Trash to Treasure

The Executive Director of Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resource Recovery Authority (SCRRRA), Dave Aldridge talks to the host of LOCAL ISSUES, Irving Steel (www.irvingsteel.com) regarding the immense opportunity with trash in the State of Connecticut. Please subscribe    / @storiesworthtellingwiththe6810   To find out more on SCRRRA: https://www.scrrra.org/ Irving Steel www.IrvingSteel.com What many people are calling a waste crisis, Connecticut currently produces an estimated 3.5 million tons of waste every single year, with about 40% of the waste getting shipped out of state because lack of place to put it inside the state. Amazingly, an estimated 22% of all the waste is able to be composted — which through either aerobic or anaerobic processes is able to be converted from worthless organic waste into either energy or strong fertilizer that could be used in agricultural processes. Dave has been leading a team over the last few years to grow the composting project into something that is viable and financially lucrative. Through collaboration with the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), and other grant sources, SCRRRA is already well on its way to having a regional composting program going on. Many people talk about the “three r’s” of reduce, reuse, and recycle. The first one is the most important — that if we could all reduce our consumption and the amount of trash that we produce, then we would have less trash overall. Then when it comes to recycling, not everything is able to be recycled, and putting the wrong things into the recycling pathways is another way to be called “wish-cycling” and it costs more money in the end and things have to be taken out of the lines. Finally, a very old process of composting is becoming more popular in schools and other places because it produces something of value out of something with no value — and actual cost. Please reach out if you are interested in starting composting.