- Leon County leaders voted Tuesday to continue a partnership with an environmental start-up to recycle yard debris.
- Engineering company ReCap is turning yard waste into a carbon-negative material called biochar.
- Watch the video to learn what biochar is and how it's helping reduce the county's carbon footprint.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Your yard waste might be being used to replenish the environment it came from.
An environmental start-up is turning Leon County yard debris into something more useful: biochar.
ReCap co-founder engineer Josh Venable said not reusing waste is a missed opportunity.
"It's wasted," Venable said. "Looking at waste, waste is only waste if we allow it to be."
That's why he and his business partner Austin decided to create a way to reuse waste.
"Both had a mission to change the way we look at waste and to change the whole concept," Venable said.
The way they did that: through biochar.
It's a charcoal-like substance that is made from things like branches, tree limbs and twigs often used to help with soil fertilization.
The EPA estimates that one ton of yard debris emits two tons of carbon emissions.
"If you think back to elementary science class. that carbon, once a plant dies, once a branch is cut, starts the process of going back into the air," Venable said. "That's the greenhouse gas that's the problem."
He said by using technology to burn debris in this machine, the process reduces carbon emissions.
"We stop that process, solidify and stabilize that carbon," Venable said. "That carbon stay secure for a thousand years or more."
It's why Leon County leaders partnered with ReCap to test a pilot program.
Director of Resource Stewardship Maggie Theriot said they wanted to help our area's environment but also set an example to other counties across the country.
"Many communities throughout Florida and the nation unfortunately landfill that yard debris and that is not the case here in Leon County," Theriot said.
They have converted 15 tons of yard waste into biochar, preventing nearly all the carbon produced by the waste from getting into the air.
With Leon County leaders voting Tuesday to make the relationship permanent with Recap, they hope to recycle 15,000 tons in the next two years.
Something Venable said is why he wanted Leon County to be the first in the nation to reuse their yard debris.
"We approached Leon County because of their approach to sustainability," Venable said. "The leadership, the elected officials, the county leaders do more than talk about sustainability. They actually do it."
The county also collects household hazardous waste materials like paint and oil to be reused and recycled within our own city.
You can drop those items off to their drop box location on Blair Stone Road.
