knock out the box, the wholenotion that we, as a greener
county, cannot get all the waydown to zero, which is our goal.
All right, thank you so muchfor being here today.
And that's what's happeningmoco.
Next we talked to chris piiat,and his company is talking about
(21:19):
how you should not wasteanything, much less human waste.
What Good day we're back.
We're back with Chris Piat.
He's an environmental engineerwith more than 25 years
experience in wastewatertreatment, residuals, reuse and
recycling big words.
(21:40):
His work experience includesoperations manager for 1,200 ton
a day, implementation of theBloom products, which we'll
learn about a little bit later,and marketing plan development
for new biosolids reuse options,development of a nationally
recognized research program.
Let's just say he's the boss.
He's the boss, he's theenvironmental boss for DC Water
(22:02):
and he's here today to talk tous about something I found not a
waste of time to talk aboutSomething that I found to be
kind of innovative and very,very surprising.
Usually, when I see a brown bagof stuff left on the table, I
kind of push it to the sides, sobut today we're going to talk
(22:23):
about it.
We'll get right into it.
Chris, I've heard about yourorganization, dc Water, using
what can only be described ashuman waste.
Yes, to create somethingbeneficial to gardeners.
And to make sure that Iunderstand this totally
correctly what are we describingas human waste?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Sure.
So I'm an engineer and I am thedirector of resource recovery
at DC Water.
I work at the giant wastewatertreatment plant Blue Plains.
We don't even call it awastewater treatment plant
anymore, we call it a resourcerecovery facility because it's
our job to take the pollutants.
I'm going to use air quotes thepollutants out of the water and
make sure they don't end up inthe Chesapeake Bay, and it's
(23:02):
largely carbon and nutrientsthat we want to keep out of the
bay to ensure that we don't havealgae blooms.
But carbon is energy, nutrientsare fertilizer.
Both have value.
So we designed and constructedequipment to maximize those
assets.
It's my job to maximize theassets that we produce.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Okay, Now, and just to be clear, because sometimes I
want to make sure that ouraudience gets what we're saying.
Sure, when we say human waste,we're not talking about trash
bags or newspapers.
No, we're talking aboutliterally people.
You could say it.
You flush your toilet and it hasto go somewhere.
That's right, and you don'tthink about where it's going,
(23:41):
and I guess we always.
Sometimes you assume that it isdumped into a river somewhere.
Right, but there's actually.
Your organization is basicallytaking and you're considering
this waste as bio, some type ofbio Biosolids, Biosolids Okay
(24:19):
no-transcript.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
It serves, of course, all of DC, but it also serves
two counties in Maryland,montgomery and Prince George's
County, and two counties insuburban Virginia.
Percent of our flow comes infrom Maryland, which means that
(24:42):
of the 155, 160,000 tons a yearof biocells that we produce,
about 40,000 tons come directlyfrom Montgomery County.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Wow, so we contribute 40 tons to this fine product.
And this product ultimately, inone of its forms at least, is
fertilizer and you've been kindenough to bring this, oh yeah.
This brown bag.
Usually, when there's a brownbag left on a doorstep or
something you know, you don'ttouch it, or it's set on fire
(25:08):
and you're supposed to stop itOkay.
But in this case it's similarcontents.
But what can we?
As we're looking at this brownbag, it seems very simple,
nondescript.
What purpose or what value didwe glean from this product here?
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Sure.
So you know, we installed allthis equipment.
We invested money so that wecould maximize the assets, and
we chose every piece ofequipment with product quality
in mind.
So we wanted to make a verystable, low odor fertilizer
product that's called FreshBloom.
Fresh bloom okay, it comesstraight off our belts, we put
it into trucks, it goes out tofarms, it goes to soil blenders.
(25:44):
We also make blends that aremore sort of homeowner friendly.
You can use this on your garden, on your lawn.
It's this is our sand blend.
It's got sand and wood fines init can I open it?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
yes, yeah, yeah, I was.
I held back earlier, just incase there's some natural odor,
it is not going to smell likeyou think it smells here, all
right, so this is a bag offertilizer created from human
waste from around the area,including Montgomery County,
that people can use in theirgardens.
(26:15):
And I'm going to sniff it, allright.
Yeah, it just smells.
It smells kind of grass, likegrassy, kind of like soil, like
really like the garden dirt youwould buy from home depot, right
, exactly what we're trying.
Okay, and that's what you wantto do yeah, I mean we we wanted
to.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
I mean, it's what we're doing is is making sort of
a manufactured topsoil.
It's a neutrified topsoil andit's it really.
All we do at the plant isaccelerated nature.
If the analogy I like to use isif a bear was in the woods and
it rumbled out to the river andit scooped up a salmon and it
ate some and then it went backinto the woods, pooped in the
woods, the soil microbes wouldbreak down that organic nitrogen
(26:57):
into plant available inorganicnitrogen so that you could make
soil.
It just takes 18 months to doout in the woods and we're doing
it in a matter of days.
We've accelerated the nature.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
All right in a matter of days.
That's great.
Yep.
So instead of things justending up in a big landfill or
in some type of swamp somewhereor on a barge just traveling the
world, your organization isable to take tons and tons of
waste of different types andprocess it to some type of
innovative product, such asbloom.
We talked a little bit earlierwith the chief waste reduction
(27:30):
and recycling section chiefabout some of the creative ways
the county's employing to kindof do what they do to make sure
that we are recycling the bestwe can, to make sure that we are
reducing waste and managingwaste the best we can.
As a long-term environmentalengineer, how many years have
(27:50):
you started?
Speaker 4 (27:52):
About 30 years 30 years, 30 years.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Doesn't seem possible .
Speaker 1 (27:55):
What role does innovation have in terms of
reducing waste and managingwaste and effectively recycling
things?
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Well, there are so many opportunities, a lot of
cities for this product inparticular.
There are still a lot of citiesthat just treat it like a
liability and they truck it awayand they lock it in a landfill
and that sort of makes me crybecause it's not maximizing that
asset.
In our group, our mantra isthere's no such thing as waste,
only wasted resources.
So there's tons ofopportunities to innovate and
(28:28):
look at waste streams and peelthings out that have value so
that we can reuse them again, sowe don't have to manufacture
new ones Like for this.
If a farmer uses bloom on afield, it's A sequestering
carbon in the soil and B it'savoiding the use of ammonium
nitrate in organic fertilizer.
That takes a ton of energy tomake, so it has a huge benefit
(28:51):
from a carbon footprintstandpoint as well.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Oh, wow, so it's a double benefit for the, I guess
the places that you serve, alsofor your organization.
Yes, so I assume this is a forsale product.
I guess People can buy bloom,okay.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
So I assume this is a for sale product I guess people
can buy bloom.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Okay, so you're taking something that's really,
that is the opposite of bloomand you've created something
that helps flowers to bloom.
Yes, how do people learn moreabout your company, dc Water,
and then also where to find yourproducts?
Speaker 4 (29:22):
Sure, we've got a couple of websites.
Dcwatercom has a ton ofinformation about our
innovations.
If you search around thewebsite, you can find that.
And we also have a separatewebsite for Bloom.
It's called Bloomsoilcom Oneword Bloomsoil and that has a
million pictures.
It's got testimonials fromfarmers and gardeners, it has
(29:42):
all of the spec sheets for allthe products and you can order
it from the website.
Oh, awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Awesome.
This is good to, and again theURL for the website again,
bloomsoilcom.
All right, great, great.
Now, I'm not a gardener.
I'm not.
I'm a matter of fact, I thinkI'm a novice when it comes to
(30:11):
anything.
Green thumb know all the thingsthat a product like Bloom
Fertilizer will do, but I doknow that we have someone coming
up next that will tell us allabout how we could use
fertilizer or how we can betteruse the resources around our own
homes, our greenery, ourgardens, our grass.
And, as a matter of fact, he'snot a novice.
He's quite the opposite, he isa master.
So let's get him up here rightnext.
Thank you, chris, for stoppingby, and thank you for all the
great work that DC Ward is doing.
Hey, thanks.
(30:31):
Who would have thought that youcan do anything productive with
human waste?
I know.
Nobody talks about it, but we'revery proud of it, but it's good
to know that we're not wastingthe ingenuity of the local
businesses that are very green.
I think, literally, you're agreen business and, as we look
(30:52):
at being a greener county, Ithink this is one of the ways
that we can use innovation andsupporting of corporate partners
across the area to do better,do more and wow and have things
grow through, I guess, bloom.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Yeah, thank you, montgomery County, for your
contribution, your contributionis not wasted.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Okay, your contribution is not wasted.
It's Bloom.
And this is a paper bag full offertilizer.
Yes, and this is the Bloomproduct, and it's derived from,
again, poop.
There we go.
I danced around it all day.
There he is, it's from poop, sothank you, it goes full circle.
(31:33):
Thank you so much, sir, forbeing here today.
I appreciate it.
Yep, thank you.
All right, what?
Okay, we just had a greatconversation with Chris from DC
Water talking about a productBloom that's literally made from
human waste Human waste and theproduct that it is is
(31:54):
fertilizer.
And I think I mentioned to Christhat I am a novice when it
comes to all things green.
I know to cut my grass, I cutit to about two inches, maybe
three inches.
I'm not sure if I'm doing thatright or not, but beyond that,
my green thumb is a thumbs down,as my yard will tell you.
But lucky for you out there, wehave a master gardener in the
(32:16):
house, steve Dubik.
Yes, he serves as a coordinatorfor the Montgomery County
Master Gardener Program, wherehe manages over 450 active
volunteers who provideprofessional assistance around
environmental ornamental througha telephone hotline, plant
clinics, demonstration gardensand a speakers group.
(32:38):
He receives a BS and MS inornamental horticulture from the
University of Maryland.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
That's right so you're a hometown guy.
We like University of Maryland,that's right.
So you're a hometown guy, welike to hear that.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Now, in my program, I always want to make sure that
we break things down so thatpeople like myself can
understand what's going on, whatis ornamental?
Speaker 3 (32:58):
horticulture Okay, ornamental, yeah.
There's different kinds ofhorticulture, so ornamental is
dealing with like trees, flowers, shrubs, annuals, perennials,
things like that.
Horticulture is like more of anintensive form of agriculture.
So we're more on the ornamentalside versus like maybe the food
production side, like ofgrowing vegetables or fruit or
(33:20):
things like that.
So it's just part ofagriculture.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Wonderful, okay, great.
So it's just part ofagriculture.
Wonderful, okay, great.
And so you and the volunteersin this program provide a
resource to anyone that mighthave, or select people.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
How does that work?
Oh, we try to offer services ina variety of ways to the
residents of Montgomery Countythrough, as you were mentioning,
we have a hotline.
We have a hotline.
We have about a dozen differentplant clinics or Ask a Master
Gardener.
Some are in libraries or someare at some of the farmer's
markets.
We have a speakers group and wealso were involved with
(33:57):
therapeutic horticulture andthere's several other programs.
We have a lot of communityevents we get involved with.
We have Earth Day and thingslike that, and we have several
demonstration gardens, a nicebig one up there in derwood
wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Okay, that's incredible.
Now, now, what is that?
What is the?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
master gardener.
Okay, so the idea of the mastergardening program came to help
the folks at the university ofmaryland extension or part of
the extension.
The extensions of theuniversity of of Maryland
Extension is the outreacheducational arm of the
university and each county hasan agent, at least one or two,
and very often, particularly inthe past, we get lots and lots
(34:35):
of gardening questions and theywould tie up the agent, who had
other duties, really to be morefor the professional farmer or
grower or nursery manager.
So they started trainingvolunteers and it started out
out West, but eventually, youknow, it got here on the East
coast and Montgomery County wasearly on, and so we try to help
(34:55):
the, the staff and the facultythere by answering a lot of
these gardening questions andsome of them are repetitive,
some of them are very unique,one time only.
That kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Oh, great.
Now I do have a question.
I mentioned last segment.
What's the purpose offertilizer?
I mean, I'm a novice, I knowthat you put plants in the
ground and you throw water onthem and they grow.
Sure, what's the purpose offertilizer?
I know there's a need for it,so what's the purpose of
fertilizer for people that aregardening or that have farms?
(35:27):
What's the utility of it?
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Yeah, so the fertilizer is going to supply
nutrients to the plants.
Now, in many situations, likein a wooded area, in a forest
that gets replenished each yearas the leaves and twigs fall to
the ground, but sometimesthey're taken away, they're
moved, or maybe the soils havesome issues.
They maybe the soils are, youknow have some issues.
(35:51):
They're compacted.
Maybe there's not a lot of work.
You know, leaf litter or we'llcall organic matter there.
So sometimes we need to addadditional nutrients and
sometimes we may not know whatthat is.
So we should get our soil testand I should always, you know,
push the idea of getting yoursoil test.
So that's, we supply thesenutrients so that the they're
available to the plant and so,as the plant goes through the
process of photosynthesis, ithas the components it needs to
make the sugars and things thatit needs for it to grow.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Fantastic.
Now what do you think aboutthis product?
I'm not sure what fertilizer istraditionally made of, but what
do you think about a productthat is made of human waste, and
how viable is it for use ingardens around the Montgomery
County?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
area.
Okay.
So there's other traditionalfertilizers, synthetic
fertilizers, and they have theirplace and there's some
advantages to it.
But some of the things like thebiosolids and these organics
have is that the organic mattercomponent itself, when it gets
to the soil, helps to stimulatethe soil ecosystem.
It helps to encourage fungi andbacteria Most fungi and
bacteria in the soil ecosystem.
(36:46):
It helps to encourage the fungiand bacteria and most fungi and
bacteria in the soil arebeneficial directly or
indirectly.
So by providing that there,that's a real benefit to the
soil and it helps the soil in acouple of ways.
One is that these bacteria andfungi help to sometimes protect
the plant.
They help to assist the plantto get nutrients it couldn't get
any other way.
So there's a very often strongrelationship, particularly for
(37:08):
native plants, with the bacteriaand the fungi that exist in the
soil.
By providing this organic matter, that's essentially like the
fuel.
It's like I can analyze it it'slike a freight train and you
have all these different freightcars and as you break them
apart you get energy.
So as you add this organicmatter, it gives the fuel to
these microbes for them to grow.
(37:29):
And one big benefit thatsometimes people forget is as
they grow, they give offbyproducts that help the soil
improve by clumping it togetherand that makes some of our soils
which, if you know, if you'vedumped around, derek, it's
pretty hard right.
So it clumps it together andand allows these pathways of air
(37:51):
and water to go through thesoil column.
So when we get rain andwhenever that comes, it
hopefully will channel more downinto the soil than, rather than
, running off and that's a a bigthing a stormwater runoff in
here in county.
We try to minimize that.
Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Now you kind of touched upon something I wanted
to ask you about Many gardenersor others that are into they
have green thumbs that aretrying to grow things in
Montgomery County Right now theyhave a problem.
The problem is it's hot.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
I don't know if we're in a drought, but there's not
much water.
It's very dry, the ground ishard.
What tips do you have fornovice gardeners, medium
gardeners, anyone that'sfrustrated right now with trying
to grow greenery in theMontgomery County area?
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Well, right now there's probably not much you
can do, but in the future nottoo far it should get cooler,
the moisture should come.
So at that point, if you'regoing to, let's say, install a
bed, maybe later in the fall,the growing season, you want to
incorporate organic matter,because that organic matter, as
we mentioned, is going toprovide nutrients, can improve
(39:05):
the soil structure and then, forand for some soils, it's going
to help to hold that moisturethat gets there.
So that's something you coulddo in the fall.
And you can also do this withyour lawn too.
So in the fall and the lawnsare all toasty right now,
nothing, you just got to wait itout, it's crunchy, it's real
crunchy.
(39:26):
So in in the fall, uh, when youseed, often we do this kind of
together we, we seed, or I'msure you'd say we aerate, we
pull little plugs of soil outand then we drop seed and then
we add some organic matter andthose you know a combination of
those things really helps forthe turf to get established.
And what we're using?
Instead of a syntheticfertilizer, we're using this
(39:48):
organic biosolid or compost oryou know a product like that,
rather than that going to thelandfill, and again, it provides
nutrients, slowly helps themimprove the soil structure, and
so there's a lot of benefitsfrom from using these bio solids
and compost and organic matter,you're not just improving, not
(40:09):
just providing nutrients.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
You're improving the soil long term all right, right
now there's someone that wantsto learn more about master
gardening in montgomery, countymaryland, or master gardening,
or to get tips how can I reachout to you and find out more
about what you guys do?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
gee, uh, I I just think the simplest thing to do
is just Google Master Gardeners.
But got to make sure you putMontgomery County in there,
because if you don't do that, wewant you to get to here.
So you want to put MarylandMaster Gardeners, Montgomery
County, Maryland, because thereare other Montgomery Counties
All over the country and youshould pop up.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
We should be right at the top, as we should be.
Montgomery County should alwaysbe at the top, yes, and what
should be at the top of ourminds is that we don't waste our
time, energy or innovation.
We don't waste almost anythingin Montgomery County, maryland.
How about that?
Especially when it comes to theenvironment and becoming
greener and having a smallercarbon footprint.
Thank you so much today fromChris and Steve.
(41:09):
And that's what's happening,moco finding ways to reduce
waste and make better use ofwaste as we lead our way to zero
when it comes to being agreener and healthier county in
Montgomery County, maryland.
Thanks for listening and pleasesubscribe.
Good day and welcome to what's Happening MoCo, a
podcast from your award-winninggovernment television station,
county Cable Montgomery.
Now here's your host, derekKenney.
Good day, welcome to what'sHappening MoCo.
Today we have another knockoutedition of what's Happening MoCo
, and today we're talking aboutwaste reduction, we're talking
(00:21):
about recycling, we're talkingabout all the ways that
organizations in the county well, particularly the community,
but also using technologies andusing our good efforts to find
(00:49):
ways to be better world citizens, and one of those ways is
through the waste reduction andrecycling section of Montgomery
County, maryland.
And to talk about what that is,we have the chief, eileen KO.
How are you today, eileen?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I'm very well, thanks , derek.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
All right, well, thank you so much for being here
.
In some ways, the title WasteReduction and Recycling Section
speaks for itself, but in someways it's hard to totally
understand what a governmentagency does when it comes to
what they do.
So what can you tell us aboutwhat your area does?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
County and folks visiting Montgomery County to
reduce the amount of waste thatthey create, to begin with, to
reuse items over and over againto maximize their useful life,
and then to be sure to recycleeverything that's possible to
recycle.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Oh, wow, okay, and so that.
So you, it's more of a kind ofan outreach thing.
So you do you, your team,educates people, provide them
with tools.
What are some of the ways thatyou're educating people to
reduce waste or to recycle intheir own homes?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, absolutely we.
We do a lot of outreach,education, technical assistance
and training and we do thatacross the board.
So, you're right, we do thatfor single family residents,
residents that are in singlefamily homes.
We also do that for residentsof multifamily apartments and
condos and co-ops.
(02:37):
We also do that for businessesand organizations, and we define
a business as anything that'snot residential in nature.
So that means it's yourconventional enterprise
businesses, it's also yournonprofit organizations and its
government facilities at everylevel federal, state and local.
(02:59):
So for my team and myself, ourclients, our customers, it's
literally everyone in MontgomeryCounty, whether you're living
in the county, working in thecounty or visiting the county.
So we do a lot of outreach,education, trainings, all of
(03:20):
that, all of that.
And again, we really focus onkind of the whole loop in terms
of how to sustainably managematerials.
Really, it starts with tryingto get people to reduce the
amount of waste they create tobegin with.
Right, looking at things thatyou're thinking of purchasing or
(03:45):
thinking of using and reallyfocusing on do you really need
that item?
Oh, wow.
And so we really want people toreduce the amount of waste that
they create to begin with, andthen the things that we do have
and use, and you know, we allknow, in the course of a day,
there are a lot of things thatwe actually do need, right to
(04:07):
accomplish things, and so it'sabout reusing those things over
and over and over again, reallymaking sure that their useful
lives go on as long as possible.
So you know, for example, ifyou have an article clothing and
maybe you've lost the buttonsover time, well, it's going back
(04:29):
to basics and saying, okay,well, how can I fix this,
literally, how can I repair thisand keep on wearing?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
it.
Keep on using it, hold on.
So you're suggesting thattoday's modern resident, instead
of throwing away a shirt thathas a missing button, we can get
that repaired?
Yeah, and then that reduceswaste.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
You don't have to throw a shirt away.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Absolutely, you don't have to spend extra money, so
that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Okay, it's kind of getting back to basics isn't it?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, really.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
And focusing on those things.
Yeah, and maybe if it'ssomething, for example, if you
have children and they'veoutgrown clothing, which we know
that happens even with adultssometimes, and so you know.
I do too, I do too, and so, youknow, one of the things is
thinking about well, if it'sstill in good condition dignity
(05:21):
condition then we should reallythink about donating it, giving
it to someone else who couldthen use it, and again, that's
extending its useful life, rightyeah, yeah, how can we do that?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
or where are some of the places we can donate
clothing?
Or do we just google donateclothing?
Or how does that work well,there are.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
there are so many places.
There really are so many placesthese days, right, and so, of
course, google is our friend.
It's like, what did we dobefore Google existed?
And so, yeah, you can Googleand and find a lot of places
locally near you where you candonate items.
You know, and that comes.
It comes in all forms.
(06:04):
It comes in charitableorganizations or philanthropic
organizations.
It comes in the form of justother organizations that are,
again, they're thinking aboutthings that they need and
looking at ways that they cansecure those items, but maybe
(06:25):
with either a limited budget orin ways where there's less waste
, so thinking about, well, maybesomeone else has excess of
those items that we need andwould be willing to donate them.
Wow, yeah, yeah, now there doescome.
Sometimes.
You, you know I mentioneddignity condition.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I think that you know , we also need to consider when
we're trying to donate items forreuse.
You know, is that somethingthat's really something that you
would offer to someone and say,hey, I can't use this anymore.
Would you like to use it?
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
There are times when things may be too soiled or too
torn that they really can't,they're not in dignity condition
and they really can't be, youknow, used again, for example,
clothing, textiles, whatever.
And for those, for those itemsactually we do have in our
division we've got a greattextile recycling program.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Oh really, yeah, you can recycle.
I mean textiles.
You can recycle clothing orfabrics.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Again, we're looking for highest and best use.
So of course, if it's somethingstill usable and in good
condition, then we alwaysadvocate well, donate it to a
charitable organization or giveit to someone else who can then
use it in its original form,right what it was intended to be
used for.
But if it's been used over and,over and over again and it's
(07:57):
seen better days and it reallycan't be used again in that form
, then yeah, we have this greattextiles recycling program and
people can drop off at ourtransfer station, which is very
conveniently located in thecenter of Montgomery County.
They can bring those textilesto us and those will actually
(08:17):
get recycled.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It'll get used to.
Other materials would beprocessed and, you know, chopped
up and reformatted and used tomake things like insulation,
cleaning cloths, that again,these are new items that have a
new purpose, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It's great that you're using innovation or like
technology or just rethinking.
You know it's like you don'tjust throw.
You don't want to throw thesethings away.
There's still value there, soyou're going to use it.
You're not just recycling likecans.
So you think you think aboutrecycling.
And when I think aboutrecycling it's usually just
bottles, plastics, can, tin cans, but you're talking about
(08:56):
recycling clothing.
That's amazing.
What other innovative things?
I think you mentioned somethingwith food earlier innovative
things I think you mentionedsomething with food earlier.
What other ways can residentsknock out?
You know the ways to actuallybe better, to reduce that
footprint?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, yeah.
So, Derek, you know we do havea very ambitious goal here in
Montgomery County.
Our goal is to reduce waste andrecycle more, aiming for zero
waste, no waste.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Zero waste, zero waste.
Okay, I don't know how that'sgoing to.
All right, it sounds great.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It is ambitious.
We we know, we're confident, wecan make a lot of headway and
we can make a lot of progresstoward this goal.
And one of the areas, one ofthe many areas that we are
currently focusing on, has to dowith food scraps.
In some jurisdictions they callit food waste and in some
(09:51):
periodicals articles you'll seethe term food waste.
We actually don't call it foodwaste.
We refer to it as food scrapsbecause the material it's not a
waste.
It's a really great materialthat can be renewed again and
made into something new again.
Oh, wow, Okay yeah yeah, so in2018, we published a strategic
(10:15):
plan to address food scraps.
Right To try to advancecomposting, compost use and food
scraps diversion here inMontgomery County.
Diversion, meaning, divert itfrom the waste stream.
Oh, wow, right.
Okay, so we are going full boreon food scraps in a lot of
(10:37):
different aspects, and thereason is we do something kind
of interesting, I would say On aperiodic basis in our division
we do a waste composition study.
So what we do is we literallygo through the waste, take a lot
(10:57):
of samplings and we sort thewaste into many, many different
categories and through thisstudy, this periodic study, what
we have seen is that the nextmaterial that is, in the
greatest quantity that we finddisposed in the trash is, in
fact, food scraps, and we knowthat there is a way to separate
(11:23):
those food scraps and recyclethem.
But again, even before that,one of the aspects of what we
are doing is we are trying toreally focus attention on ways
to reduce the amount of wastedfood in Montgomery County.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
To begin with, and so we have this education campaign
.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It's called Food is Too Good to begin with oh, wow.
And so we have this educationcampaign.
It's called Food is Too Good toWaste Okay, all right.
Yeah.
And we have a lot of great tipsand recommendations on you know
ways that we can all reduce theamount of wasted food that we
(12:03):
create.
Amount of wasted food that wecreate.
It's everything from makingsure that you plan your meals
ahead of time.
Plan and see what you need.
Take a look at your pantry,take a look at your refrigerator
, see what you need, whatingredients you need in order to
make those meals.
So have that as a shopping listand when you go and shop, try
(12:25):
to make sure that you are buyingthings that you actually are
going to use, right.
And then it's that we have tipson how to have creative recipes
and do meal preparation in waysthat really cut down on waste.
It also has to do with servingportions as we enjoy our meals.
(12:50):
We really could go to a pointwhere we're not supersizing
things but we're right-sizingthings and just prepare what is
necessary.
And when you do have leftovers,or if you are proactively
cooking for a number of mealsahead and you wanna you know,
(13:15):
you know sort of save for thosefuture meals, then we have tips
on how to safely store those.
You know those pre-preparedfoods and you know everything
from using reusable containersto freeze these items, labeling
the day that you've frozen theitems and what's in that
(13:38):
container, the day that you'vefrozen the items and what's in
that container.
So, yeah, so it's interesting.
It's really trying to remindourselves to kind of go back and
consider some real basics,right?
The other thing that we areworking on is edible food
recovery.
On is edible food recovery andwhat that is.
(14:07):
If you have food that is inexcess of your needs and this
holds true whether you're aresident or whether you're a
restaurant or a food preparationbusiness if you have foods that
are in excess of your needs,then let's increase the amount
of this type of food that wedonate to organizations that are
(14:30):
food assistance providing,because there are so many
residents, so many neighbors, somany people in our community
that actually they struggle,they are experiencing food
insecurity and they have unmetneeds and they really need
access to consistent, consistentaccess to nutritious, good
(14:52):
foods.
So so we want to increase thedonations of edible foods so
that others may, you know, maybenefit and use those.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So by reducing waste you can also benefit our
neighbors and friends that maybe food insecure at the same
time, so you have a doublebenefit there as well.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
That's amazing.
It's good that you're doingthat, and then you're doing it
through education, doing itthrough programming, helping
people be more thoughtful, moremindful as they think about
getting rid of old clothing, asthey think about finishing that
last meal, as they think aboutgoing shopping, or before they
go to McDonald's and decide tosupersize or right size their
(15:40):
meal, so that we're not fillinga trash can up with french fries
right, or cheeseburger bits orwhatever else there is.
What other ways, what otherthings did you want residents of
the county to know about beingmindful when it comes to waste
management in the county?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
being mindful when it comes to waste management in
the county.
Well, I would like people toknow that we continue to work on
other aspects of reallyrecycling food that is not
edible any longer.
Right, we have some awesome,creative, award-winning programs
that we have in place, and Ithink I want to share that
(16:22):
information and really getpeople to help us spread the
word.
One of the programs is ourCommercial Food Scraps Recycling
Partnership Program, and thisis aimed towards or geared to
the commercial sector, thebusinesses, and so for any of
the businesses and organizationsthat generate food, that
(16:45):
prepare food and generate food.
We have this program that Icall it a training wheel program
.
It's a really cool programwhere we intensively will work
with any of the partners thatsign on to this program
intensively over the course of acouple of years.
They're with us in this program.
(17:07):
We provide outreach, education,technical assistance, training.
We help them to set up foodscrap separation in their
restaurant or their grocerystore or their bodega, in their
cafeteria.
We actually will then alsoprovide collection services.
(17:27):
We will collect those foodscraps they put together on a
periodic basis and we willdeliver those materials, the
food scraps, to a facility inthe region where we have secured
processing capacity and wedeliver that food scraps,
material there and it isactually composted into a new
(17:50):
product, a soil amendment.
Yeah, that then appears.
It's bagged and it appears onthe shelves of different stores
and landscapers and homeownersand everybody can purchase that
material and use that material.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Oh wow, Can you describe that process again?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Sure Well, commercial generators of food scraps can
contact us.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And we will start to look at how much food scrap
material they generate.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And work with them.
It really needs to be abusiness or organization that
has never done this previously,and so we will take them through
(18:43):
on setting up theinfrastructure internally to
separate their food scraps forrecycling.
We provide them the containersthat they will put the food
scraps into.
We provide them training forall of their employees.
And we have a lot of differentmaterials posters, stickers,
labels, everything that theywould need and we are always
(19:04):
available to them to help themtroubleshoot if there are any
bumps in the road or issues thatcome up.
But then, furthermore, weactually have two of our own
trucks small trucks that we useto collect food scraps for
recycling, and so each week, ona schedule, regular schedule, we
will pick up the food scrapsthat they have collected up and
(19:26):
stored up.
And we pick up the food scrapsmaterials.
We weigh we like to get a lotof data and a lot of great
information we weigh thatmaterial and then we take that
material and we transport it anddeliver it to a composting
facility in the region where wehave previously already secured
(19:48):
a certain amount of tonnagecapacity that that facility has
guaranteed we have access to.
So we provide that food scrapsmaterial, they process it and
what they process it into theyadd grass, they add leaves, they
add materials and it becomes asoil amendment.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Oh, wow, yeah, A soil amendment, soil amendment, yep,
yep.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
It's marketed under the product name Leaf Grow Gold.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
That's a pretty name Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, and it's sold on a retail basis, and then
people can purchase thatmaterial and use that in their
gardens and their flower beds.
Wow, all right.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That's really in line with what we'll be talking
about next.
Thank you so much for beinghere, miss KO, and I like to say
I think that's a great namebecause it just reminds me to
knock out.
You know, knock out the things,obstacles to climate change,
knock out wasting food, knockout not using utilizing food
(20:58):
scraps efficiently, and justknock it out.
Knock out the box, the wholenotion that we, as a greener
county, cannot get all the waydown to zero, which is our goal.
All right, thank you so muchfor being here today.
And that's what's happeningmoco.
Next we talked to chris piiat,and his company is talking about
(21:19):
how you should not wasteanything, much less human waste.
What Good day we're back.
We're back with Chris Piat.
He's an environmental engineerwith more than 25 years
experience in wastewatertreatment, residuals, reuse and
recycling big words.
(21:40):
His work experience includesoperations manager for 1,200 ton
a day, implementation of theBloom products, which we'll
learn about a little bit later,and marketing plan development
for new biosolids reuse options,development of a nationally
recognized research program.
Let's just say he's the boss.
He's the boss, he's theenvironmental boss for DC Water
(22:02):
and he's here today to talk tous about something I found not a
waste of time to talk aboutSomething that I found to be
kind of innovative and very,very surprising.
Usually, when I see a brown bagof stuff left on the table, I
kind of push it to the sides, sobut today we're going to talk
(22:23):
about it.
We'll get right into it.
Chris, I've heard about yourorganization, dc Water, using
what can only be described ashuman waste.
Yes, to create somethingbeneficial to gardeners.
And to make sure that Iunderstand this totally
correctly what are we describingas human waste?
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Sure.
So I'm an engineer and I am thedirector of resource recovery
at DC Water.
I work at the giant wastewatertreatment plant Blue Plains.
We don't even call it awastewater treatment plant
anymore, we call it a resourcerecovery facility because it's
our job to take the pollutants.
I'm going to use air quotes thepollutants out of the water and
make sure they don't end up inthe Chesapeake Bay, and it's
(23:02):
largely carbon and nutrientsthat we want to keep out of the
bay to ensure that we don't havealgae blooms.
But carbon is energy, nutrientsare fertilizer.
Both have value.
So we designed and constructedequipment to maximize those
assets.
It's my job to maximize theassets that we produce.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Okay, Now, and just to be clear, because sometimes I
want to make sure that ouraudience gets what we're saying.
Sure, when we say human waste,we're not talking about trash
bags or newspapers.
No, we're talking aboutliterally people.
You could say it.
You flush your toilet and it hasto go somewhere.
That's right, and you don'tthink about where it's going,
(23:41):
and I guess we always.
Sometimes you assume that it isdumped into a river somewhere.
Right, but there's actually.
Your organization is basicallytaking and you're considering
this waste as bio, some type ofbio Biosolids, Biosolids Okay
(24:19):
no-transcript.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
It serves, of course, all of DC, but it also serves
two counties in Maryland,montgomery and Prince George's
County, and two counties insuburban Virginia.
Percent of our flow comes infrom Maryland, which means that
(24:42):
of the 155, 160,000 tons a yearof biocells that we produce,
about 40,000 tons come directlyfrom Montgomery County.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Wow, so we contribute 40 tons to this fine product.
And this product ultimately, inone of its forms at least, is
fertilizer and you've been kindenough to bring this, oh yeah.
This brown bag.
Usually, when there's a brownbag left on a doorstep or
something you know, you don'ttouch it, or it's set on fire
(25:08):
and you're supposed to stop itOkay.
But in this case it's similarcontents.
But what can we?
As we're looking at this brownbag, it seems very simple,
nondescript.
What purpose or what value didwe glean from this product here?
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Sure.
So you know, we installed allthis equipment.
We invested money so that wecould maximize the assets, and
we chose every piece ofequipment with product quality
in mind.
So we wanted to make a verystable, low odor fertilizer
product that's called FreshBloom.
Fresh bloom okay, it comesstraight off our belts, we put
it into trucks, it goes out tofarms, it goes to soil blenders.
(25:44):
We also make blends that aremore sort of homeowner friendly.
You can use this on your garden, on your lawn.
It's this is our sand blend.
It's got sand and wood fines init can I open it?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
yes, yeah, yeah, I was.
I held back earlier, just incase there's some natural odor,
it is not going to smell likeyou think it smells here, all
right, so this is a bag offertilizer created from human
waste from around the area,including Montgomery County,
that people can use in theirgardens.
(26:15):
And I'm going to sniff it, allright.
Yeah, it just smells.
It smells kind of grass, likegrassy, kind of like soil, like
really like the garden dirt youwould buy from home depot, right
, exactly what we're trying.
Okay, and that's what you wantto do yeah, I mean we we wanted
to.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
I mean, it's what we're doing is is making sort of
a manufactured topsoil.
It's a neutrified topsoil andit's it really.
All we do at the plant isaccelerated nature.
If the analogy I like to use isif a bear was in the woods and
it rumbled out to the river andit scooped up a salmon and it
ate some and then it went backinto the woods, pooped in the
woods, the soil microbes wouldbreak down that organic nitrogen
(26:57):
into plant available inorganicnitrogen so that you could make
soil.
It just takes 18 months to doout in the woods and we're doing
it in a matter of days.
We've accelerated the nature.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
All right in a matter of days.
That's great.
Yep.
So instead of things justending up in a big landfill or
in some type of swamp somewhereor on a barge just traveling the
world, your organization isable to take tons and tons of
waste of different types andprocess it to some type of
innovative product, such asbloom.
We talked a little bit earlierwith the chief waste reduction
(27:30):
and recycling section chiefabout some of the creative ways
the county's employing to kindof do what they do to make sure
that we are recycling the bestwe can, to make sure that we are
reducing waste and managingwaste the best we can.
As a long-term environmentalengineer, how many years have
(27:50):
you started?
Speaker 4 (27:52):
About 30 years 30 years, 30 years.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Doesn't seem possible .
Speaker 1 (27:55):
What role does innovation have in terms of
reducing waste and managingwaste and effectively recycling
things?
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Well, there are so many opportunities, a lot of
cities for this product inparticular.
There are still a lot of citiesthat just treat it like a
liability and they truck it awayand they lock it in a landfill
and that sort of makes me crybecause it's not maximizing that
asset.
In our group, our mantra isthere's no such thing as waste,
only wasted resources.
So there's tons ofopportunities to innovate and
(28:28):
look at waste streams and peelthings out that have value so
that we can reuse them again, sowe don't have to manufacture
new ones Like for this.
If a farmer uses bloom on afield, it's A sequestering
carbon in the soil and B it'savoiding the use of ammonium
nitrate in organic fertilizer.
That takes a ton of energy tomake, so it has a huge benefit
(28:51):
from a carbon footprintstandpoint as well.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Oh, wow, so it's a double benefit for the, I guess
the places that you serve, alsofor your organization.
Yes, so I assume this is a forsale product.
I guess People can buy bloom,okay.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
So I assume this is a for sale product I guess people
can buy bloom.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Okay, so you're taking something that's really,
that is the opposite of bloomand you've created something
that helps flowers to bloom.
Yes, how do people learn moreabout your company, dc Water,
and then also where to find yourproducts?
Speaker 4 (29:22):
Sure, we've got a couple of websites.
Dcwatercom has a ton ofinformation about our
innovations.
If you search around thewebsite, you can find that.
And we also have a separatewebsite for Bloom.
It's called Bloomsoilcom Oneword Bloomsoil and that has a
million pictures.
It's got testimonials fromfarmers and gardeners, it has
(29:42):
all of the spec sheets for allthe products and you can order
it from the website.
Oh, awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Awesome.
This is good to, and again theURL for the website again,
bloomsoilcom.
All right, great, great.
Now, I'm not a gardener.
I'm not.
I'm a matter of fact, I thinkI'm a novice when it comes to
(30:11):
anything.
Green thumb know all the thingsthat a product like Bloom
Fertilizer will do, but I doknow that we have someone coming
up next that will tell us allabout how we could use
fertilizer or how we can betteruse the resources around our own
homes, our greenery, ourgardens, our grass.
And, as a matter of fact, he'snot a novice.
He's quite the opposite, he isa master.
So let's get him up here rightnext.
Thank you, chris, for stoppingby, and thank you for all the
great work that DC Ward is doing.
Hey, thanks.
(30:31):
Who would have thought that youcan do anything productive with
human waste?
I know.
Nobody talks about it, but we'revery proud of it, but it's good
to know that we're not wastingthe ingenuity of the local
businesses that are very green.
I think, literally, you're agreen business and, as we look
(30:52):
at being a greener county, Ithink this is one of the ways
that we can use innovation andsupporting of corporate partners
across the area to do better,do more and wow and have things
grow through, I guess, bloom.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Yeah, thank you, montgomery County, for your
contribution, your contributionis not wasted.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Okay, your contribution is not wasted.
It's Bloom.
And this is a paper bag full offertilizer.
Yes, and this is the Bloomproduct, and it's derived from,
again, poop.
There we go.
I danced around it all day.
There he is, it's from poop, sothank you, it goes full circle.
(31:33):
Thank you so much, sir, forbeing here today.
I appreciate it.
Yep, thank you.
All right, what?
Okay, we just had a greatconversation with Chris from DC
Water talking about a productBloom that's literally made from
human waste Human waste and theproduct that it is is
(31:54):
fertilizer.
And I think I mentioned to Christhat I am a novice when it
comes to all things green.
I know to cut my grass, I cutit to about two inches, maybe
three inches.
I'm not sure if I'm doing thatright or not, but beyond that,
my green thumb is a thumbs down,as my yard will tell you.
But lucky for you out there, wehave a master gardener in the
(32:16):
house, steve Dubik.
Yes, he serves as a coordinatorfor the Montgomery County
Master Gardener Program, wherehe manages over 450 active
volunteers who provideprofessional assistance around
environmental ornamental througha telephone hotline, plant
clinics, demonstration gardensand a speakers group.
(32:38):
He receives a BS and MS inornamental horticulture from the
University of Maryland.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
That's right so you're a hometown guy.
We like University of Maryland,that's right.
So you're a hometown guy, welike to hear that.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Now, in my program, I always want to make sure that
we break things down so thatpeople like myself can
understand what's going on, whatis ornamental?
Speaker 3 (32:58):
horticulture Okay, ornamental, yeah.
There's different kinds ofhorticulture, so ornamental is
dealing with like trees, flowers, shrubs, annuals, perennials,
things like that.
Horticulture is like more of anintensive form of agriculture.
So we're more on the ornamentalside versus like maybe the food
production side, like ofgrowing vegetables or fruit or
(33:20):
things like that.
So it's just part ofagriculture.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Wonderful, okay, great.
So it's just part ofagriculture.
Wonderful, okay, great.
And so you and the volunteersin this program provide a
resource to anyone that mighthave, or select people.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
How does that work?
Oh, we try to offer services ina variety of ways to the
residents of Montgomery Countythrough, as you were mentioning,
we have a hotline.
We have a hotline.
We have about a dozen differentplant clinics or Ask a Master
Gardener.
Some are in libraries or someare at some of the farmer's
markets.
We have a speakers group and wealso were involved with
(33:57):
therapeutic horticulture andthere's several other programs.
We have a lot of communityevents we get involved with.
We have Earth Day and thingslike that, and we have several
demonstration gardens, a nicebig one up there in derwood
wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Okay, that's incredible.
Now, now, what is that?
What is the?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
master gardener.
Okay, so the idea of the mastergardening program came to help
the folks at the university ofmaryland extension or part of
the extension.
The extensions of theuniversity of of Maryland
Extension is the outreacheducational arm of the
university and each county hasan agent, at least one or two,
and very often, particularly inthe past, we get lots and lots
(34:35):
of gardening questions and theywould tie up the agent, who had
other duties, really to be morefor the professional farmer or
grower or nursery manager.
So they started trainingvolunteers and it started out
out West, but eventually, youknow, it got here on the East
coast and Montgomery County wasearly on, and so we try to help
(34:55):
the, the staff and the facultythere by answering a lot of
these gardening questions andsome of them are repetitive,
some of them are very unique,one time only.
That kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Oh, great.
Now I do have a question.
I mentioned last segment.
What's the purpose offertilizer?
I mean, I'm a novice, I knowthat you put plants in the
ground and you throw water onthem and they grow.
Sure, what's the purpose offertilizer?
I know there's a need for it,so what's the purpose of
fertilizer for people that aregardening or that have farms?
(35:27):
What's the utility of it?
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Yeah, so the fertilizer is going to supply
nutrients to the plants.
Now, in many situations, likein a wooded area, in a forest
that gets replenished each yearas the leaves and twigs fall to
the ground, but sometimesthey're taken away, they're
moved, or maybe the soils havesome issues.
They maybe the soils are, youknow have some issues.
(35:51):
They're compacted.
Maybe there's not a lot of work.
You know, leaf litter or we'llcall organic matter there.
So sometimes we need to addadditional nutrients and
sometimes we may not know whatthat is.
So we should get our soil testand I should always, you know,
push the idea of getting yoursoil test.
So that's, we supply thesenutrients so that the they're
available to the plant and so,as the plant goes through the
process of photosynthesis, ithas the components it needs to
make the sugars and things thatit needs for it to grow.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Fantastic.
Now what do you think aboutthis product?
I'm not sure what fertilizer istraditionally made of, but what
do you think about a productthat is made of human waste, and
how viable is it for use ingardens around the Montgomery
County?
Speaker 3 (36:25):
area.
Okay.
So there's other traditionalfertilizers, synthetic
fertilizers, and they have theirplace and there's some
advantages to it.
But some of the things like thebiosolids and these organics
have is that the organic mattercomponent itself, when it gets
to the soil, helps to stimulatethe soil ecosystem.
It helps to encourage fungi andbacteria Most fungi and
bacteria in the soil ecosystem.
(36:46):
It helps to encourage the fungiand bacteria and most fungi and
bacteria in the soil arebeneficial directly or
indirectly.
So by providing that there,that's a real benefit to the
soil and it helps the soil in acouple of ways.
One is that these bacteria andfungi help to sometimes protect
the plant.
They help to assist the plantto get nutrients it couldn't get
any other way.
So there's a very often strongrelationship, particularly for
(37:08):
native plants, with the bacteriaand the fungi that exist in the
soil.
By providing this organic matter, that's essentially like the
fuel.
It's like I can analyze it it'slike a freight train and you
have all these different freightcars and as you break them
apart you get energy.
So as you add this organicmatter, it gives the fuel to
these microbes for them to grow.
(37:29):
And one big benefit thatsometimes people forget is as
they grow, they give offbyproducts that help the soil
improve by clumping it togetherand that makes some of our soils
which, if you know, if you'vedumped around, derek, it's
pretty hard right.
So it clumps it together andand allows these pathways of air
(37:51):
and water to go through thesoil column.
So when we get rain andwhenever that comes, it
hopefully will channel more downinto the soil than, rather than
, running off and that's a a bigthing a stormwater runoff in
here in county.
We try to minimize that.
Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Now you kind of touched upon something I wanted
to ask you about Many gardenersor others that are into they
have green thumbs that aretrying to grow things in
Montgomery County Right now theyhave a problem.
The problem is it's hot.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
I don't know if we're in a drought, but there's not
much water.
It's very dry, the ground ishard.
What tips do you have fornovice gardeners, medium
gardeners, anyone that'sfrustrated right now with trying
to grow greenery in theMontgomery County area?
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Well, right now there's probably not much you
can do, but in the future nottoo far it should get cooler,
the moisture should come.
So at that point, if you'regoing to, let's say, install a
bed, maybe later in the fall,the growing season, you want to
incorporate organic matter,because that organic matter, as
we mentioned, is going toprovide nutrients, can improve
(39:05):
the soil structure and then, forand for some soils, it's going
to help to hold that moisturethat gets there.
So that's something you coulddo in the fall.
And you can also do this withyour lawn too.
So in the fall and the lawnsare all toasty right now,
nothing, you just got to wait itout, it's crunchy, it's real
crunchy.
(39:26):
So in in the fall, uh, when youseed, often we do this kind of
together we, we seed, or I'msure you'd say we aerate, we
pull little plugs of soil outand then we drop seed and then
we add some organic matter andthose you know a combination of
those things really helps forthe turf to get established.
And what we're using?
Instead of a syntheticfertilizer, we're using this
(39:48):
organic biosolid or compost oryou know a product like that,
rather than that going to thelandfill, and again, it provides
nutrients, slowly helps themimprove the soil structure, and
so there's a lot of benefitsfrom from using these bio solids
and compost and organic matter,you're not just improving, not
(40:09):
just providing nutrients.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
You're improving the soil long term all right, right
now there's someone that wantsto learn more about master
gardening in montgomery, countymaryland, or master gardening,
or to get tips how can I reachout to you and find out more
about what you guys do?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
gee, uh, I I just think the simplest thing to do
is just Google Master Gardeners.
But got to make sure you putMontgomery County in there,
because if you don't do that, wewant you to get to here.
So you want to put MarylandMaster Gardeners, Montgomery
County, Maryland, because thereare other Montgomery Counties
All over the country and youshould pop up.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
We should be right at the top, as we should be.
Montgomery County should alwaysbe at the top, yes, and what
should be at the top of ourminds is that we don't waste our
time, energy or innovation.
We don't waste almost anythingin Montgomery County, maryland.
How about that?
Especially when it comes to theenvironment and becoming
greener and having a smallercarbon footprint.
Thank you so much today fromChris and Steve.
(41:09):
And that's what's happening,moco finding ways to reduce
waste and make better use ofwaste as we lead our way to zero
when it comes to being agreener and healthier county in
Montgomery County, maryland.
Thanks for listening and pleasesubscribe.
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