[gentle acoustic music] [upbeat banjo music] - We need to realize that this is the only planet that we have.

We need to start being much more conscious than what we are because you can't keep dumping stuff in a hole, and thinking nothing's gonna happen.

[music continues] Being able to take these food waste items, keep them out of a landfill, and then through what happens naturally transform them into this rich, earthy soil.

It's so satisfying.

Most people look at food waste as a problem.

I want to educate people and get them to look at these items as resources as opposed to waste products.

Here at Ag Choice, we do organics recycling.

Out here, the big dairy farms are all taken over by what I call McMansions, and a little five acre farm.

So they can't manage their manure, and it can become a real pollutant.

So my parents and I started putting together a business plan to take the manure back, and compost it, and make soil.

So we got a small grant to help us get started with Ag Choice.

Here we are recycling almost 18 years later.

[lilting piano music] 2012, we get a phone call from a consultant, and he's talking about a large coffee company wants to start a recycling program to separate the coffee grounds from the aluminum.

Would we be interested?

He says, "Well, the company is Nespresso.

Have you ever heard of 'em?"

I was like, "Sure.

I know who Nespresso is."

I had never heard of Nespresso a day in my life.

Thank God for Google.

[cheerful music] So that night, I got out a sketch pad, and just started drawing out my idea.

The system starts with that blue machine.

I designed the gray machine, and that's what rips open the bags.

She's looking for any big items.

And then all the plastic capsules will just fall down into a gap, and all the aluminum ones will actually jump the gap, and continue their journey.

At that point, the capsules are compressed inside a chamber, and then they're ready for recycling.

What's left in the yellow container is clean coffee grounds which will transport over to our compost site to make into a humus-rich soil.

[peaceful music] All the equipment was all stuff I dreamed up.

A lot of it's inspiration.

Most of the time, it'll be in the middle of the night.

I'll be laying in bed, or I'll go out in the shop and I'll tinker.

This lamp is one of my at-home hobby projects.

So I rewired and repurposed it.

[button clicks] You know, it's amazing.

You get a little creativity and some free time what your mind can put together.

I'll get a random thought, and I just have to stop and just start sketching.

I get on the Harley, and I go out here in the woods.

While I'm riding, it gives me an opportunity to decompress.

[motorcycle puttering] Up here, the wheels are always turning.

I don't know if the car's going anywhere, but the wheels are always turning.

[laughs] Food waste diversion from landfills is hugely important.

You can dig up a landfill right now in a cell that had material in it from 1970, and pull up newspapers that you can still read.

So you're just taking the dirt out and filling it with these items that are never gonna disappear.

One of the keys to doing this, and doing it successfully, is following the science.

Christine's job is super, super important.

Daily, she's walking up and down the rows taking temperature readings, oxygen readings.

- We're up to 140 degrees already.

- Decomposition doesn't happen without oxygen.

So this machine is exchanging fresh oxygen for CO2.

So when you compost aerobically, now we can continue to keep reusing those soils.

It's happening natural every day.

There's a reason the planet's been here for billions of years without us intervening.

You can't beat Mother Nature.

I think that this green transformation can happen and it will happen, but it has to be a multi-pronged approach.

And it needs to start with businesses changing their packaging methods away from this disposable, plastic packaging.

You can't take a organic item, and put a plastic label on it because no matter how good my screener is, I can't screen out these little tiny plastic labels.

We really need to change the mindset, and it needs to start now.

[thoughtful music] - Where do you find all this garbage?

[laughs] - Community is big for me.

The environment that you live in, that you work in play a big influence on your life.

I owe a lot to growing up here in Sussex County, and that's the reason we conduct our business the way that we do.

It was important for me to build my business here where I grew up, where we could offer good quality paying jobs.

Like, our staff tends to be extended family, and we try to treat them with respect.

All right, driver, happy motoring.

Morning.

How we doing?

The program that I started and that we run now with the kids with disabilities.

That is all for trying to help these kids prepare to be an adult.

How are you this morning, young man?

Working hard, or hardly working?

Working hard.

It's not just taking capsules outta boxes, it's teaching them how to work together.

So the students that are here with us today are from a local high school, and they have varying abilities.

What we want to try to do is give them a real-world work experience so when they finally do graduate high school, they can go to an employer and let them know, "This is what I've done."

We make them interact with other adults, get them to open up a little bit.

So there's a lot of different things that they're learning just by taking capsules outta boxes.

It's been an amazing journey to watch these young men and women because I think the individuals that I've seen are capable, just haven't been given those opportunities.

So it's much more broad than just me and Ag Choice.

It really has had a positive effect on the community.

[cheerful music] I wanna leave this planet a better place than it was when I got here.

So if that's to replenish soils for future generations, I'm okay with that.

[cheerful music continues]