Compost king: Paul Sellew at TEDxBoston

How can trash fuel our world?
It is time to re-purpose organic waste to fight three critical and urgent battles -- waste management, energy, and agriculture.
About TEDx
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[@The10thManRules]

It's fall, gather up as many bags of shredded leaves you can and compost them in easy to make compost bins. There are all kinds of bins, from the very simple to the very complex. A simple, yet effective compost bin only requires a 3ft x 10ft roll of chicken wire, an inexpensive pitch fork, and your yard leaves shredded up by your lawn mower. Trees bring up nutrients from deep below the surface and deposit them in the leaves, that eventually fall to the ground. Those leaves are all you need to make great compost to use for your lawn, flower beds, or veggie gardens. Growing your own food is like printing your own money. Search videos on composting and square foot gardening. You don't need a huge plot of land to grow enough produce to feed you and your family. Don't trust the grocery store, who sells you overpriced, genetically modified, nutrient poor, and chemically treated food to poison your family. Their job is to make money, not promote health. GROW YOUR OWN FOOD!

[@andrewboada8130]

Or... lose the neatness aesthetic and just leave the leaves where they fall. Save all that time and energy raking and shredding and binning, which just amounts to moving organic material from one spot to another. Also, don't bother gardening for food if someone else can do it a lot more efficiently using less land. If your land or your resources don't produce food efficiently, give the land back to nature. (Btw, trees don't well up nutrients from the deep. Almost all of their roots are a few inches beneath the surface, which you can verify for yourself next time you see a tree that has been blown over. And I also go around collecting peoples' bags of leaves left on the curb, and I shred them and put them in my garden. :) )

[@squarecracker]

Ummm I piss in my compost all the time and my customers love my veggies

[@andrewboada8130]

If you enjoy fruit and vegetable gardening, by all means do it. It can be fun and it's also a good way to provide yourself with certain kinds of produce that aren't generally grown commercially, usually because they don't ship well (like serviceberries, for example). Just don't be under the illusion getting people to grow their own food is a strategy that would do anything particularly good for the environment. The single biggest channel by which humans put pressure on biodiversity and wild ecosystems is in converting natural landscapes into agricultural land. To minimize the impact our agricultural practices have on the natural world, it's best to grow food where the highest yields per unit area of land can be achieved. If gardening where you live offsets your consumption of produce that can be grown using less land somewhere else, then what you're doing is increasing humanity's agricultural footprint. Here's a really good article that explains why you aren't necessarily doing the planet's wildlife any favors by eating locally grown produce: observer.com/2013/04/the-lie-of-locavorism/ By the way, unless you live at a polar research facility or some other such remote outpost, or you're some incredibly wealthy person with outrageously expensive tastes in food, what you eat is not brought to you by jet. Depending on the food item in question and where you live, the food you buy at the supermarket was brought most of the way to you by ship or train, then the rest of the way by freight truck.

[@everythingsoundscapes2431]

Sorry I don't have any of it saved on hand to post links to, but there is definitely credible research showing that small, biologically diverse crop production systems provide up to ten times more food per acre than most commodity crop systems. That's without factoring in the higher nutrient density in food grown in biologically complex soils. You should also note that the alternative to a home garden is typically grass...which is arguably worse than a parking lot (depends somewhat on climate of course). If you're saying that we should assume growing large monocultures of crops with high levels of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides (very large carbon footprint to create in the first place; not to mention the runoff...) is more environmentally friendly than using leaf compost as a fertilizer in your back yard garden, well then I would say you're pretty far off the mark...

[@PAGBeer123]

The observer is owned by Jared Kushner a right winger who certainly does not support local environmental groups. I would not trust them as a reliable source about the effects of buying local.

[@D0praise]

Fellow commercial composter here. The bio gas he’s touting here is methane , the chief byproduct of anaerobic decomposition, a genuinely bad greenhouse gas. By simply allowing airflow in composting the result is still beneficial but without the harmful methane production.

[@nancynisbet397]

I agree, America is terrible at recycling. Society of waste, plastic bag in abundance, and no concerned about the planet. Thank you for this video. I live in England and here most things are recycled and composted no free plastic bags but yet, still a long way to go. We all need to educate ourselves a bit more and be aware of the impact we are creating in our planet.

[@NA-hf4zg]

ya me too and im an american:/

[@AlowisciousMahoney]

Nancy Nisbet, there is certainly some truth that applies to your broad-based statement. The US certainly is no where near where it should be in areas such as recycling. However, as is most often the case when you make a simple all-encompassing statement such as you have made, it is not entirely accurate. I am not aware of whether you may been to the US recently, but in the city in which I live for instance, plastic bags are not simple to obtain, and generally you must ask for and pay extra for one in most stores. My city picks up recycling, yard waste, and landfill materials separately. In my household we send a small fraction of our waste to the landfill, we use only reusable bags, we recycle most materials, and I think this is fairly common for at least a large portion of the population, at least where I live. In addition, in my household, we compost our brown and green materials at home for our personal use, which may be less common, but still many do it. So, your condescending tone combined with your over-generalized statements that would appear to stem from a lack of in-depth knowledge are somewhat unbecoming. Statements such as "no concern for the planet" wreak of ignorance.

[@whydadsmatter3755]

I have chickens that's my composters, and I have less than one small bag to the landfill per week......recycle, reuse, repeat.

[@marjoriejohnson6535]

I HOPE SOMEBODY IS LISTENING...I HAVE BEEN SINCE THE 60'S AND I AN TIRED......PREACH BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!

[@patbaptiste9510]

BRILLIANT!...absolutely brilliant.

[@bishnoirk]

Best & practical presentation for use of organic waste.

[@rhg3212]

I have recently started compost and I’m really enjoying it! I figured I’m just throwing away nutrients just to buy compost back in packaged in plastic. If you don’t have an outside space there are indoor alternatives! Check them out! Things that can’t be composted at home such as meat products can of course be sent to industrial centres like mentioned here.

[@HydrixCooper]

We can also get a lot of heat from the compost to save even more energy. The Jean Pain method involves coiling a hose through a massive compost pile, so that when water is pumped through slowly it is heated, and can later be used for showers, radiators, etc.

[@FrankEdavidson]

Pfft, I collect my neighbours' food and garden waste, add it to my own and compost it in my garden. Waste km - next to nothing!

[@tomkelly8827]

biogas is a brilliant use of compostable resources. Why not include everything that rots though? Certainly you are right that cities around the world need to do this. Near me in Lindsay Ontario Canada, there is a dairy that has a couple of these. They add in all their cow poops and bedding along with restaurant waste from many Toronto restaurants. They sell the biogas to the electric grid through onsite generation it powers between 450-500 homes. The excess heat from their biogas generator heats their very large barns, home, workshop and all their hot water. With heated floors the cows have far far less hoof rot in the cold winter months. It sounds like a really good system. They like it so much that they are expanding. I agree we need more of these!

[@MohanS-nh6cb]

Hello, Thanks much for the useful information. We live in Canada too. Can I have more details of the Dairy to enquire how they do so we can spread awareness to others. I know many restaurants( & maybe grocery stores too?)waste lots of food ..

[@tanyaattarwala]

Farm waste has been used since very long time in India to generate cooking gas. Its a great way to use waste material efficiently. The residue left after generation of gas is used to make land fertile. If every farm has a bio gas plant, there is no need to transport the farm residue any where else!

[@JonelleTannahill]

Well explained and makes me want to get behind it! Thank you!

[@teresathomley3703]

Wonderful TED talk.

[@jamesx2703]

A few towns in America are doing kerbside food waste collection? Geez, I hope that's rapidly increased in the last 8 years? It's quite common in Europe for food waste to be collected separately. Its used to make biogas, electricity, fertiliser and compost. All restaurants must comply too if they produce more than 5KG of good waste a week (basically a small bucket)

[@Captain_MonsterFart]

"We have taken what mother nature has designed and improved upon it" This attitude has been expressed countless times. We always pay a price for that arrogance.

[@cgcrafford]

yes the way mother nature is , is perfect until these idiots go and kill everything healthy and corrupt it..

[@rickfortin5626]

Always?

[@lisakukla459]

I feel like antibiotics and c-sections were pretty good improvements.

[@lisakukla459]

@@wendyscott8425 I wasn't suggesting that everybody should go out and have C-sections for fun, nor did I say I believed overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics was the best thing ever. It's pretty simple to help along the restoration of gut flora after the use of antibiotics. I'm not saying everyone does it, but it is a simple, low effort process for those who choose to do it.

[@lisakukla459]

@@wendyscott8425 That has absolutely nothing to do with what I said or the larger point I was making. When all you have to contribute is nonsequiturs, it is indeed okay to say nothing.

[@TOMMYSURIA]

So if you compost conventionally grown food, would you get a contaminated compost product full of pesticides & herbicides residues?

[@perreault1960]

back when i was in school, they used to separate the food waist and that went to the local pig farmers. so it wasn't waited. now days the schools can't or wont do that!

[@wendyscott8425]

There may not be a nearby farm available that practices raising pigs on pasture. Most of the pigs these days are put in those god-awful crowded buildings. Yuck.

[@dwighttimmins3777]

excellent video- I hope this catches on and takes income away from the energy giants

[@jcchannel2850]

Is this one long advert?

[@Fireboat52]

This is a great idea, but if you want to just cut to the chase, look to manage your own waste on your own property first. It is easier than you think. Check out the BoonJon system.

[@claudearmstrong9232]

Even the apartment dweller has the place and means to utilize all their biomas wastes into soil components that they or neighbors who garden in yards and containers can use direct for nutrition food.

[@oscarparedes5308]

Human evolution starts with oneself, everyone is responsible for their own wellness and to continue the cycle of life. Above everything be good to each other.

[@christakloecker7283]

Isn't the emissions from transport of the organic matter all the way to BC kind of counterproductive?

[@theenvironment5789]

Everybody have a relationship with food, is a daily essential of our life ...Paul Sellew

[@storieslived7152]

Very inspiring!

[@jionnie]

Well yes I love all his idea's and I am already composting and right now making a worm farm ….. and a small hobby aquaponics farm . But all his good idea's are being directed to him … to make money ! :) Nothing wrong with that ! There's a lot of filthy rich people out there making money and in the process , harming our or even killing our environment we live in ! We need more people like this guy to deliver new idea's tp people … helping to condition the new generations of how to live !

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

jionnie This reminds me a bit of when people get upset that I don't just give them answers. There are a lot of immature minds that think knowledge is just free. As I always say, I'd be happy to give my knowledge to society if someone wants to write a big check for it. This would benefit society faster than my business could since more people would then learn how to create the best ponds and lakes, but my opinion is I deserve to make a good living for working so hard at my science. tiny.cc/ponds

[@jionnie]

Natural Ponds Lakes & Streams by Spring Creek Aquatic Concepts One day I went to my local landscape supplier and told him I was thinking of making my own pavers ( thinking this will be a cool home project ) and if he had any ideas on this subject . Little did I know , he made his own pavers and garden edging etc to sell to customers ... So he looked at me and abruptly said " you know that gate you come in through ? " I didn't really know what to say to his rude remark …. but within a few minutes of gazing around , …. I left with no knowledge … and none of the supplies ( I was going to purchase ) needed to make my pavers . He lost my business that day ! …. Can he run a business with those people skills ? … maybe he can , but I didn't see anyone else in his shop ! Sure knowledge is worth $$ … I should know … I'm a teacher but you got be smart too . :)

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

That's a very valid point. All we sell is knowledge. We developed a better way to do things without needs for all the "stuff" that people buy, so we either charge or sit under an overpass and beg ;) Maybe we should sell a magic wand along with instructions! That would be funny.

[@jionnie]

Natural Ponds Lakes & Streams by Spring Creek Aquatic Concepts I teach music one on one the value of that is worth it . Online lessons have not got that human touch or understanding . Theres more to it but you know what I mean . I am trying to teach them to use the magic wand lol

[@larrymaloney877]

Natural Ponds Lakes & Streams by Spring Creek Aquatic Concepts , you can't give what you don't have. You CAN give your experiences but our exchanges reveals you know nothing about nutrition and the effect your work and eating meat and dairy has on the planted and the health of American's. Your arrogance is overwhelming. I take pity on you and give freely of my time and knowledge, no check required, but you reject science and prefer ignorance. Educate yourself before you presume to know the answers. I suggest you read, Dr. John McDougall, MD., Dr. Michael Greger, MD., Caldwell Esseltyn, Md., Colin T. Campbell, PhD (he wrote "The China Study"), and Howard Lyman (The Mad Cowboy). Lyman was a forth generation Texas cattle rancher who got cancer and then realized the harm his product was doing to society. You owe your children the truth. I suggest you get off your high horse, do a little work, and discover what is right there in front of you.

[@mmay7886]

Very exciting.

[@BearWindAppleyard]

Ideally we should introduce advanced compost toilet systems in public places, parks and stuff like that. Then use it the same way as mentioned in this video, use it for biogas and for compost, of course having in mind that cow feces and human feces are not the same, and the one is probably a lot more toxic than the other. It could definitely work probably even without being more disgusting or resourceful than regular public toilets, I guess it just depends on the right amount of political will power, funding and ingenuity. If people are into it, you could introduce it in households on a more broad scale.

[@vmwindustries]

Society takes to many forms of medication. Humans have destroyed rivers, and lakes with birth control alone. Never mind Tylenol, or any thing else.

[@starjeweller]

Future of 100% recyclation in the cities inspired by sustainable natural systems.

[@fayjason]

If we use this energy, what is it's byproduct?

[@carolscabinas]

How about biogass from the town septic. ?

[@julioequinones]

compost is not to be anaerobic ! compost is meant to be aerobic, at all times! look up Dr. Elaine Ingham and the soil food web.

[@MisterNickOtine]

false. in nature, the composting process in predominantly anaerobic. stuff piles up and breaks down slowly. more humus is actually produced that way as the presence of oxygen oxidizes the humus and destroys some of it. don't turn your compost piles. it makes it faster, but in the long run you will get more useable organic material and protect the soil better if you just leave it lay.

[@thewallstreetjournal5675]

+MisterNickOtine Their are good reasons why anaerobic bacteria, is not recommended for compost piles. Aerobic breakdown is faster. Anaerobic bacteria makes people sick; and it produces toxic gas that stinks. On the other hand I have seen someone drink their own aerated compost tea and not get sick from it. I don't recommend drinking compost tea, but it is good to know that its not harmful. If you don't have time to turn compost you can simply bury your food waste over 8 inches deep. Worms will turn your food waste into great soil over time.

[@tomkelly8827]

It needs to be anaerobic to produce biogas. Everything in the lakes and oceans would break down anaerobically. Obviously that works out just fine

[@teacherJacobo]

I would like to contact this great person, because here in South America COLOMBIA needs this process inmediately . We are a GROUP who want to change the way people see the waste food , we are making compost bu we need help to give jobs for people and help our country this is our facebook if you want to communicate with us .fundacion los goleros.

[@TheProsatamos]

+Jacobo Reyes Feed Soldier Flies with the foodwast and sell the dried larve to farmers or raise chickens. Then spread your experience arrount your community. Others will follow and foodwaste is no waste anymore.

[@bluenomadbruh]

I want to see this in Ecuador too. lt is a change that needs to happen.

[@haywoodfarm]

A step forward - something that has been going into landfill is now being used productively. We should be intensively converting all compostable and worm farmable stuff into good soil for growing food thru a network of food gardens within walking distance of every house, reducing food and waste miles : the essence of the Sustainable Urban Nutrition (SUN) project I am trying to implement in Western Australia. We urgently need a systematic global approach to urban food. His technology may help.

[@gntr93043]

Good info"

[@Hi-gb9cf]

Did he really just say, he is capturing farts and using them for energy? LOL

[@mskogly]

What is the difference if any between soil made anaerobic in a digester, and a heated aerobic compost? I would guess that the composition of the micro organisms in the finished product must be different. And what is the climate gass footprint of the two methods? Anaerobic fermentation releases methane, a climate gass, and is then burned to release co2. While the aerobic organisms breaths out co2. Would be interesting to see a comparison.

[@walkingmonument]

You're on to something

[@poldiri]

Morten Skogly in an anaerobic system you create biogas which you can use, so more efficient.

[@walkingmonument]

Poldi Rijke and yet aerobic is also naturally occurring in nature. So is one really "better" than the other or are both essential

[@Madmun357]

I LOVE this TED Talk. But unfortunately I know people would be WAY too reluctant to participate. People don't sort anything, they just throw it all out without thought.

[@tiviscahoon9217]

the title was misleading and the secret i was waiting for never came . i would hav been pissed if i showed up for another regurgitation of recycling . compost king ? recycling an advertisement would have been a better fit

[@svetlanikolova5557]

you want to know who the compost king is? the red wiggled worm! they make the best compost there is!

[@Gabi-lt4mx]

Well done. 🙏👍

[@jasoncook2294]

YAY!

[@pk-pj4sz]

Oh my God I had no idea how terrible landfills were

[@mjb12141963]

This is a great thing but it is limited in quantity and therefore will be costly for a long time to come.

[@svetlanikolova5557]

no! another way is vermi composting! t0 dollars per family and you are a mean green composting machine! and the results? awesome and incredible food

[@mjb12141963]

I do compost my own compostable waste materials. I used to bag 30 bags of leaves each year. Now I compost them with grass clippings, coffee grounds, eggshells and the small amount of kitchen waste. Then spread the compost on my vegetable and flower gardens. I have looked into worms but don't have the money that I can spend to do a worm start up. This is my 4th year composting and I am still learning as I go. Making mistakes left and right but getting great results with what I have done successfully.

[@rockyea8562]

Does this include meat or just vegetables?

[@li7862]

so can we start a system

[@gailfordham29]

Dear Mr.Swllew I am intrested in how can I be helpful in not wasteing thrown out foodto help prevent lost of land and help create compose to build and prevent lost of land.

[@federican778]

I have to do a science experiment with compost but I only have a few weeks to make compost with only orange and banana peels.. can someone help??!!

[@charliemendez9991]

+Federica N Get a pail with holes on the bottom, put on fertile ground and dump your green waste inside. Cover and check everyday, see if the worms come to the rescue.

[@forfarlassie]

+Federica N get some of the leaves from around your area and add them too, take the temperature of the pile everyday, good way to chart what is happening, i do it with my students every year

[@niceslug]

in Australia you company would go broke, we have been collecting all our organic waste for at least tens years, local government sends a truck around once a fortnight collecting it all in a special green bin, they turn it into compost and fertiliser that they use for local parks !

[@shukritobi91]

+niceslug but I think he done it better. He basically use most of the energy byproduct of the chemical reaction during composting, like the gas and heat release as well as the compost itself. This guy is literally recycling energy.

[@niceslug]

agreed he is doing a great job and better, just he would find it tough to get the supplies he needs, already collected

[@Chipwhitley274]

I think you are confused... the fact that it is already collected makes it easier. All that has to be done is to convert the facilities to also incorporate bio-gas collection... they are already doing all the other processes that his facilities do as well, like producing compost.

[@svetlanikolova5557]

we might be contributes to waste but we can stop it by raising red wriggler worms and feeding them this waste! it is easy and the end result is crazy good compost that you can give back to the land! I never been happier with my garden until I started using vermicompost

[@watchthe1369]

Build a parking structure like building designed as a lopsided pyramid. Sewage and table scrap/ yard waste anaerobic digested in the basement. Biogas is outfed to the gathering trucks, the compost that is from the digesting process goes out to the south facing "Fields". Several levels of fields could be used to grow cereal grains or fodder for cattle/critters in stalls on the northside of the structure. excess from "Urban Farm Inc." which is a custom farm for "Get Fresh Market" could supply several markets in the local community........ lather rinse repeat.........

[@haddow777]

Also, keep in mind that anaerobic specifically means a process without oxygen. If compost is processed with low moisture and high quantities of oxygen, it drastically reduces methane production. If on the other hand, you process it wet and anaerobicly, or lacking sufficient oxygen, it maximizes methanr production. That one word gives away the whole fame about how this is all about methane production, likely as it would be the most profitable element of the process. None of this is for the environment.

[@SmithJohnZ]

What about bio char

[@k.ganesanganesan6825]

Do this as Art of loving.

[@teresathomley3703]

Like karma marga, or bhakti if you do it for God!!🙏🕉

[@REG3305]

Almost 7 years and only 300k views.... .. tsk tsk.

[@timsteinkamp2245]

I have a big problem with using the remains of everything that was dumped in the sewer system onto our food crops and I think everyone else should be concerned too.

[@paulosoberinski4501]

He does sound like a propagandist, which is annoying. He even looks like bob dole. Much of what he says is true though. I hate the word waste, it's so two dimensional. 70% of our waste can be composted and returned to farmland to produce more delicious food. In addition, the garbage that is left over after that 70% is taken out, is mostly plastics, which are difficult to use, but not impossible. I want all the food waste from the supermarkets and restaurants in my area. Give it to me. We can turn it into gold and reduce trash costs.

[@rawmyaaj2325]

Humanity need to wise up

[@walkingmonument]

This guy is a business mogul. This is still a situation where the general public is being impoverished along with the land around them and others are making huge profits. That doesn't work. The individual needs to be empowered and given the skills to make the money they earn go farther. People need to grow food locally. This guy is still using a system that wastes a great deal of resources and redirects money back into his pocket.

[@adamszajman3870]

wow.... goes to show you money and oil company's run this world when we could have sustainable energy on our own waste.

[@skyfairy1959]

+the “EX” .EX - WRONG- rothschild's/the vatican- everything else is submissive- you must be young- to not know this! vatican city, d.c. and city of london!

[@crpth1]

@@skyfairy1959 - Geez! What a bunch of ridiculous BS! It's really sad to see people diving into stupidity so willfully!

[@gregwoodruff5128]

Why grocery stores still use plastic bags is beyond me. I alway use paper.. and the casheirs glare at me.

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

For years much of the food waste from Las Vegas has been collected by a pig farmer who in turn sends the processed pork back to the restaurants. Now I could see adding a dome over the pig farm and blowing that effluent into a boiler to generate electricity.

[@larrymaloney877]

Natural Ponds Lakes & Streams by Spring Creek Aquatic Concepts , Pig farming is a bad example of recycling waste. The bacon causes heart disease and cancer and diabetes. There's no need to ruin human health eating the wrong food. Eliminate the pigs from our diet and eliminate the disease and the waste generated by pigs, and processing pigs and polluting water etc. Animal slaughtering is in no way contributing to reducing energy waste or maintaining human health.

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

Larry, that sounds like a very biased "analysis" on your part. No one ever even mentioned bacon. Pork can be raised to be quality protein just as well as any other animal protein. You never heard me trying to tell you what to eat. I also have no need for your less than scientific analysis. Go preach elsewhere, thank you.

[@larrymaloney877]

Natural Ponds Lakes & Streams by Spring Creek Aquatic Concepts , "Quality pork" is an oxymoron! There's no such animal. Please don't think I'm singling out pigs for criticism. Live ones are cute. Eating them is what makes American's sickly. The fat in pig meat, whether it is bacon fat or chops, or any animal for that matter, is stored on overweight Americans in record numbers and eventually causes type II diabetes. Science has learned the stored fat overflows into the bloodstream and causes havoc with the control of insulin. Even thin folks get diabetes from the animal fat but in the case of thin people, diabetes is triggered, not by storing animal fat, but by simply eating it! You wouldn't consider pig meat "quality protein" if you understood the science exposing protein consumption above 20%, based on caloric count, triggers cancer cell division. Of course, animal meat has protein far in excess of that 20% level. Fortunately most plants are only around 5% protein. You my consider that "low" having heard all your life about "needing meat" for "quality protein". I ask you who are you going to believe the meat and dairy industries? Or nature? We need protein the most when we are growing the most. That would be the very first year of life. During that first year we double in size. That's a lot of growing. And what food does nature provide for all that growth...and to insure enough protein to sustain rapid growth for a baby? Hmm, that would be mother's milk! Ask yourself, how much protein is in nature's food (mother's milk)? Would you believe it's only 5%? Nature got it right. The meat and dairy industry can't change nature. Cows grow much faster than humans so has a different formulation. Likewise for rats and cats, etc. We don't do well on the milk nature evolved to feed a baby cow. Likewise they would be sickly drinking human milk. And who ever heard of an adult cow drinking milk? Heart disease doesn't even exist in countries where meat and dairy are not consumed. All your family and all your friends and co-workers alike who are on high blood pressure medication and/or cholesterol lowering medication, could be off their drugs within one week if they stopped eating meat and dairy (under a doctors guidance). Instead they listen to you and your message of "quality protein" and unwittingly ruin their own health while causing our national debt to be in horrific condition trying to pay for national health care. If Americans did not eat meat and diary, health care and health insurance would not be an issue. But instead, politicians are accepting of disease and early death to keep our house-of-cards, economy pumped up by the billions generated by the meat and dairy industries and the additional 144 billion generated by the medical industry. Sadly that's the basis for our "economy". If Americans grew their own healthy plant food this country would go bankrupt. Agreed, you didn't mention bacon but do you honestly think the pork that goes to the restaurants are void of bacon? Portly Rachael Ray says, "My man loves bacon with his biscuits and sausage gravy." How many times a week do we hear, "Who doesn't love bacon." My home town has a bacon festival each Fall. If the humans there walked on all fours they could pass for pigs. Me "preach"? The food police are alive, and well represented on television's countless food shows and cooking segments on supposed "news shows". Honestly, would we all starve to death if Rachael wasn't in our face daily telling us another way to serve bacon with some other meat dish? If voices like mine were heard as much as the lobbyist promoting meat and diary, this nation's peopel would better understand nutrition and recognize they are ruining their health eating what folks like you are peddling.

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

Go preach to your choir. I am a grown-up and a Biologist. I can take care of my own nutrition without you spewing forth the propaganda served by your mental overlords with an agenda.

[@larrymaloney877]

Natural Ponds Lakes & Streams by Spring Creek Aquatic Concepts , sadly your biology training is wasted in pursuit of some utopian perception your work is somehow healthy for the environment. Unfortunately it's nothing more than part of the "feel good" movement promoted by lobbyists. You believe your training is put to good use leading others to better ways to save the planet. Fact is, all of what you do is unnecessary if we don't eat unhealthy animals (including pigs). What you reveal in your ignorance of nutrition is how effective advertisers are in convincing YOU meat and dairy are "an important part of a balanced diet" LOL, right! To be perfectly clear and specific, you are a stick-your-head-in the sand, biologist. Maybe some day when your incentive to keep your job is replaced by maturity and experience you can open your mind and use your education to actually sort through the science and reflect back realizing how foolish you were. By all means, eat meat and dairy if you must. But please don't object to others observing your foolishness. After all, it is YOU the biologist who ignores science. How ironic. Unfortunately your bias towards unhealthy eating is projected onto your children. The very worst food your children can consume is cow milk. It nothing but liquid meat in puss form. The puss gives cow milk it's white color. Check it out Mr. Biologist.

[@CheeKiatTeo]

I think building more extensive networks of trains and public transport like China would greatly reduce carbon emissions- more efficient in tackling waste on a large scale

[@rejo3920]

BURN THE WEEDS! Im a newbie. dont have a compost thermometer & sure i have weed seeds in my compost pile. i usually burn yard debri. can i burn a couple of feet away from my compost pile to heat it up to kill the seeds. i can turn my compost while the fire is burning. Hopefully the heat would reach 140F temp. do you think this will work? Thanks

[@matthewyoung1973]

jo the best thing to do with your weeds is to drown them and make weed tea. put your weeds in a bucket with a sealable lid, fill the bucket with water and leave it for a month or longer if possible. the resulting weed tea stinks lol... but it's rocket fuel for your plants. dilute it 1 litre for every 8 litres of water and pour it on your plant leaves. they will jump out of the ground with energy. feel free to add some soil, sea weed extract, worm castings at the beginning of the process for even more power. compost the solid remains or just bury them in the soil. burning the weeds is a complete waste of nature

[@deyasinichoudhury4038]

An Indian concept of converting waste and cow dung into biogas

[@julioequinones]

In natural systems decomposition does not involve humans turning the organic leaf litter, but that does not mean that it is anaerobic. by no means does natural decomposition predominantly occur anaerobic, that is without oxygen. Perhaps in certain cases like histisals but in most conditions the O horizon is only a few inches and all sorts of critters are mixing it continuously as well as eating it and introducing more oxygen. Anaerobic conditions set up some nasty biology for plants. Look up some of the anaerobic compounds that are produced by anaerobes and you will be surprised. Also most of the bad guys thrive in anaerobic conditions with exception of course to some microbes as has been displayed by dr. Higa's EM microbes. Inversely most of the good guys thrive in aerobic conditions. Of course there are always some exceptions.

[@facereader99]

Piecemeal broken content did not connect with each other. Did he start eating something in the middle? That was unbelievable.

[@aaroncrumbley]

"Dat Ash"

[@bobcatt2294]

Why would I want GMO food stuff to be a part of my compost?

[@MisterNickOtine]

why would you want people who eat GMO to exhale into the air you breath?

[@MisterNickOtine]

***** and the ground would be forever contaminated because the roots will remain in the soil. but water will also leach into the water table which will spread to rivers and pollute organic crops growing elsewhere. not to mention the airborne seeds and birds which will carry for miles. cuz that would spell DOOM! to us all!

[@MisterNickOtine]

***** oh yeah like stuff just can't seep out the bottom. i am worried about gmo chemicals. christ there everywhere! why would you garden with the shit? are you insane?

[@bobcatt2294]

***** Hi Mathew, do you have reference materials which support, that once composted, BT (bacteria) and other GMO is no more?

[@MisterNickOtine]

Bobcatt22 and seeing as how many bacteria actually thrive in compost... besides all the people who eat gmo cough and sneeze sometimes they don't cover their mouths. that bacteria is spreading on all over us even if we don't eat the gmo. like i said, its no question: the fact they can't be contained spells doom for us all

[@derekf7434]

The city and counties currently truck the material anyway you are just separating the material. Compost that organic material and put it on fields just like they do bio-solids.

[@BenRawPower]

I keep my organics, thats even a better solution, bigger idea, too big

[@vmwindustries]

We can't left the German people beat us in that.

[@svetlanikolova5557]

compost makes free gas- methane that can hear your house for FREE

[@erinank6988]

We could send that wasted food to the food banks. We are so wasteful.

[@xXxBLINGO07xXx]

Moncompost

[@chicofoxo]

LOL, America discovers composting.

[@donaldjohnson3265]

And still refuses to do it...

[@julioequinones]

*histosol

[@mr.pocket575]

STOP LICKING

[@walkingmonument]

And sucking

[@albertobaylon3245]

Earth will decompose everything. Like it did before.

[@dieterheinrich8377]

+Alberto Baylon You don't get it, not at all, in case you think you do.

[@VladTheImpalerTepesIII]

Great, let's bury all metropolitan areas in huge piles of dirt so they will decompose and eventually we will have compost.

[@joesalem7468]

NOT SO FAST !!! We need to be very, very concerned about how gmo has infected so much of the food and topsoil of the US and Canada. Gmo plants are engineered to produce poison within the plant which may possibly be very harmful to the pure, natural garden if mixed in at any level.

[@TheObsessedGardener]

Hi- I'm interested to know more. The hottest chilies produce a poison too- called capsaicin which protects the plant against predators. The same could be said for coffee which produces caffeine. But if these are composted back into the soil, they don't poison it. I'm wondering which GMO plants produce poisons and how they affect the soil. Thanks :)

[@joesalem7468]

+TheObsessedGardener I understand the glyphs ate used with gmo continually damages the top soil 20 to 40 years if it gets in your garden. Scientists are claiming it is not biodegradable as was stated by the maker.

[@ivanzuev49]

GMO is not a poison. It will enable our ever-growing population live in some day..

[@claudearmstrong9232]

Wrong! That is worthless propaganda used by an industry determined to reduce the population. The soil is key to more and higher nutrient foods. The banksters would have to add billions to replenish nutrient-depleted soils that used to produce plants that resist insects and disease, but now barely sustain their own life. The GMO scam is an attempt to grow low quality plants in nutrient-deficient soils and control who gets to farm and eat the foods.

[@joesalem7468]

Claude Armstrong Soooo true! Look up "Gabe Brown, Farmer Rancher", and see how all natural growing is being revived and spreading in the US.GREAT CONQUERING. MOVEMENT.

[@Ben-kc1om]

why not promote biogas

[@brickchains1]

The system is broken, but what is the system? Capitalism.

[@andrep5899]

you only make compost aerobically not when you make methane which is an anaerobic proces. It is a good idea to recycle biomass and not mixing it with the other garbage... but first don't waste food! We were brought up to eat everything we took on our plate...

[@garrettamick5981]

+Andre Parys so you eat banana and citrus fruit peelings? the tomato stem, the core and rind of a pineapple? the roots and outer layers of onions? this is also food waste. albeit I personally compost those items as opposed to eating them, but many people don't have that opportunity who live in apartments and urban areas, the ideas this man has make a ton of sense for highly urbanized areas like NYC, LA, Chicago. Rather have it go to a recycling plant than have it end up in the air or landfill.

[@andrep5899]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost

[@MaruAdventurer]

I don't believe this is being offered as a `solution`. He complains that food waste has to be trucked to landfills. Yet he is proposing that he truck this very same product to HIS facility to be composted. Same net energy loss for the same reasons. If every family was permitted 2 chickens per household most of those food wastes would be consumed at houehold and returned as a consumable product. No need to truck stuff around. Unbelievable.

[@windrowcompost05]

I guess he is clueless about the methane gas to natural gas wells at closed sealed landfills that has been done since 2010 in Houston and many other places!

[@graceoconnor1383]

I agree that waste to energy systems at landfills are certainly a step in the right direction. But landfills are a poor use of land, and the process he advocates also produces compost, which is an extra natural resource that will benefit agriculture. Sort of like: 'two birds with one stone'.

[@Brandtphenom]

Buy compost worms and commit to community gardens

[@l.g.a.8930]

I didn't know that he was chewing his gum while he was talking. I hope that the chewing gum is organic. Won't be good for his teeth and maybe synthetic chemical added as sweetening agent.

[@GrantSR]

Yeah, this guy is just a salesman. He harps on trucking waste to a landfill and then seconds later glosses over trucking waste to his processing plants. He calls methane the worst greenhouse gas in one sentence and then euphemistically calls it "biogas" in the next. Not that landfills are great, but many of them have recognized the profit potential of the methane they generate and now capture it, just like he does. There is absolutely no need for all this BS. All you gotta do is have a bin in your back yard (or a neighbor's back yard) that is full of worms. Then dump your food waste in there. All of it gets converted to soil nutrients and none of it creates methane because it doesn't have a chance to rot anaerobically. Of feed it to some chickens. Voila! What you didn't eat today, you can eat tomorrow.

[@MisterNickOtine]

you don't even need the bin and the worms. just throw the stuff on the ground. anaerobic composting actually produces more humus. nature doesn't turn its compost. stuff just piles up. initially there is some air in there, but the majority of composting in nature becomes anaerobic. that is what retains the organic content. when oxygen is mixed in, like when the soil is plowed or turned, it reacts and burns off the humus. so don't turn your compost. let it get anaerobic and smelly, that's what nature wants.

[@stevemann8374]

***** I agree we need to solve problems as nature does x + y=Z reverts to Z-y=x or Z-x=y and so on.

[@stevemann8374]

I agree with you because he makes it clear that the only good methane is the one he sells. The only green revolution that man knows is cash.

[@richardskeet4337]

Not to mention, if he was making a REAL profit, he'd pay CASH for garbage, instead of government subsidy.

[@stevemann8374]

Richard Skeet over 2 years later and his proposal is still only suited for the flies. Lol

[@morgannrussell5690]

Use aerobic ! Quit throwing out valuable minerals just for biogas which we dont need .

[@dieterheinrich8377]

+Morgann Russell Aren't the minerals left behind?

[@morgannrussell5690]

+Dieter Heinrich Hello ! Valuable minerals are volatilized by the anaerobic process ...each step is a net loss . If you haven't studied that ,...please do; I am sure you will agree once you have had a chance to do so . ...aerobic is better for us all the way around . Thank you for your attention .

[@dchambers986]

Most newer landfills utilize the methane gas produced in the fill... so just dump your tray and it turns into methane in the end anyway. This guy just wants to make a buck on his biofuel boondoggle.

[@quixoticfallcy]

this sounds more like a sales pitch lol

[@ThomasShue]

who can afford compost. a 50x100 piece of land I own needed compost. I called a local gree recycling place, o e where all of the material they use has been donated freely, wanted $1,500 USD for some dirt. This business makes people like the man on the stage rich. No one can afford to buy the finished product. it's sold bag by bag at home depot for $10-11 a bag. All of these fuels this man is speaking of is asking to devert them to him so he can get paid.

[@driving345]

Thomas Shue just make your own compost, it's really easy

[@ThomasShue]

driving345 I need like 10 tons

[@ramhornjoe]

This was a profit pitch in my opinion as well. Better to make you're own compost with food scraps from your own kitchen :) We do this in Montana with good success, you do not need an anaerobic digester to make good compost. You can check out videos from Geoff Lawton on compost he makes it easy. Joe

[@ThomasShue]

ramhornjoe glad I was not the only one who saw this

[@felixthefoxMEXICO]

2021... greenwashing METHANE

[@haddow777]

Biogas = Methane. I'm not sure why he's going to mention how bad disposed of organics is worse because it releases methane when he produces Biogas, which is methane. The only think better about it is when it's burned, it converts to CO2, but were trying to get rid of that. I just get so annoyed when they make claims that it's net zero when it's releasing huge amounts of CO2. All they're doing is replacing fossil fuels with a more renewable exactly same thing. Greenhouse wise, it's really no better. Ya, Methane is worse short term, but that's balanced by CO2 being worse long term. If they composted differently, they could dramatically reduce the Methane production. But it seems that most big companies are getting into this specifically to get the fuel. This sort of nonsense thinking will need to be done away with if we are to reduce actual greenhouse gasses going into the atmosphere.

[@danielgordonsparrow6861]

buy the eye^. daniel gordon sparrow. ritual.s made past'prsent and furture ect.

[@flawns]

bio-solid....human shit :(

[@razadaza9651]

This guy sounds so robotic

[@khurshidcateringmultan]

Bull

[@timsteinkamp2245]

How does he get organic compost from non organic food waste? This guy is so full of disinformation talking out both sides of his mouth. Waste is 98% water but is creating methane gas. He worries about land depletion but wants to use the energy in waste for human use instead of the easy to get and easy to distill oil. The problem with growing plants is feeding cows and making car fuel. The whole food production process puts people to work and is a labor expense. He still has a labor issue using each of us but not getting paid for it. What a con man..

[@tabathaakers1985]

Boring