WEBVTT - Brilliant Minds of Trash and Sewage 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.800 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing. 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:11.800 Think about how much waste you generate every day. The 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:16.320 advil bottle, the styrofoam tray for your chicken, the chicken bones, 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:21.080 the toilet, paper tissues, and paper towels you consume. We're 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.560 about to get dirty here, so think of the human 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:29.160 waste too. Now multiply that by eight point five million 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:33.280 for all of New York City. That's one point three 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:38.880 billion gallons of wastewater every day, sixteen million pounds of trash, 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:43.080 eight million pounds of recyclables every day of every week. 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:49.040 Today you'll hear from two of the best people tackling 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.040 all that waste. After the break, New York City's first 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:56.880 recyclings are but first. Pam Alardo a big name in sewage. 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.560 Since last year, she's led New York city is Bureau 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:05.240 of Wastewater Treatment. Mayor Deblasio poached her from Seattle, where 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:10.640 she spearheaded an unprecedented upgrade of that city's wastewater treatment infrastructure. 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:13.560 Why did you leave Seattle to come here? Great question? 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:15.080 Do you ever look at your life as an older 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:17.760 person and you and you kind of look at your 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:19.560 life as a third party like that wasn't me, but 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.200 I'm observing it right. And and there's a few things 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:26.679 that are foreshadowing, like I my both my brothers. At 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:28.920 one time a rather lived in Manhattan, and so I 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.880 would visit New York frequently, a couple once or twice 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.600 a year, um, and I would come, I would land, 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:36.720 I would have a great time. I'd be thinking about 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.679 Holy Cow. I can't imagine what it'd be like to 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.679 work in New York City with just think about all 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.399 the pipes under the street. It's crazy. And I would 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:47.560 take a tour on Hudson. I would see one of 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:49.480 the treatment plants is on the Hudson up by Harlem 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.600 and be like, wow, that's a treatment plants. Huge. Um. 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:54.360 And then I would get on a plane and I 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:56.280 would fly back to Seattle and I go, oh my god, 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.960 I don't have any problems here. This is easy there. 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.720 There's there's no compared person. You know, in Seattle, I 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:03.920 did great and I plateaued at the top of my 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:06.240 game in the wastewater world there you want to kill 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:10.160 him Jarro of Wastewater Treatment, Yeah, yeah, yeah, the kill 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.640 him and Jarro of Wastewater mount Everest, maybe because you know, 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:14.200 I used to work in the pall, so that's kind 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:16.320 of where I got my appreciation for the value of 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:21.320 wastewater in a Peace Corps experience. Actually, UM, children don't 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.760 make it to their fifth birthdays or their twelfth birthdays 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.560 often because of the amount of disease that's out there. 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:28.440 And that's what you know. It makes me take my 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:32.200 job seriously because we do save lives every day people, 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:39.799 you know. Controlling sanitation, Controlling disease that comes from sanitation 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:42.679 that's not handled properly is what we do and it's 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.519 it's the fundamental reason why we enjoy the quality of 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:49.560 life we have. Fact in point, UM British Medical Journal 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.560 did a study in two thousand seven about they interviewed 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.040 hundreds of doctors what is the biggest medical breakthrough in 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.840 the last hundred fifty years? What came on top sanitation? 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.480 It's responsible for extending lives. It's it's the biggest reason 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.840 why really we have the kind of quality of healthcare 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.040 throughout the world and living in places where that didn't exist. 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:14.519 UM talking to parents whose children died because of dysentery 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:18.120 or other diseases that come from lack of wastewater. You know, 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.799 that's what makes me passionate about this stuff. My goal 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:22.639 in life is that everyone should know what happens after 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:29.000 the flush of toilet. Yes, because it is a communal, social, responsible, environmental, environmental, 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.640 public health and people don't want to think about it. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:35.840 They wanted to go away and be gone. And we 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:37.360 have the luxury in this country for it to be 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.280 taken for granted, and it's because we do such a 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:43.720 great job. So, by and large, are the systems generally 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.280 and principal in terms of science and so for that engineering, 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:50.160 are they the same in all major cities where what 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.800 happens to warter that goes down a sink, down a shower, bathtub, 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.680 at toilet, it all pretty much has managed the same way. 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:01.080 There's there's a variety of technologies. I mean they're good. One. Uh, 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:02.960 let me just talk about what happens from the beginning 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.200 to the end. It might be let's say you use 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.800 your toilet. It goes down out of your house and 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:11.720 then into a local collection lines. So there might be 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:13.600 one down your street and that will dump into a 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.760 larger collection system which is a larger pipe. Usually it's 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.919 called an interceptor, and that eventually will take it to 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.719 a wastewater treatment plant. And New York City, for example, 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:25.880 we have four teen wastewater treatment plants. We have ninety 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.880 six pumping station. Big stations continue to force the material 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:31.840 and the liquid and everything whatever is down there down 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:34.800 towards the trash train plant. So we at the tream planet. 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.839 Moving water is expensive and going by gravity is always cheaper. 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:39.920 So where there's a hill, we take advantage of the hill, 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.120 but at some lower points we always have to elevate 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:43.880 it and get it back to gravity so we can 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.960 flow it to the treatment plants. UM very expensive the 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:48.920 pumping systems, so when it gets to the treatment plant, 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:52.440 the first step there is a screen. There are bar 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.520 screens are about half the three quarter inch spacing and 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.360 they collect trash things that people should not be flushing 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.280 on the toilet like wipes, baby wipes, facial wipes, dental floss. 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.800 All that stuff gets to get stuck, get stuck, and 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:10.560 if it weren't trapped there, it's actually on the way. 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:12.839 It messes up a lot of the pumping systems because 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.280 we have so much of this this material UM, so 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:17.159 we we take it out there. We spent about seven 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.719 million dollars a year just for just in landfilling the 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:24.200 trash that people flush. And then it goes to UM 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:26.800 some kind of grit removal to move remove like sand 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.240 and chunks of rock, and then to a primary sedimentation 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.760 basin that allow solids inorganic salads for the most part 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.560 that are suspended to settle onto the bottom. And it 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:39.760 also has skimmers on the top that takes grease off 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.040 the top. Right, So that goes to a solid treatment system. 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.520 And then the next step, and this is UM the 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:48.520 fascinating world of biology. The next step we use a 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:52.839 community of bacteria that actually digests the suspended organic material 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.599 and clean the water. Via that method, you're bringing things 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:00.919 innatives for right. And from there it goes to another 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.680 settling tank where we settle out the biomass that just 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.000 consumed all this this organic matter UM. But the water 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.440 that comes out of the final settling tank gets disinfection 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.480 basically household bleached to take any particular pathogens out, and 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.279 that gets either just charged to receiving waters or in 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.240 some cases in some cities they're able to polish a 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.240 little bit more easy for irrigation purposes, especially in the 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:25.520 arid Southwest and you see what happens to it here, 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.440 what happens so here it gets discharged deeply into the 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.960 surrounding water bodies. After I'm getting cleaned up. Um, you 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:33.919 might have noticed, and I'm taking credit for this, and 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.160 all the people who work in the Bureauvoice Water Treatment 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:40.800 can people. Um, we take credit for the whales coming 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.000 back because because of the work that they do and 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.960 the experience and skill, um, those whales have been able 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:49.680 to come back into our is discharged deep into the 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.839 neighboring waters. It's it's that clean, very clean. And what 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.400 about the solids where human waste solids? Where does that? 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.920 So the salads are basically the bacteria that's settled out 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.000 as well as the salads we collected in the in 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:07.240 the primary basins, and that gets thickened um, and then 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.920 it goes to a anaerobic treatment process. So if you 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.520 if you're in Brooklyn, you see those big eggs shaped 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.680 metal eggs, Um, those are actually digests and those are 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.360 heated to ninety eight degrees and within that we're using 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.680 an anaerobic bacteria, so bacteria that live without oxygen, and 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.400 they'll digest those solids even more. And then that is 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.200 a valuable fertilizer product. So it's a very valuable product. 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:38.320 It's called biosalads um New York's bioslide yes and thinking 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.200 of like a conveyor belt, like a giant Brownie is 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:44.720 coming up every day about fourteen hundred wet tons we 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.680 create of biosalads. Now, it's not only great because it's 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:50.360 a great resources we don't want to waste, but it 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.240 returns carbon to the soil and you actually can run 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.880 a wastewater treatment plant at carbon neutral because of all 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:00.200 the carbon benefit we have the sequestration benefit from that 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:04.040 bio salds product. Now, another thing I think that occurs 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.680 to me is that there's auto mechanics, and there's places 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.960 where where work is being done and chemicals of every 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.480 fashion are being used to clean parts and cleaning solvents 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.840 and motor oil, just to pick one industry. I'm not 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:21.760 even talking about, you know, PCBs up the Hudson from 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:23.480 ge and the fifties, that kind of thing going into 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.680 the Hudson River. I'm talking about right here in New 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:30.360 York in restaurants. Every time somebody washes their hair and 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.000 every time somebody dies their hair in a beauty salat 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.120 all this stuff is going down the drain. What's the 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.840 process that removes all those chemicals? So some of those 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:43.440 chemicals break down very easily. They're they're biodegraded quickly within 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:46.640 the plant. They respond to the biological conditions within the 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.439 wastewater plant, and you won't find traces of it in 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:52.240 the effluence. Some of them break down into different types 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:56.920 of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, right, you'll get you know, people have chemotherapy. 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.080 You know that waste from their bodies might even end 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.240 up in the in cream pliant system. And you know 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:05.959 you're not you know, and so there are micro contaminants. 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:10.400 So there is some studies about potentially um ecological impacts 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:12.679 from some of those microplutants. We don't see that in 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:14.760 the scale New York City. The water bodies here are 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.559 well flushing. If the waste why chilies just charging to 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.560 a small lake for example. Um, you're going to have 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:25.280 much stricter standards on that end. Um, you know, it's 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:27.880 it's interesting. I'm I'm a strong environmentalist. I have been 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.079 my entire life since third grade as a matter of fact, 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.880 and I I care about trying to do the best 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:36.000 we can by nature and get us back to nature 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.480 the best we can. We live in a world that's 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:42.360 got plastics and papers, and and and also so many things. Um, 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.600 we're really, we're really doing in a fantastic job and 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.760 eliminating the risk to the environment into health. And as 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.720 monitoring and chemistry gets better, we can get down to 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.120 lower and lower concentrations and we're gonna learn a lot 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.760 more about ways that we can make it better. But 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.000 today we're just miles ahead of where we've been, and 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.480 we're safe to say that it's been about environmentalism for 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.240 you and an environmental environmental work. I became an environmentalist 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.040 and third grade and I'm still environmentalist. It kills me 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.960 now that some environmental groups think I'm a polluter. I'm 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.800 a very practical environmentalist. We've we're spending public money. We've 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.079 got to be good to the dollar and make sure 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.680 that we're doing the most effective way. Um, there's not 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.160 an unlimited amount of money. What would you say, what's 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:30.160 the Mercedes ben what's the Rolls Royce of? For lack 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.400 of a better way of putting of wastewater management around 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:38.320 the world? So let me wastewater treatment, like many things, 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:44.720 is an evolution, right the the Cadillac version depends on 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.240 the situation you're in now. Well, back when everybody were 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.760 farmers and people did not live in concentrated cities, it 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.840 didn't matter that people pooped in the field. Use pitlar trains, maybe, 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.040 no big deal. UM. As we started to get closer together, 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:03.240 we started to volve techniques for dealing with they well, 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:07.559 they had collection systems, and prior to UM the nineteen 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.600 thirties in New York City and prior to probably the 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.000 nineteen fifties and even the nineteen seventies and the rest 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:16.280 of the world, the whole driver towards wastewater treatment was 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:18.320 to get it away from people. So they put a 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.040 pipe in the ground and you got it to the 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:22.640 nearest water body. And that was totally fine. But when 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.719 the city's got bigger and people were more concentrated, we said, look, 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:27.960 we gotta start turning it. First treatment plants in New 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:32.120 York City where Coney Island, Jamaica Bay, places where people 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.880 were at the beach, right, And that's what drove those 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:38.240 early early investments around the turn of the last century. 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:40.360 UH and the very first treatm plants, and that was 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:46.280 just primary treatment systems. After more and more people started, 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.000 you know, using treatment, are using wastewater and conglomerating in 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:54.240 large groups. We the federal e p A said everyone's 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:56.000 going to do the secondary treatment part, which is that 0:11:56.080 --> 0:12:00.880 biological system, and so that's now the standard tree United States. Um. 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:05.600 Some places are treating to the to the extent where 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.160 they can drink it directly, and that is Singapore. And 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:10.479 they what they do is they do everything I just described, 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:15.680 add additional filtration and then a reverse osmosis, which is 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:19.680 very very fine filtration to create drinkable water. The city 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:24.880 has strict difficult a lot of difficulties, strict limitations on 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.640 the modern water that can come to their city freshwater. 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.320 So they create water. Yeah, but you started your education 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.280 in ninety nine. Not a lot of women were doing 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:36.400 this kind of work, were they that? I think I 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.520 was like the first quote wave of women in engineering, 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.600 which the wave has never grown. I think it's kind 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.160 of flat. Um. You know, my my high school advisor, 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:48.520 who was advising about college, told me I can't be 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.240 an engineer because that was a man's job. Flat out 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:55.480 told me that. And my response was, I'm not gonna 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.439 listen to you. If you told that two girls. There 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.280 might be eighty of them. Who's it? Okay? No, you 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:03.360 know what I'm saying, and that that, you know, that's 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:07.600 too bad. I went to college, my undergraduate Northwestern University, 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.040 got a chemical engineering degree. Back in you're in the 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.640 technology building, the engineering building. You can't find a woman's bathroom. 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.679 You gotta go to where the secretary sit. You know, 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.120 it was it was frustrating. You know, the forms all 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.880 started out mr period then blank. It wasn't that you 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.200 get to choose. I'm like, come on, you can update 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.720 this stuff. They're like, oh, we don't want to waste paper. 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.679 I don't care, just you know, so stuff like that. 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.120 It was some of the older professors are just their 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:36.280 minds were blown. But you know, I just had the 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:41.040 calling and what I did, uh, I think was imprinted 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:42.920 in third grade, to be honest, what was it about 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:49.000 it to intrigue um? In third grade, I had a 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.360 student teacher, you know probably I was probably eight. So 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:56.200 this person was taught us about environmental science. Changed my 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.640 life that day forward. I said, I want to learn this, 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:01.880 I want to know about I want to fight polluters. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.360 I want to make the world a clean, healthy place. 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.680 That commercial with the people throwing trash on the ground 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.280 and there's a Native American person standing here. I mean, 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:11.719 that was what I was all about. But that's the 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.000 difference in New York to me now. I mean, I've 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.800 got my first home here in nineteen seventy nine, and 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:19.320 in the years that I've lived in York, New York 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.560 is a lot eartier and New Yorkers are a lot earlier. 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.000 How does New York strike you when you got here 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.640 and you saw the amount of stuff going into those 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:33.520 screens compared to Seattle. Um, I've noticed things like there's 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.160 a trash can sitting on the corner. Somebody walks by 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:40.440 throws their plastic bottle on the street, and I'm gonnn't 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.520 get that. I do notice too. I have a dog. 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:43.960 I pick up my dog poop. I put it in 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:45.840 a plastic back. A lot of people don't do that. 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:49.440 I want to do a video for you. I want 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.400 to do a video for the Department of Sanitation, Waisteboard 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.960 and Management. ALEC wants you to know when you flush 0:14:56.040 --> 0:15:00.480 the toilet, let's keep the diapers most of your Let's 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.240 let's be an equal opportunity. Finger point here, it's the 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.640 tampons in the comb and they don't break down. Poop, 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:11.200 p puke, toilet paper, four piece, that's all we want 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:15.480 to see. Hi, I'm Alec Baldwin here with the four 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:19.520 reminding of the four piece poop, p puke and paper. 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:21.960 I think the more people know what happens after they flushed, 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:23.520 the more people are gonna respect what they put on 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:25.240 their toilet, and the more the less they're going to 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:28.640 want to litter. And that's why I really appreciate talking 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:30.360 with you, and I'm so glad you have this interest. 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.360 It's just over the top interesting. You're taking poo water 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:40.400 and making it clean. New York City's Deputy Commissioner for 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.960 Wastewater Management, Pam Alardo, a woman so passionate about her 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.680 job that we had to interrupt the interview. I'm hitting 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:50.640 the table. Don't mash your hands on the table. I 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.840 think it even says here that you are from an 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:59.040 Italian Catholic factory town. Italian Tabolic, Yes, absolutely, whether then 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.280 stop pounding on the table and the Italian Catholics do. 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.960 Waste management, with all its implications for our health and 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.880 the health of the planet, is still about politics. Like 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.280 everything else. We can't fix the problem if we don't 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.560 elect leaders who devote the resources and enforce the rules. 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:22.200 And nobody, nobody was better at gaming that system and 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.640 getting us to vote his way than Ed Rollins, Ronald 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:30.400 Reagan's brilliant and controversial campaign manager. When Democrats go out 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:32.880 and say I want you to turn out your churches, 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:34.960 your bus drivers, all the rest of it, we go 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:37.000 out and say, here's the payday you would normally get, 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.280 just you know, don't turn your vote out. I know 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:41.760 the game. I know how to make it work. And 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:43.920 part of the reason I know the game is I 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.680 was trained as a Democrat. More from Ed Rollins at 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.600 Here's the Thing dot org. After the Break. New York 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:55.840 City's original recyclings are former Deputy Commissioner for Sustainability and 0:16:55.880 --> 0:17:07.600 Recycling Ron Gonan. I'm Alec Baldwin, and you were listening 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.960 to Here is the Thing. Ron Gonan is a capitalist 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.199 even a hippie could love. In two thousand four, he 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.080 founded a recycling startup that grew to be worth hundreds 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.919 of millions of dollars. Now he runs a group of 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:25.640 investment funds dedicated to new ideas in recycling. In between 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.960 those two jobs, he was handpicked by Mayor Bloomberg to 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.560 be the city's first recycling czar. But when he walked 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.360 into the studio, he didn't look like someone who could 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.120 have had all that on his resume. You're so young, 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:39.760 I mean, how old you were? You ten years old 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:43.240 for the Bloomberg administration. I joined the administration arount thirty seven. 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.399 I'm about to turn forty three. But Gonan got a 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:49.800 very early start As a kid. He cleaned houses and 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:52.480 baby sat to help his mom out with the bills. 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:55.120 One day he ended up in the house of one 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:59.479 of the pioneers of the sustainability movement, architect Paul Mocked, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:01.960 and that Paul mocked When I was in seventh grade, 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:03.879 probably the most important thing that happened to me, and 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:05.879 I would tell me about this. I grew up with 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:09.280 a single mom, lower middle class neighborhood in Philly, got 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.119 a sports scholarship financial light opportunity to go to a 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.280 great private school called Germantown Academy, but needed to get 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:16.879 a job because I needed to earn some money for 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.879 my tuition, and started working for Paul and his wife. 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:22.480 This is the late eighties early nineties, and I was 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:26.440 doing everything from babysitting to housework, but he would talk 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:28.720 to me about what he was doing over dinner. He 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:30.960 gave me a book called Cradle to Cradle, the first 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.000 book around circular economy. He would talk to me about 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.439 these issues. I was really uh. I was blessed to 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:39.760 be around someone like that. So oftentimes people will come 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.080 to me and say how do you start these ventures? 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:45.320 And say, I've been thinking about the stuff for years. 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.679 And the first recycling company was what a friend from 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.560 high school approached me with a concept of could we 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.080 pay people for recycling? And that's what ultimately became a 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:58.600 cycle bank. Ended up building the business model and developing 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.800 the software for my first cycling company. I'm a recycling 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.680 I'm not gonna say nut, but I take it very seriously. 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:10.040 And even if recycling it's just an exercise, people want 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.040 to believe they can participate to make things better. I'm like, 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.359 don't discourage it, but is it just an exercise or 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:17.760 it's not? As far as you're concerned, it's absolutely not 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:23.680 just an exercise. Recycling has tremendous environmental value in terms 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:27.560 of resource protection. It also has tremendous economic value to 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.240 you as a taxpayer and that's part of the message 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:32.600 that oftentimes doesn't get out. So I appreciate that you 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.760 have great spirit behind recycling. You should keep that but 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.200 also feel good about the fact that you're doing something 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.159 really important for the environment and something really important for 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.280 your city. When that when those bags of recyclables hit 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:47.920 the street, where do they go? All of the metal, plastic, 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:52.440 and glass goes to a recycling facility in Brooklyn called 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.920 SIMS Metal Management. They actually have a phenomenal education program there, 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:58.440 so highly recommend folks to go uh to see the 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.439 SIMS facility and also get fifty of the paper. The 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:03.680 other of the paper goes to Pratt Recycling out in 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.720 Staten Island, and that paper then goes over to a 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:08.960 mill right next door that Pratt owns, and it's turned 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.560 into pizza boxes that then get resold right back into 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:13.760 the New York City economy. The box that it comes 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.040 in was New York Times. Could be was your New 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.919 Yorker magazine a couple of months ago, could be that's amazing, 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:21.479 it could be. Let's let's break it down to two 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:24.560 brass economics. If you throw that paper in the garbage, 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:27.280 the city would be paying a hundred dollars a ton 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.520 to export it to a landfill. If you put it 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.159 in your recycling bin, the city will get paid a 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:34.439 minimum of ten dollars a ton, so there's a hundred 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.200 and ten dollar swing there. Then it will go over 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.240 to a New York City business that employs people in 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.240 New York City turn it into a pizza box. What's 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:44.399 the stuff the city collects and what don't they collect? 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.159 What are some of the biggest misconceptions. So for recycling, 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:51.159 the city collects dry paper and cardboard, aluminum and metal, 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:57.000 all glass, and all rigid plastic like a Fiji bottle exactly. 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:00.000 So any plastic that's rigid goes into the city's recycling program. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.040 A plastic plastic that's flexible like a bag or plastic wrapping, 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:06.679 does not, you mean like like like a cup from 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.360 Starbucks can go in there. A paper cup from Starbucks 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:11.399 can go in there. There's not a plastic cup. No, 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:13.639 a plastic cup can because a plastic cup has has 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.720 rigidity to correct. So any formed plastic like cups so forth, 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.560 the city will take that exactly well, and the city 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:24.320 exempts those businesses from doing the recycling themselves. Well, Starbucks 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.000 is not obligated to recycle. Now so that the city 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.199 currently collects all residential recycling, so they collect from every 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.680 home in the city, not the businesses. Not the businesses. 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.680