Latest / The Kevin Stone Podcast / Episode #35 "From Food Waste to Community, What EcoDrum Is Building in Ozark"

Transcript

Episode #35 "From Food Waste to Community, What EcoDrum Is Building in Ozark" · The Kevin Stone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What happens when you take something Ozark is throwing away,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: put it through a machine built right here in town,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and turn it into something that may help our soil
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: hold water? Apparently you get compost. You may also get
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a community project, a place for young people to learn,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a few animals, a puppet stage, and if Byron Irwin
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: has his way, one more reason for people to come
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to Ozark. I went to this interview expecting to talk
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: about food waste and a big rotating drum. It became
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a much bigger conversation than that. This is the Kevin
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Stone Podcast. Today I'm talking with Byron Irwin of Riverbend
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Molding and Compost Network here in Ozark, Arkansas. Byron invited
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: me out to see what they're building and explain how
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: EcoDrum works. Before this conversation, most of my composting knowledge
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: came from leaving something in the refrigerator until it developed
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: its own form of government. Evidently, that's not the approved method.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I met Byron, walked around the property, and got to
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: hear firsthand why he's putting so much of himself into
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: this project. What stood out to me was not somebody
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: trying to get rich off the community. It was somebody
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: trying to build something that could genuinely help it. Here
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: is Byron Irwin.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm Byron Irwin. I'm with Riverbend Molding and Compost Network.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: We're out of Ozark, Arkansas, and we've been involved in
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: 20 years over doing in-vessel drums for the industry. And
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: we've decided to put together a nonprofit called Compost Network,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: empowering youth and communities. And that's what I'm here to
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: talk about today.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: All right, very good.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Before we get into composting, tell me a little bit
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: about River Bend Molding, what you make here in Ozark,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and how did you get involved in the company?
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: So River Bend Molding started in, we started producing our
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: first drum about April of 2019. Now, we've been manufacturing
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: in-vessel drums. We started as a Canadian company up in
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Manitoba when we started in 2006. and we were expanding
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: and we wanted a smaller community like we were used
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: to in manitoba so we moved operations we started looking
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: for land i think in 2017 started building the plant
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: in 2018 and it was officially open in 2019 and
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: so i've been there right from the start so uh
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: There were a couple of other partners involved with it.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: It was a father and son, Tim Epp and John Epp.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: But my job is to find a market for in-vessel composters.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: They got in touch with me because I was in agriculture,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: originally a farm kid from Saskatchewan. And I had spent
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: 10 years previously into the United States taking agricultural equipment
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: into the U.S.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I felt there was a real need in communities. I
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: felt there was a.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Real need for poultry producers to have another option in
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: mortality because the options that were available were costly.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Agriculture was expanding. The farms were getting bigger.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: And so I spent the majority of my time working
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: with government agencies to find grants and funding for.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: The American farmer. So that's how I got started.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: And I created the The EcoDrum, which you see today
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: and is part of the patent as well, because my
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: work in the field, you know, we see, OK, this
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: needed to be changed. This needed to happen. And we
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: were so I did all the service work to begin with.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: And so then you're learning about your own product and.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: And you're making changes as you're selling. So what you
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: see today is a gradual revolution, evolution of what we
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: actually started manufacturing. And that's kind of how we got going.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: And so we're pretty proud to be 20 years into it.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: And I'm happy now to be able to give back
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: to our community and work with a nonprofit called Compost Network.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: What exactly is an ecodrome and what problem was it
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: designed to solve?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: So to begin with, we were focused on agriculture. We
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: were trying to resolve the issue with poultry and hog mortality.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: The problem is.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: traditionally they were using compost bins or they were incinerating.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: And in neither one of those as farms grew in America,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: those were more difficult. So trying to do a compost
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: bin when you're losing thousands of birds, just wasn't manageable anymore.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: They were spending more time trying to compost than the
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: quality time they needed to spend with their birds. So
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: the reality, we decided to go specifically and do one
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: thing well. If you can do mortality, you can do
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: everything else. So mortality was the struggle for any composting company.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And any vessel, if you could do mortality well, it's
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: easy to move on to organics and food waste and
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: manures and all these recipes. So we really developed what
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: we thought was the solution to a growing problem for agriculture.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: And that was farmers did not have the time to
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: do traditional composting systems due to management. And they couldn't
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: afford the cost of doing incinerations. Incineration is, today, it's
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: just unthinkable at current diesel prices of over $ 6 a gallon.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: And fuel costs is well over $ 4 and ranging upwards.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Those are just not viable options. Most farmers are now
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: struggling just to pay the fertilizer costs and fuel costs
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: in America right now.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: We started in agriculture.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Now we branched out to fish waste, to manures, to
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: hatchery waste, to identifying other problems. Meat processors, very similar
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: once COVID hit. You know, we noticed that bigger companies
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: were having a hard time providing meat into a store.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: And then you saw more and more butchers and.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Small businesses producers getting into the market.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: But then they have a problem with that offal and
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: that stuff that's cut up, that it's either a landfill
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: item or an incineration item. And again, all that can
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: make great fertilizer and can be spread on the land.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: So like I said, I think it started agriculture-wise, but
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: that mission has just grown. Over the 20 years, things
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: have changed. You know, nobody back then was looking at
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: landfill capacity. We have huge capacity. Today, we do not.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: And those infrastructures cost every citizen, every resident, more and
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: more every year. And they're not sustainable. We need to
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: take food organics out of the hands of the landfill
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and handle it as a community where it has the
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: most benefit. And so 20, 30 years ago, you saw
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: huge companies doing food waste and then selling that to
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: the market back to retailers and then us paying it back. Now,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: if we can do that as a community, what we
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: have for waste now becomes a resource. And we can
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: beautify our city. We can create community gardens. And we
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: can teach how food is produced. And that's one of
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: the things we want.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: We were talking about the landfills and stuff. How much
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: material could something like this potentially keep.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: Out of a landfill?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: I think in a community like Ozark, you're looking close
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: to 3,800. I think we're looking at thousands and thousands
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: of pounds. The InVessel drum, the Eco drum that is
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: stationed here. should be able to handle everything the community
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: can give. So that means a 60% diversion rate from landfill.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: So right now we take it to a transfer station
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: that goes directly to landfill and they're not doing anything
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: with that. So then we turn around, we buy it
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: from a retailer, as residents of Ozark or of any community,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: because we want to add it to our garden. So
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: we've thrown it away and we're buying it back. And
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: maybe whoever we're giving it to might be doing composting.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Chances are they are not. And so by keeping it
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: in the community, you're building healthy soils, you're building a
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: healthy community where you have flowers, you have plants, you
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: have beautification of downtown and And you're looking after your parks.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: And especially this year, when we look at, we've had
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: a hot year, a record hot year. We've had more
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: than three months of just hot weather, 100 degrees. And
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: our soils and our grass, everything is brown because we
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: just didn't have the water. Composting helps retain that water,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: helps for plant growth, ensures that we have more adequate bin,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: especially here in Ozark. We know that we have a
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: water problem. So, you know, we're being asked to not
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: water our gardens, not wash our cars.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Well, maybe we'd have less.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Of a problem if we use compost. If we use
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: compost on our lawns, if we use compost in our parks,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: we would have a more natural ability to keep that
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: grass greener.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: We'd retain more water. And we need to use less water.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: So I think the benefits as a community is huge.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: That connection between compost and water caught my attention because
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of what Ozark has been dealing with. The Environmental Protection
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Agency says compost adds organic matter and helps soil absorb
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: and retain water. You accept all that stuff here?
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: All the refuse and stuff here? Because now you've walked
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: me around the property here.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: I don't smell anything.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: No.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: It's not like it stinks out here. So how is that?
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: How does that work?
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: So EcoDrum is an in-vessel system. So how it's designed,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: you're capturing all of that in the system itself, right?
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: So you have a negatively forced air system that can
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: go into a biofilter if it was to have any odor.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: So you won't smell any odor in this area. which
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: is much different than what you do to a transfer
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: station or landfill.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: You smell that odor. Absolutely. Because that food is just rotting.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: So what you're using, and we're lucky in Ozark, we
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: have piles and piles of wood shavings. We can utilize that,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: put it into the drum, and you're contained. So you
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: don't have that odor. And what that drum is doing,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: it has a built-in system that determines how many rotations
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: due to the volume and is adding air. So when
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: you're adding air to that mass, what you don't have
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: is that over because your compost is aerobic. And when
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: your compost is aerobic, that's what you're smelling is that
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: earth smell and not that foul smell. Because when we
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: allow that stuff to sit, we're producing methane, we're producing gases.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: And when you're actually composting, if you're composting hot, You're
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: avoiding all those things. So when you look at the
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: back end of an ecodrome, you have beautiful compost coming out.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: And what we do is we just cure it a
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: little more to make sure it's safe and to meet U.S.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Composting Council's regulations. It should be cured for 30 days
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: before being land applied. But most of that could be
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: applied almost immediately to our parks and recreational areas. Because
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: there wouldn't be that issue where you want to watch
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: maintenance if you're bagging it. Or if you're using it
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: for plant growth, you want to have.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: It a little more mature.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, now here's a question that I've got a little
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: bit of curiosity on. I mean, why are you doing
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: this here in Ozark? River Bend is a business, but
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: what made you interested in developing something specifically for this community?
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Well, one, I saw a need. And it started really slowly.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I saw that the ministry of churches had no drop-off bins,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: and they were only open.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Three days a week.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: I felt, okay, we could add drop-off bins, making their
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: job easier, get the donations, staying in the community. Because
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: what I was watching, where we're situated was kind of
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: a learning process. So we're just before the transfer station.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: So on the other side is the transfer station. So
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: I would see the garbage that's going to the transfer station.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: The bottles, the cans, the furniture, all of these kind
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: of things I thought could be recycled. And people were
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: coming in going, OK, I have a piece of steel
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: and it cost me $ 60 to go there.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: We'll take it. We'll recycle it here.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: And so what it started slowly is going, there's a
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: need for the ministry of churches for the thrift store
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: to get donations up because that supports the community. Then there, then, um,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: I worked with art with a Cub Scouts master, um,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: and we put a trailer here for just for a while.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: I saw an opportunity where we could give back to
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: the community and, and by involving them and going, okay,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: let's give more to the youth. It, because it doesn't
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: have to be a burden to, um, to families who
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: cannot afford to pay these memberships into these groups because
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: money is tight. So if you have four or five
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: or seven kids, you can't afford to be a part
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: of these programs. Now, you know, for what an individual
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: gives is their Kansas, it's just minor. But when a
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: community does, that can be thousands of dollars and that
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: can support the youth in our community. So we really
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: started kind of slow thinking, OK, this is what we're
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: going to do. But April 1st, I kind of went,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: this year, I went, we're going to get this recycling done.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: And it was supposed to stop there. But as anything
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: in life, one of our production managers has cancer and
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: will be passing shortly. His name is Vincent. And I
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: wanted to give a tribute to him. He was a
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: man of God. He helped me through my struggles as
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: well when I first got here. And we would sit
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: and talk about Jesus and God and what, you know,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: when you're struggling and you're finding difficult times, He was
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: the man of faith that I turned to. So when
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: I heard he was going to pass, I wanted to
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: do something special for him. And that created the educational,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: the biodome educational area and the campus.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: And then you're going, you know, as a tribute to him.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: At the same time, we decided, OK, how.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Do you keep children and everybody engaged? And that was
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: to add animals. So they understood how to care for
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: animals and responsibility. And then you wanted a play area. Again,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: the mission just kept growing. And the timeline didn't. So
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: we started April 1st. We felt we would be completed
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: by September 1st. And nothing always works that way. Okay.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Well, let me ask another question. If somebody listening says
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: that this sounds great, how do they participate? What can
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: that person do right now?
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: We're always looking for volunteers. If you have a skill
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: set and if you don't, that's fine. We're always looking
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: for volunteers to look after animals. We're looking for volunteers
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: to teach canning, to teach gardening. You've got a master
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: course in gardening, please come over. Let's talk because we
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: want those skill sets. We have some people teaching yoga
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: to children, which I think is fantastic. We've opened the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: site up to all churches as well. So, You'll see
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: that children have a spot. If you have a youth program,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: what better inspiration is.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: To have it here?
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: So they can explore as well as learn the Bible
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: and learn the words of Jesus. So I think those
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: are important things. But you can also donate because we
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: need your donations to help support the efforts because there
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: are costs to this to keep it rolling.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: There are operating costs. There's cost for feed.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: And we're always looking for volunteers so that we can
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: be open longer. So if you volunteer, that means children
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: have access to this much longer. So we can work
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: over weekends. And so we're looking for youth volunteers. We're
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: looking for people who have extra time.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: On their hand.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: And if you want to be even more of a part,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: you can join our board of directors. and help us
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: guide this mission. And we're looking for those special people
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: to help guide our mission because our mission is really
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: to encourage youth and for them to understand sustainability, recycling,
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: and what a difference it can make in their community.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: And so if you're a puppeteer, come on board. We're
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: looking for you because we want to help teach children
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: a friendly manner. And so we created a puppet stage
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: One final question, though, I'm going to ask you is,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: what haven't I asked you that you wish the people
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: in Ozark understood about what you're trying to do here?
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: You know, I felt it was a calling.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: I felt God, you know, I asked God what I
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: could do for my community and how I could help.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: And I think the answer came in this form, a
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: compost network. What I felt is people need hope. And
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: I felt there was this sense of hopelessness.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: We can't get out of that.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: That the community just didn't see, we didn't have enough agritourism.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: We're trying to gain more people. This is agriturism. This
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: being the first sustainability site should excite every resident in Ozark.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Because what that's going to do is bring schools and
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: preschools and homeschoolers and people from all over Arkansas and
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: all over the U.S. to see this first sustainability site
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: in America. This has never been done. And it's done
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: in Ozark. And it's done to give the community hope
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: and to give children hope and to to install on
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: them a huge opportunity to learn. And for me, it was,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: you know, it may have been started by myself, But
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: I want the community to run it. I want the
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: community to go forward. This was just somebody's got to start.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: And I was the starting point. I'm hoping the community
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: will join in and help build this even further. But
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: we have an opportunity to put Ozark on the map.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: And so there are so many other little rural communities.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: And we need a niche to drive people in because
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: we're off the major highways. So what attracts people here?
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: This will attract people here. This will provide that opportunity
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: to better our community, to provide more opportunity for youth,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: but also to.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Provide more opportunity for all of the community.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: So I'm excited about this and I want the community
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: to continue to work with us because what we're doing
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: is special for the children here. And I think having
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: a place where they can play, learn and learn about
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: God is even better.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Well, Mr.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Irwin, thank you for taking time with me today. I've
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: really enjoyed this. I've really learned a lot from this.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: And I expect to hear more from you through this podcast,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: if you don't mind. Yes.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: This is very interesting to me.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: You know, I'd be glad to have a broadcast anytime
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: with you.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: All right. Thank you.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: My biggest. takeaway is that Ecodrum is only part of
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: the story. The machine processes material, but the heart of
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: this project is people. People volunteering, teaching, donating, caring for animals,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: helping young people, and trying to leave their community a
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: little better than they found it. After spending time with
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Byron and seeing what he's trying to build, I didn't
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: come away thinking this was somebody looking to get rich
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: off the community. I came away believing he's putting his
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: heart into an idea he genuinely hopes will help Ozark,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: especially its young people. Nobody knows how large this project
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: may become, but sincere efforts to improve a community deserve encouragement, participation,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: and a fair chance to succeed. I hope the people
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: of Ozark will take a look, ask how they can help,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: and see for themselves what Byron and the volunteers are building.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: If you want to learn more or get involved, contact
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Compost Network or Riverbend Molding directly and ask what they
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: currently accept. when the site is open, and where volunteers
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: are needed. They're located at 1661 Airport Road here in Ozark, Arkansas.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Confirm those details before hauling anything over there. Showing up
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: with a truckload of mystery refrigerator contents is not community service.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: You can find and follow the Kevin Stone Podcast on
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. That's right,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: we're big time now. If all three listeners bring one friend,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Joe Rogan is going to have to start checking the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: rearview mirror.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: I'm Kevin Stone.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.