Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / ENV Director Roger Babcock on getting rid of green waste and public input on O'ahu's water systems

Transcript

ENV Director Roger Babcock on getting rid of green waste and public input on O'ahu's water systems · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:14
  welcome to the one oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and this week we're sitting down with director
• 0:19
  for the city's Department of Environmental Services, Roger Babcock.
• 0:23
  Doctor Babcock, thanks for making some time for me.
• 0:25
  Glad to be here. Brandy.
• 0:27
  You know, we've had you on before, but for those who aren't familiar.
• 0:30
  Environmental services ENV what does your department do?
• 0:34
  What are you responsible for?
• 0:35
  Env. Brandi is responsible for all waste that people make liquid waste,
• 0:40
  which is wastewater.
• 0:41
  Sewage doodoo, and then solid waste or refuse.
• 0:45
  So we take care of all the waste products for everybody.
• 0:49
  And how long have you been in this role?
• 0:51
  So I've been in this role for four and a half years now. Yep.
• 0:56
  And what's prepared you for this role?
• 0:58
  So I have a background in wastewater mostly.
• 1:01
  I was a professor for 25 years and studying water, wastewater, stormwater
• 1:05
  and stuff like that and teaching, and also involved a little bit
• 1:09
  with solid waste as well.
• 1:10
  So I bring bring some experience in those areas.
• 1:13
  And, Director Babcock, I know that your department
• 1:15
  has been especially busy lately, because of tropical Storm Lala.
• 1:19
  Even the Kona low is really.
• 1:20
  But there's a bunch of downed trees, branches, debris
• 1:22
  for those suddenly find themselves with a lot more green waste.
• 1:25
  What kind of options are there for them?
• 1:27
  Yeah.
• 1:27
  So for residents with green waste, that's, you know, their own, right?
• 1:32
  Trees that have gone down and things that have, you know, happen on their property.
• 1:36
  Normally they can take they can put these in their green cart
• 1:38
  and we're going to collect it
• 1:40
  all the green cart material, which you can also put food waste in now,
• 1:43
  becomes compost at a major composting facility, recycling.
• 1:49
  And so if people have extra, they can either hold it
• 1:52
  and and fill up, fill up their green cart and then wait for the next pickup.
• 1:56
  Or they can take it to one of our seven convenient centers
• 2:00
  and three transfer stations.
• 2:01
  There is one of them that doesn't accept green waste.
• 2:04
  But you can look that up. You can look that up online.
• 2:06
  And so that would be taking it in your own car.
• 2:09
  You can put it in bags or whatever, and you can take it to those facilities.
• 2:11
  Open seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• 2:15
  except Christmas and New Year.
• 2:16
  So those are readily available.
• 2:18
  You can also go online and and look at a camera
• 2:21
  showing you the entrance, and you can see whether there's a line or not.
• 2:24
  And so and it will also tell you whether it's, you know, bins are full of
• 2:28
  green waste bin.
• 2:29
  So you want you can check that as far as you go.
• 2:31
  In addition, we also did a special additional curbside
• 2:34
  collection on two dates, August 22nd, two Saturdays,
• 2:40
  August 22nd and August 29th, and that was by appointment.
• 2:44
  So there was a phone number to call and you could,
• 2:48
  arrange to have just piled things piled up on the, on the curb.
• 2:53
  But if you have anybody has questions about, greenway staking,
• 2:56
  just call us our refuge department and, and ask for, you know, ask anything.
• 3:00
  Yeah.
• 3:01
  And because Lala was a wind event,
• 3:04
  maybe some folks saw their trash bins damaged.
• 3:07
  What can they do if they need, like, a replacement or if they.
• 3:10
  Maybe they can't even find it, right?
• 3:12
  So they just have to call.
• 3:14
  So they call us and our number is (808) 768-3200, 3200.
• 3:24
  That's our refuse collection division.
• 3:26
  They're the ones who will replace carts, and they will bring them
• 3:29
  usually the same day.
• 3:31
  And it's very they're very quick, very responsive.
• 3:34
  And we do have supplies of, of carts available.
• 3:38
  So that's not an issue.
• 3:40
  A supervisor will bring it out in a pickup truck and just and give it to.
• 3:43
  Yeah, yeah.
• 3:44
  And even before LA la, I know that your department had a
• 3:47
  it was kind of a unique task.
• 3:49
  I'm not sure if this has ever been done before in securing a temporary
• 3:52
  site for debris.
• 3:53
  What's the latest there? Yeah.
• 3:56
  So that was part of the Kona Low storms and it was a lot of damage.
• 4:00
  And, you know, all the flooding happened in Waialua and, Haleiwa.
• 4:05
  And so there was an immediate huge
• 4:08
  demand of, of, of waste to, to dispose of.
• 4:11
  So we activated a contract that we have,
• 4:15
  which is an emergency debris
• 4:18
  collection and disposal contract,
• 4:21
  that, that has been in place for, for many years.
• 4:25
  It's in anticipation of some large event, like I say, like a hurricane or something
• 4:28
  hitting the island because it would overwhelm, you know, the city's ability
• 4:32
  and even the state's ability to collect and process and, and all this material.
• 4:37
  Have you ever tapped into that before, or was this the first time?
• 4:40
  As far as we know, it's never been activated before. Yeah.
• 4:42
  So we activated it in this case.
• 4:44
  So that's a mainland contractor.
• 4:46
  They have all these subcontracts with haulers and processors
• 4:49
  and stuff like that. And they activated all that.
• 4:52
  And part of that is a temporary debris storage and
• 4:56
  and removal site TDSR.
• 4:59
  And so we activated one site at Central Oahu Regional Park.
• 5:03
  Because we just needed one.
• 5:04
  Their full contract
• 5:06
  would have four different sites spread all around the island for,
• 5:09
  for different, you know, for an island wide event.
• 5:11
  And so they so we activated that and it was, fenced off
• 5:17
  and made safe and, and, and met all, you know, certainly met all requirements.
• 5:21
  The site was tested
• 5:23
  ahead of time, the soils and then tested after everything was done.
• 5:27
  And then re-grassed and we're just about to reopen it on
• 5:32
  September 2nd is
• 5:35
  the reopening of the park is when that is when that happens.
• 5:38
  So finally giving it back to the community for their use.
• 5:42
  And we do really appreciate people's,
• 5:44
  everyone's patience, you know, with with this,
• 5:46
  it was an ideal location for, you know, in relation
• 5:49
  to where the storm was and the debris was generated.
• 5:52
  And so but it was, you know, a, inconvenience,
• 5:56
  you know, for some, during, during that time, which was
• 6:00
  was from March, really end of March until until the beginning of September.
• 6:04
  Yeah.
• 6:05
  I want to move now to, the city just put out announcement
• 6:08
  that env is holding some community meetings seeking resident
• 6:11
  input on things like wastewater and stormwater management.
• 6:14
  For those who do show up to these meetings, what can they expect?
• 6:17
  Yeah. So what the same as what we can expect.
• 6:20
  So we're inviting people in to help us prioritize our projects.
• 6:25
  Both wastewater and stormwater.
• 6:28
  Stormwater is a different division.
• 6:30
  It's in the division of facility maintenance, the storm water
• 6:34
  and that and the stream cleaning and all that stuff associated with flood
• 6:38
  prevention and, and, and stormwater,
• 6:42
  quality control, activities,
• 6:45
  including street sweeping and all that kind of stuff and,
• 6:48
  and protecting storm drains from rubbish going in them and all that kind of stuff.
• 6:52
  So these two programs, wastewater and stormwater, are both regulated
• 6:56
  by the EPA, through what's known as the Clean Water Act from 1972.
• 7:02
  And they're both under this same act, water, wastewater and stormwater.
• 7:06
  But the two programs are completed, or considered or regulated,
• 7:11
  sort of totally separately.
• 7:12
  There's a permit for stormwater and there's permits for wastewater.
• 7:15
  And cities across the country.
• 7:17
  And the EPA realized that these two programs, they didn't talk to each other.
• 7:21
  And regulations always tend to get more strict.
• 7:22
  We want cleaner wastewater. We want cleaner stormwater.
• 7:25
  And so the regulations just sort of stack up over time.
• 7:28
  But they didn't talk to each other.
• 7:29
  And cities started to say, wait a minute, we can't afford
• 7:33
  to do everything in these two programs.
• 7:36
  So EPA created integrated planning, which it says,
• 7:38
  okay, you can look at these two programs together.
• 7:41
  We'll look at what projects required in each of these
• 7:45
  are, for the most benefit the soonest.
• 7:48
  And it also with limited resources say, say, is how much money we have.
• 7:53
  So we're going to do this project, this one and these in this order.
• 7:56
  And it sort of gives a prioritization of doing projects.
• 8:00
  It doesn't allow you to say
• 8:02
  we don't have to do these things because it's in the regulation.
• 8:05
  You have to do it. It's a matter of when.
• 8:07
  So you do.
• 8:08
  You spend your money that you have, and affordability is a big part of it.
• 8:11
  And public input is really important.
• 8:12
  So to go back to your question, we want public input on what are the priorities.
• 8:18
  And one of the priorities, of course, is affordability.
• 8:20
  Right.
• 8:21
  So we want to do things in the right order that we can actually afford it.
• 8:25
  And so that's how part of the things that we'll have,
• 8:27
  we'll have information about what this program is about,
• 8:30
  all the different components of things that we have to do.
• 8:33
  And then we'll ask, folks what their concerns are
• 8:37
  and to sort of rank those and it'll be interactive
• 8:41
  with post-it notes and posting things and sort of saying,
• 8:44
  this is what's important to us. These are the most important things.
• 8:47
  And, that would be the first this first set of meetings.
• 8:50
  And then later we'll have meetings where we'll do the prioritization
• 8:53
  with, with the public to come up with the final plan.
• 8:57
  So would you want residents to do any homework in your research,
• 9:00
  anything like that before these meetings?
• 9:01
  Because like you said, these are kind of two separate
• 9:04
  I mean, they're run by different departments in the city.
• 9:06
  Yeah.
• 9:06
  So if I'm familiar with a wastewater project that's happening in the city,
• 9:10
  should I also be looking up things on stormwater or
• 9:14
  what are you expecting to come to the meeting with?
• 9:15
  Yeah, I would say you don't necessarily have to come to the meeting with anything,
• 9:19
  just an interest in water quality, you know,
• 9:22
  do you feel like, our beaches are clean,
• 9:25
  or have you experienced brown water, which is a stormwater thing?
• 9:29
  What do you know about wastewater?
• 9:32
  We can explain, you know, about the program and answer any questions.
• 9:35
  So I don't think any pre preparation is required.
• 9:38
  Just an interest in,
• 9:41
  having giving input to, to to us to help us, you know,
• 9:45
  prioritize our, our programs and sticking with wastewater.
• 9:49
  We recently celebrated the completion of the Sand Island
• 9:51
  Wastewater Treatment Plant secondary treatment phase one.
• 9:55
  What does that mean?
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  So there's waste management plans.
• 9:58
  Our largest treatment plant.
• 9:59
  It is located over on Sand Sand Island, which is Honolulu Harbor.
• 10:04
  And it it treats an average today
• 10:08
  of about 60 million gallons of sewage.
• 10:11
  We treat 100 million gallons island wide per day.
• 10:15
  100 million gallons.
• 10:16
  There's about a million people.
• 10:17
  That's 100 gallons per person.
• 10:19
  Yeah. That's the waste that you're generating.
• 10:21
  We're collecting it all over and treating it
• 10:23
  one of our nine treatment plants.
• 10:24
  One of the treatment passes Sand Island.
• 10:26
  It's the biggest one. 60% of the wastewater comes there.
• 10:28
  So it's urban Honolulu, you know, greater urban Honolulu,
• 10:31
  where this most density, that plant is being upgraded
• 10:36
  by requirement in order to meet Clean Water Act.
• 10:38
  And it's being done in two phases.
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  The first phase started construction in 22.
• 10:43
  It's it's completed now, phase one.
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  And then we're in the final design
• 10:49
  phase of phase two for this step of phase two,
• 10:54
  which has to be completed by law by ruling by 2035.
• 10:58
  And we're on schedule, you know, to meet to meet all that stuff.
• 11:01
  And, but anyway, the phase one is very exciting.
• 11:04
  It's a really good treatment
• 11:05
  process called a membrane bioreactor that makes really high quality waste,
• 11:09
  you know, effluent, from the process, kind of the highest quality
• 11:13
  that there is in, in secondary, you know, treatment, in the industry.
• 11:18
  And so we're very proud of that.
• 11:19
  It's running now.
• 11:20
  It's, it's treating.
• 11:21
  So phase one treats 20 million gallons a day.
• 11:24
  So about a third of of the total flow coming in there.
• 11:29
  And in phase two, we will be, be able to treat all the rest of the wastewater.
• 11:34
  So. Yeah.
• 11:35
  And we also recently broke ground on some major upgrades in Kailua.
• 11:40
  We did.
• 11:40
  Why is that significant?
• 11:42
  Yeah. So there's a couple projects there.
• 11:44
  Both of them are like long term renovations
• 11:48
  and replacements of some older, you know, equipment and older technology.
• 11:52
  One of them is our solids dewatering building.
• 11:56
  This is exciting.
• 11:57
  And that means. Yeah, that means what exciting wastewater stuff.
• 11:59
  Okay, so you think about waste is so crucial.
• 12:02
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So you think about wastewater.
• 12:05
  It's mostly water with a little bit of other stuff in there.
• 12:08
  Okay. And we know what that stuff is.
• 12:10
  So when you, the process of wastewater treatment
• 12:14
  is getting all that stuff out and just having the water leave the plant.
• 12:18
  So that stuff that comes out, we call sludge.
• 12:21
  Yeah. So they're good safe.
• 12:23
  And so the sludge is, is still very wet and liquidy.
• 12:27
  It needs to be essentially de watered, which means
• 12:31
  we're going to squeeze out the water and just end up with the solids.
• 12:36
  And so those solids then are going to be disposed of.
• 12:38
  Or recycled depending on the, depending on the plant.
• 12:42
  But so this dewatering building is taking the sludge is
• 12:46
  and squeezing the water out or turning the water back to the beginning
• 12:49
  of the plant, it gets processed again and then the solids are extracted.
• 12:52
  And that's one of the other outputs, you know, from the treatment plant.
• 12:55
  And so the one that is there is very, very old I mean it's still there.
• 12:58
  It's still going to operate until the new ones built.
• 13:00
  But we have a new technology
• 13:01
  there called screw presses, which use a lot less energy.
• 13:03
  They're very efficient.
• 13:04
  We have those had a couple other treatment plants,
• 13:06
  and the operators really like them, a couple of much smaller treatment plants.
• 13:10
  And so we're you know we're excited about that.
• 13:12
  That's one project.
• 13:12
  The other one is a bio tower, rehabilitation reconstruction.
• 13:17
  So again that's another process or bio tower.
• 13:21
  It's it's it does look like a tower.
• 13:22
  It's a big tower with a geodesic dome on it.
• 13:24
  And there's bacteria in there.
• 13:26
  And they're eating the wastewater and it's old also.
• 13:30
  And so we have to there's plastic media and all kinds of different things
• 13:34
  inside there. And mechanical equipment.
• 13:36
  And the salt air has an impact, you know, over 20, 30 years.
• 13:41
  And so it just needs it's time for them to sequentially be
• 13:45
  there's two of them to be just completely rehabilitated.
• 13:48
  You'll get a new cover, all new internals and stuff like that.
• 13:51
  So then it'll be good for another, you know, 30 years or
• 13:54
  so till the next, you know, the next renovation needs to happen.
• 13:58
  And so how does the process for that work?
• 13:59
  Because like you mentioned, for the dewatering,
• 14:01
  you can still have an old system in place while you build a new one.
• 14:03
  For this one.
• 14:04
  What happens while it's being upgraded.
• 14:07
  Yeah.
• 14:07
  So for the dewatering we build it at a different location, right across
• 14:10
  right right across the driveway from the the existing one.
• 14:12
  For this one, we have to run with one bio tower,
• 14:15
  for the entire time while we're doing the renovation.
• 14:19
  So we'll close one down.
• 14:20
  We'll take it out of service, will run it there, we'll fix it up,
• 14:23
  then we'll put it back in service and then do the, you know, do the second one.
• 14:26
  So that makes the project longer because you got to.
• 14:29
  Yeah. They keep it running.
• 14:30
  But the plant is capable of running with the, with the one with just one.
• 14:34
  So yeah. So that's what we do. Interesting.
• 14:38
  Oh. Who?
• 14:39
  Residents recently saw some changes to their sewer bill
• 14:42
  on July 1st, but Eli has opportunities for some cost savings.
• 14:45
  Can you talk about that?
• 14:47
  Yeah.
• 14:47
  So we have, a program we like to call use less, pay less.
• 14:51
  So it's really a water conservation method message.
• 14:55
  The sewer bill consists of two parts, a base charge,
• 14:58
  which is a flat fee, which is now around $40.
• 15:03
  It's gone down to about $40.
• 15:06
  And then there's a volumetric charge.
• 15:07
  So you're paying based on how much wastewater you put into the system,
• 15:11
  which is logical. Right.
• 15:12
  And and so about 60% of your bill is based on the amount of wastewater
• 15:17
  that you produce.
• 15:18
  And that is calculated from your water.
• 15:21
  Use your board of water supply, water you.
• 15:23
  So that's how much water came into your home. It's metered.
• 15:25
  And then we assume that 80% of that
• 15:29
  drinking water that you came into your house goes out into your sewer.
• 15:33
  The other 20% is for irrigation.
• 15:35
  So you get a irrigation credit, essentially of 20%, assumed.
• 15:39
  And that's so that's how we calculate your bill.
• 15:42
  And so the bill that rate, it's per
• 15:45
  thousand gallons, which is the same way as your water is charged.
• 15:48
  That rate is what's going up essentially, is that volumetric charge.
• 15:53
  So if you use less water
• 15:56
  you pay less on your water bill and your sewer bill,
• 15:59
  and it's more significant effect on your sewer bill, it turns out.
• 16:03
  So some of the things that we've put out there is some poor water supply
• 16:06
  has this great leak detection,
• 16:08
  you know, advice and even surveys that they'll do,
• 16:11
  they'll come to your house and walk all around and say, you know,
• 16:14
  you could fix this and this and this and potentially save this many gallons.
• 16:17
  We also have, rebate programs for low flow toilets
• 16:21
  and, water conserving wash, dishwasher, washing machines.
• 16:26
  And these are pretty significant.
• 16:29
  So for example, for a toilet, you can get a $200, rebate for a toilet.
• 16:33
  And you can go to, Home Depot and Lowe's, and there is a $200 toilet.
• 16:40
  So essentially the toilet is free.
• 16:42
  You're going to get a $200. You still have to install it.
• 16:44
  And, you know, you can either do that yourself.
• 16:47
  The cost savings comes back. I mean that's yeah.
• 16:48
  Yeah, yeah.
• 16:49
  So and then and if you could do it yourself
• 16:51
  or do it for a plumber and, but it's going to save you a lot.
• 16:54
  And then the rebate on the washers is $150.
• 16:58
  And so those are pretty significant.
• 17:00
  As part when we did this whole program and we teamed up with water
• 17:04
  water supply, those rebates were half as much before.
• 17:07
  So we joined up with them and said, okay,
• 17:10
  as part of our program, we're going to double double the rebates.
• 17:13
  So that's so that's what we what we advise.
• 17:16
  But in general, we have a rate calculator on our website.
• 17:20
  Hallelujah. God slash Airbnb sewer rates.
• 17:23
  You can click on that.
• 17:24
  And it shows you it allows you to use your own water use.
• 17:28
  And you can just have your water bill and look at it
• 17:30
  and you can put numbers in there and it'll tell you what your sewer bill
• 17:33
  is going to be in the future.
• 17:34
  And it tells you if you conserved water by a certain amount,
• 17:38
  how much your sewer bill would be.
• 17:40
  Now and into the future.
• 17:42
  And, so hopefully that's useful for people.
• 17:44
  They can use it for planning,
• 17:45
  and they could see the monetary value of doing water conservation.
• 17:51
  And so how do those rebates is any different than the CARES program?
• 17:55
  Oh yeah, the CARES program.
• 17:57
  So the CARES program is something different.
• 17:59
  So the rebates are actually part of a it's actually a kind of a national program
• 18:03
  called Water Sense.
• 18:05
  But we also have something called cares.
• 18:08
  So as there was a concern with the sewer fee increase that some folks would have,
• 18:12
  you know, this would be hard for some folks, right?
• 18:14
  It's expensive to live in Hawaii and Honolulu.
• 18:17
  And so we created a program called CARES, which stands
• 18:20
  for Customer Assistance for Residential Environmental Services.
• 18:24
  And what that does is it gives folks a, essentially a credit,
• 18:29
  if you qualify, based on income to, to essentially
• 18:33
  get a discount on your sewer bill, not your water bill, but your sewer.
• 18:37
  And so there's qualifications.
• 18:40
  Are that household family income in a single family residence has to be,
• 18:45
  80, less than 80%, 80% or less of the area median income.
• 18:50
  And there are tables on our website that tell you what those numbers are.
• 18:54
  It's very easy to apply to one page application.
• 18:58
  You have to, you know, give your address and your your billing number.
• 19:02
  Show.
• 19:03
  And you do have to submit tax returns
• 19:05
  to show from last year to show that you qualify.
• 19:08
  And then it will be it will be processed.
• 19:11
  And the benefit the the actual benefit is equivalent to $20 a month.
• 19:17
  So it's $240, one time, one time credit
• 19:22
  essentially applied to your to your, to your, to your bill.
• 19:25
  And it will work off.
• 19:27
  If your bill is at $250, it will sort of stay on there until it's worked off.
• 19:31
  And so that's, a pretty significant, a pretty significant, discount.
• 19:37
  Yeah. The average sewer. Yeah.
• 19:39
  What is average bill right now is about $100 a month. Okay.
• 19:42
  So yeah. So that could roll over a few times over.
• 19:44
  Yeah. It's a $10 month.
• 19:45
  And and so you think about it it's essentially equivalent to $20 a month.
• 19:48
  So it's a really a 20% discount for an average for an average family.
• 19:52
  But you do have to qualify, you know, based on income.
• 19:54
  So the idea is, it's expensive to live here, but some people have
• 19:58
  a bigger impact.
• 19:59
  It's a bigger impact on some people, obviously, than others.
• 20:02
  And so we would say that would be the lower, you know, the lower income.
• 20:05
  And so that's how we set up the program.
• 20:06
  And we've gotten quite a few folks who've, applied already.
• 20:12
  So applications open in.
• 20:15
  Let's see.
• 20:15
  It's May 15th.
• 20:18
  Yeah.
• 20:19
  May 15th. And it goes through August.
• 20:22
  October 31st, sort of, you know, bracketing the tax year.
• 20:26
  So it's because based on your taxes from the prior prior year.
• 20:29
  So you're going to put in your 2025 tax returns.
• 20:31
  Yeah.
• 20:32
  And so we are still accepting applications this year.
• 20:35
  This is our first year of this program through October 31st.
• 20:38
  And we've had maybe close to 3000 or so folks
• 20:42
  who've who've already, you know, taken advantage of this program.
• 20:46
  And so we would encourage folks
• 20:48
  who who might qualify to fill out the application, turn in.
• 20:52
  It doesn't really, you know, it doesn't cost anything to just live to apply.
• 20:55
  Yeah. So okay. And that's all on your website, right?
• 20:58
  It's on the website. Yeah.
• 21:00
  And Director Barker, you touched on this earlier, but you mentioned food waste.
• 21:04
  The initial rollout happened earlier this year where some neighborhoods
• 21:08
  are able to put their food scraps in the bin.
• 21:09
  But how did that rollout go and what's next for this program?
• 21:13
  Yeah. So the program is still really new.
• 21:15
  Just started in April.
• 21:16
  And so we are still working on I mean, we're doing a lot of inspections
• 21:20
  and trying to figure out how much food waste is coming, in
• 21:24
  with the green waste
• 21:25
  and looking at that neighborhood by neighborhood and trying to then, tailor
• 21:30
  our outreach to folks to, to,
• 21:33
  to encourage them more, to talk about things that that shouldn't be done.
• 21:37
  So we can't put bags or anything like that
• 21:39
  or go straight into the when it goes straight into the green card.
• 21:42
  Yeah. With your other green waste.
• 21:44
  And so some people might, you know, have concerns about that.
• 21:47
  So we do have training and information on our website.
• 21:49
  But you know, one thing for people who might be concerned
• 21:52
  about odors and different stuff is that you can, store your food waste,
• 21:57
  say, in Ziploc bags, and freeze it in your free to put your freezer,
• 22:01
  and then it's sealed. It's not going to make odors.
• 22:03
  And then the day before your
• 22:05
  your green card collection, which is only every two weeks,
• 22:07
  you can pull those out the night before and dump them in.
• 22:10
  And then they would be, you know, they'd be fine.
• 22:11
  They're not going to generate odors just overnight before your collection.
• 22:14
  And so almost everything that you can
• 22:18
  think of that anything this food, that was food originally,
• 22:22
  it can go in there so that includes meat and bones and
• 22:26
  and fruit and vegetables and, anything that's not liquid based.
• 22:32
  Right.
• 22:32
  So you can't pour a gallon of milk in there
• 22:34
  that's spoiled because we don't take liquids in any of our carts.
• 22:38
  Right? Because those are just spill out all over the road.
• 22:41
  So that still applies.
• 22:42
  Semi-solid things are okay, like yogurt.
• 22:45
  But just not pure liquids.
• 22:48
  And we,
• 22:50
  and and so that's a, that's an important program.
• 22:54
  I think we, we there are we are also giving away for folks
• 22:59
  that want to do a little training program, a, a green
• 23:04
  little bin to put on your, kitchen counter where you could.
• 23:09
  And it has, like an odor control thing
• 23:11
  and it that you could store, you know, stuff there if you want,
• 23:15
  you know, before you put it in there, before you put it in your cart.
• 23:19
  This is a really important program.
• 23:20
  About 35% of the waste that is in the gray card,
• 23:25
  which goes to power get burned is food waste 30%.
• 23:30
  Yeah, 30 to 35%.
• 23:32
  So a really big percentage, right, is food.
• 23:35
  And that doesn't need to get burned.
• 23:37
  It can go to with our green waste and become compost.
• 23:40
  Right.
• 23:40
  A recycled locally generated product not imported compost.
• 23:45
  All the other compost is imported.
• 23:47
  And so it is you know, it's a great way to, you know, to do recycling.
• 23:52
  So as much as we possibly we can get out of the gray card
• 23:55
  and into the green card to make compost is really good.
• 23:59
  And the it also turns out that food, if you think about it,
• 24:03
  is kind of a wet material more than like paper and cardboard and stuff like that.
• 24:08
  And so when it goes into the incinerator, it's sort of energy neutral.
• 24:12
  It's not generating energy because you got to burn off all the water first.
• 24:15
  And so it's not a great fuel.
• 24:18
  It's better to make it into compost.
• 24:20
  And so as you're gathering all this data, what's next for this program?
• 24:23
  When we can we see it expanding to other neighborhoods.
• 24:26
  Oh yeah. Absolutely.
• 24:27
  So we started with five maybe neighborhoods or six neighborhoods
• 24:31
  and then it will be expanding.
• 24:34
  We've been talking about October, October
• 24:36
  as the October 1st to to expand it all to all the rest of the year.
• 24:41
  Oh wow. Okay.
• 24:42
  We've also been tight.
• 24:43
  So anybody but actually right now we were telling nobody that
• 24:46
  they can't do it if they wanted to start anytime they could.
• 24:50
  October 1st is, you know, pretty much right around the corner anyway.
• 24:53
  And so folks are encouraged to do that.
• 24:55
  They want to mention also that we can't take ironically,
• 24:58
  we can't take compostable packaging at this time as part of this program.
• 25:05
  Meaning, you know, there's a lot of things to say.
• 25:07
  Compostable. Yeah, there's pickups and and
• 25:10
  and containers and pizza boxes and stuff like that.
• 25:13
  And those things are compostable.
• 25:15
  But our program right now is not permitted to take those things.
• 25:20
  There's some concerns by the department of Health
• 25:22
  that some of the components that are in that,
• 25:24
  and we don't want those in the compost yet until they're sort of removed from
• 25:28
  the stream.
• 25:29
  But someday, we will add that.
• 25:32
  And, and that will be really good too.
• 25:35
  So yeah.
• 25:37
  Well, Doctor Babcock,
• 25:38
  is there anything that we missed the.
• 25:41
  No, I don't think we missed anything.
• 25:43
  I mean, I would remind people that, toilets are not trash cans, that they're
• 25:48
  the only thing that goes into the toilets is the three piece
• 25:53
  poop, pee and paper.
• 25:56
  Only toilet paper. No other kinds of paper.
• 25:58
  Everything else goes in a rubbish can, right?
• 26:00
  The three piece only and similarly, in your kitchen
• 26:04
  we don't put grease, you know, down the down the drain.
• 26:08
  Those clog up our pipes and cause can cause sewer spills right.
• 26:12
  So people have the power, you know, to do that themselves.
• 26:15
  You also got the power to recycle, right?
• 26:17
  Use your blue cart, put all your recycles in there,
• 26:20
  use your green card, put your put your food waste in there.
• 26:23
  As part of the Grow program,
• 26:24
  we'll make compost locally made compost the best compost locally made.
• 26:29
  And we would encourage people to, to do those things and to recycle.
• 26:33
  And we have so many other recycling programs too.
• 26:36
  You can take e-waste to any of our seven convenient centers.
• 26:40
  You're talking televisions, computers, everything, everything.
• 26:43
  That's e e-waste can go there free to drop off.
• 26:46
  All our facilities are free, you know, pay anything.
• 26:49
  And there and there and there for the residents. Right.
• 26:51
  That and all this, all that.
• 26:53
  Those services are free.
• 26:54
  So we do encourage people to do that.
• 26:56
  And batteries don't leave the battery
• 26:58
  on the side of the road or put it in the garbage.
• 27:00
  You take it to a recycling center,
• 27:02
  you know, a battery from your car or and lithium ion battery.
• 27:06
  We take them, we take them out to the community center.
• 27:08
  You just drop it off.
• 27:09
  It's free, no questions asked, and then it gets recycled.
• 27:11
  Instead of going into the landfill or getting burn and causing
• 27:15
  and causing a fire and stuff like that.
• 27:17
  So when you log into your computer every day and I think the public doesn't
• 27:21
  know this, but
• 27:22
  the Blangiardi administration has created a tool where you see
• 27:25
  how many days are left in the administration
• 27:28
  now because we're counting down to get out,
• 27:29
  but it's showing you how many days you have left to finish your goals.
• 27:32
  Yeah.
• 27:33
  For you talked about how when you leave, what do you hope is your legacy here Andy.
• 27:37
  Yeah. So that's a that's a great question.
• 27:40
  You know, I think there's
• 27:41
  quite a few things that I, you know, wanted to accomplish here.
• 27:45
  On the and it applies kind of to both solid waste and wastewater.
• 27:49
  And that is you know, innovation and efficiency
• 27:54
  and energy reduction or even energy production
• 28:00
  and so we are working on all those things, we're upgrading things
• 28:05
  to the latest technology, which by definition, usually by definition
• 28:09
  means it uses less energy, use more, it's more efficient,
• 28:13
  at what it does and the.
• 28:15
  So and we use a lot of energy at Environmental Services.
• 28:19
  But we also produce a lot of energy.
• 28:22
  So we have air power and it produces way more energy than the entire city
• 28:27
  uses is, is as a, you know, city home all over,
• 28:31
  not all the citizens, just the city operations.
• 28:33
  Right. And.
• 28:35
  You know, supply 10% of the energy for, for for the facility.
• 28:38
  But we at our wastewater plants very soon everything is under construction.
• 28:41
  We will be making electricity from waste.
• 28:46
  So we're making it from solid waste already.
• 28:49
  We'll be making it from liquid waste, from the sludge.
• 28:51
  During one of those processes
• 28:53
  we make methane and methane can be turned into electricity.
• 28:56
  So we have that under construction now.
• 28:58
  First phase of that first plant with that operating will be
• 29:01
  sometime next year probably, you know, generating electricity.
• 29:04
  So any electricity that we make is electricity that we don't have to buy,
• 29:08
  and we buy about $25 million a year of electricity.
• 29:10
  We make $70 million of electricity from each power.
• 29:14
  But anyway, so there's that also doing a lot of more recycling.
• 29:18
  So we talked about some of the programs. The e-waste is new.
• 29:21
  We're going to be adding paperboard is very soon in the next year or two.
• 29:26
  I think you know what. We're still here.
• 29:28
  Paperboard is like cereal boxes right?
• 29:29
  Right now that's not cardboard.
• 29:31
  It doesn't go in a blue card.
• 29:32
  Yeah, but there's a lot of that material, a really lot.
• 29:35
  And it can be recycled.
• 29:36
  We just have to get the contracts in place and stuff like that.
• 29:39
  We are recycling and waste per side.
• 29:41
  We are recycling biosolids, which is the sludge that we talked
• 29:45
  about earlier with the dewatering, with further processing.
• 29:48
  To stabilize it further becomes what's known as a biosolids.
• 29:53
  And that is a soil amendment product,
• 29:56
  and it has value and we make some already.
• 29:59
  We make some into compost.
• 30:02
  There's this difference in the green waste compost.
• 30:03
  This is at a wastewater treatment plant. We make compost in like year.
• 30:06
  And we sell that.
• 30:07
  And so we are going to be expanding that a lot in the,
• 30:12
  here at Honolulu.
• 30:13
  It's almost ready to start operation by the end of the year.
• 30:16
  And then that's a product that we will sell to farmers
• 30:19
  and golf courses and all that kind of stuff.
• 30:21
  And it's a, it's a great product.
• 30:22
  So, we, we will be marketing that.
• 30:26
  So those are I think those are kind of my biggest things is to do this, you know,
• 30:31
  there's just an energy efficiency because we have to do a whole bunch of operations
• 30:36
  and there's technology and all this kind of stuff.
• 30:39
  But the long term is the costs mostly associated with electricity?
• 30:43
  Yeah.
• 30:44
  And so for that, when we look at lifecycle costs,
• 30:47
  that's where we get the most benefit.
• 30:49
  So we want to leave things with people that are going to be efficient
• 30:52
  in the long term and cost people the least amount, you know, going forward.
• 30:55
  Yeah.
• 30:56
  And one last thing is we have a big, heavy emphasis on AI.
• 30:59
  So AI is very important down to everybody
• 31:02
  in, in in this in, in our industries as well.
• 31:06
  So smart systems that make things more efficient
• 31:10
  in terms of energy and chemical use and stuff like that, routing of things,
• 31:14
  all that kind of stuff are great AI, you know, solutions.
• 31:19
  And so we're investing heavily in smart solutions for our operations.
• 31:24
  So we're going to leave that.
• 31:26
  So we're going to accomplish that.
• 31:28
  So looking forward to that.
• 31:30
  Well Doctor Babcock thank you for your time.
• 31:33
  Thank you Randy. Mahalo for listening.
• 31:34
  And until next time, Aloha.