Personal Adventure Blog and Professional Portfolio
The USCC’s Annual Conference is the premiere professional meeting for composting, organics recycling, and related topics. This year’s conference was from January 24th-27th in Austin, Texas, and the demonstration day was held at the Texas Disposal Systems’ organics processing facility.
My coworkers and I were given the opportunity to check out the on-site demo day. The event featured large heavy machinery on display for the conference attendees to watch in action.
Texas Disposal Systems offers holiday-related organics processing under two major programs: (1) Christmas Tree Recycling and (2) Wreaths Across America support.
Every year TDS opens up their facilities for free Tree Recycling and holiday organic waste disposal. This includes live Christmas Trees and wreaths, as well as any left over pumpkins. Residents can visit their regional facility or the main landfill in Creedmoor to drop off their trees and organics. From there, we process the trees through chippers into high-quality, rich products like mulch or compost. These products are sold via the Garden-Ville retail centers back into the local community.
As part of my work with Texas Disposal Systems, we support the waste diversion services of the Austin FC Q2 Stadium. This work has included serving as “Trash Goalies” during football (soccer) games!
Being a volunteer Trash Goalie, we helped monitor the eco-waste stations near the concession areas and stadium seating. The eco-waste stations were divided into three separate, labeled bins so attendees could see where their waste should go. Our jobs were to help “block shots” to prevent contamination as well as educate guests on proper disposal practices at the stadium.
Continuing my Texas conservation marketing career, I left the Take Care of Texas program to join the Texas Disposal Systems as their first ever Digital Marketing Specialist! (See my previous work from TCOT, including the Texas Trickle.)
The first few days consisted on new employee orientation, as well as advanced defensive driver training for new employees who drives for the company.
On my actual first day on the job, the company marketing director took me on a tour of the landfill and the onsite animal sanctuary. We started off at the main administrative building where I work, which featured several recycled metal art sculptures – like a mama bear and her cubs, as well as a tree with an eagle.
Here is a video tour of the main Creedmoor Facility. It highlights all the operations onsite, like the landfill, composting center, materials recovery facility (MRF), and the exotic animal sanctuary.
As part of my job with the Take Care of Texas program, I proposed a water conservation campaign called the Texas Trickle. It encourages Texans to save more by using less water from the faucet. While turning off the water is ultimately the best way to save, controlling the flow from the faucet saves water when you’re using it! Check out the campaign webpage for more information.
My vermiculture adventure started in November 2018 a couple months after I returned to Texas from my eco-road trip . Having spent the previous seven months up at an intentional community in Oregon, I wanted to continue my greener living with something easy I could do.
I saw a DIY worm bin class advertised online with the Texas Worm Ranch, and figured it might be interesting. Little did I know how big these little guys would become in my life after I got my first worm bin going!