WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.640 Welcome to Meteorology Matters. You know, after 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:05.259 a hurricane hits, the immediate damage is, well, 00:00:05.419 --> 00:00:07.620 it's plain to see, isn't it? Flooded homes, downed 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:10.640 trees. But what about all the stuff? The furniture, 00:00:10.859 --> 00:00:13.560 the appliances, just everything that gets ruined? 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:16.760 Where does it all go? Today, we're looking at 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:18.839 a fascinating investigation by the Washington 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:21.019 Post. They did something really quite clever. 00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:22.699 Instead of just talking about tons of waste, 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:26.219 they actually put tracker's air tags on individual 00:00:26.219 --> 00:00:28.140 items to follow their journey. It's kind of like 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:29.980 a real -life treasure hunt, but, you know, for 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:32.140 hurricane trash. We have expert speaker with 00:00:32.140 --> 00:00:34.280 us today who's taken a close look at the Post's 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:36.780 findings. When you first saw this approach, tracking 00:00:36.780 --> 00:00:38.460 the debris like that, what really jumped out 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:40.619 at you? Well, what's really fascinating, I think, 00:00:40.899 --> 00:00:43.659 is the sheer scale of the problem. It often goes 00:00:43.659 --> 00:00:45.740 unseen, doesn't it? After the immediate crisis 00:00:45.740 --> 00:00:48.240 passes, the Washington Post focused on Treasure 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:50.439 Island. It's a small barrier island in Florida, 00:00:50.859 --> 00:00:53.700 right after hurricanes Helene and Milton. Now, 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.299 this tiny place, just 1 .54 square miles, generated 00:00:58.299 --> 00:01:01.740 over 128 ,000 cubic yards of debris. Yeah, to 00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:04.099 put that in perspective, that's like two million 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:07.400 kitchen trash bags. From one small island two 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:09.920 million trash bags. That's staggering. Okay, 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:12.959 let's unpack this the post tagged ten items, 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:16.079 right? What were some of the the most interesting 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:18.760 journeys these things took right? So three items 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:20.340 really kind of illustrate the whole process. 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:23.099 I think the first one was an office chair It 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:25.719 came from a spa. Because of sewage backup during 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:28.019 the storm surge, everything inside was contaminated, 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:30.700 what they call category three water or black 00:01:30.700 --> 00:01:33.340 water, basically toxic stuff. Oh, nasty. Yeah, 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:36.439 really bad. The owner lost something like an 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:40.620 estimated $350 ,000 in assets, just wiped out. 00:01:40.939 --> 00:01:42.879 So this chair, it just sat there for over 40 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:45.540 days before the air tag pinged. 40 days? Where 00:01:45.540 --> 00:01:47.959 did it end up? I showed up at the Pinellas County 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:50.079 Solid Waste Disposal Complex, that's their main 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:52.540 landfill, but it's also a waste -to -energy facility. 00:01:52.620 --> 00:01:55.019 Wait, a landfill? I thought maybe hurricane debris 00:01:55.019 --> 00:01:56.959 had special handling. Was it supposed to go there? 00:01:57.239 --> 00:01:58.459 Well, that's where it gets really interesting. 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:00.719 According to the county's solid waste director, 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:03.560 they weren't knowingly taking storm debris there. 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:05.939 That place usually handles, you know, regular 00:02:05.939 --> 00:02:09.039 household and commercial trash. Ah. He suggested 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:11.199 the chair might have just gotten mixed in accidentally. 00:02:11.580 --> 00:02:14.379 than in all the initial chaos. Right, the confusion 00:02:14.379 --> 00:02:16.919 after the storm makes sense. Exactly. It highlights 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:19.560 that initial scramble. And that facility, it's 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:22.039 huge. It can burn up to 3 ,000 tons of trash 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:25.319 a day. 3 ,000 tons! And doing that generates 00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:29.300 power for about 45 ,000 homes. So it's actually 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:31.520 possible that chair ended up being incinerated, 00:02:31.699 --> 00:02:34.120 turned into energy. From a contaminated scot 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:37.199 chair to powering someone's lights, that's... 00:02:37.210 --> 00:02:39.090 That's pretty wild. OK, what was another item 00:02:39.090 --> 00:02:41.250 they tracked? Another really compelling one was 00:02:41.250 --> 00:02:44.810 a motorized scooter, a 2022 genuine scooter, 00:02:45.009 --> 00:02:47.909 Ruff House 50 specifically. OK, a scooter. What 00:02:47.909 --> 00:02:51.610 happened to it? The owner got caught in like 00:02:51.610 --> 00:02:53.590 four feet of rushing seawater during the storm, 00:02:53.750 --> 00:02:56.189 completely flooded it, ruined it. Yeah, his insurance 00:02:56.189 --> 00:02:58.870 company just deemed it a total loss. Now, get 00:02:58.870 --> 00:03:02.550 this. Just one day after the post tagged it. 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:06.020 It was towed away. Already? Where to? To a co 00:03:06.020 --> 00:03:09.000 -part auto auction lot, about 140 miles away, 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:11.659 down in Clewiston. An auction? They auctioned 00:03:11.659 --> 00:03:13.939 hurricane damaged vehicles. Apparently so. It 00:03:13.939 --> 00:03:16.500 was listed with a retail value over $2 ,300. 00:03:17.139 --> 00:03:20.599 Did anyone buy it? Well, initially no bids. Zero. 00:03:21.099 --> 00:03:23.639 But eventually it did sell. The final price wasn't 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:26.219 disclosed though. Okay, so someone bought it, 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:28.639 then what? From the auction, it went to a scrap 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:30.939 metal recycling facility over in Fort Myers, 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:33.900 Trademark Metals Recycling. They mentioned seeing 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:36.219 a huge surge in business after the hurricanes, 00:03:36.900 --> 00:03:38.419 obviously, processing things like appliances, 00:03:38.740 --> 00:03:41.000 cars, scooters. The scooter just got shredded. 00:03:41.259 --> 00:03:44.560 Yeah. End of story. Not quite so simple. Trademark, 00:03:44.580 --> 00:03:47.419 they remove hazardous materials first, fluids, 00:03:47.740 --> 00:03:49.539 battery, that kind of thing. Then it goes into 00:03:49.539 --> 00:03:51.409 their shredder. And these shredders are powerful. 00:03:51.490 --> 00:03:53.569 They can tear apart a car in just seconds. Wow. 00:03:54.110 --> 00:03:57.090 After shredding, they use huge magnets to pull 00:03:57.090 --> 00:03:59.330 out the ferrous metals. The steel, basically, 00:03:59.389 --> 00:04:01.469 like the scooter's frame. OK, got it. Steel gets 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:04.689 separated. Right. And that steel, it was sent 00:04:04.689 --> 00:04:07.270 to a new core steel mill. There, it gets melted 00:04:07.270 --> 00:04:10.030 down and turned into rebar. Rebar, like for reinforcing 00:04:10.030 --> 00:04:12.310 concrete. Exactly. For construction projects 00:04:12.310 --> 00:04:15.569 all across Florida. I think new warehouses, maybe 00:04:15.569 --> 00:04:17.649 hospitals, other buildings. That is actually 00:04:17.649 --> 00:04:20.870 incredible. So. bits of that Stormrex scooter 00:04:20.870 --> 00:04:23.370 could literally be holding up a brand new building 00:04:23.370 --> 00:04:26.230 right now. It's very possible, yeah. A surprising 00:04:26.230 --> 00:04:28.629 second life, isn't it? Definitely. What about 00:04:28.629 --> 00:04:31.149 the air tag itself? Did it get melted down too? 00:04:31.329 --> 00:04:33.750 Ah, well see, that's interesting too. The air 00:04:33.750 --> 00:04:36.149 tag, which was wrapped in plastic and duct tape, 00:04:36.509 --> 00:04:38.910 isn't magnetic. Right. So when the magnets pulled 00:04:38.910 --> 00:04:41.470 the steel away, the air tag just kept going with 00:04:41.470 --> 00:04:44.470 the non -ferrous scrap, like aluminum, copper. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:47.639 So even that tiny tracker continued its journey 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:49.600 through the system. Precisely. It just shows 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:51.579 how complex these recycling streams are, you 00:04:51.579 --> 00:04:53.259 know. It really does. Okay, and you mentioned 00:04:53.259 --> 00:04:55.620 a third item. Yes. The final one we'll focus 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:58.779 on is a satellite TV receiver, like a dish or 00:04:58.779 --> 00:05:00.899 a direct TV box. Okay, where did that one go? 00:05:01.180 --> 00:05:04.810 Its first stop was a park. It had been designated 00:05:04.810 --> 00:05:07.110 as just a temporary dumping ground for hurricane 00:05:07.110 --> 00:05:09.069 waste. A temporary site, right. From there, it 00:05:09.069 --> 00:05:11.550 was moved to a proper collection facility. This 00:05:11.550 --> 00:05:13.949 one was owned by a waste management company called 00:05:13.949 --> 00:05:18.029 GFL Environmental. GFL, okay. Big waste company. 00:05:18.209 --> 00:05:21.970 Right. And interestingly, the AirTags signal 00:05:21.970 --> 00:05:26.870 just stopped. Stopped. Why? The suggestion is 00:05:26.870 --> 00:05:29.389 that it might have been crushed or maybe deactivated 00:05:29.389 --> 00:05:31.230 during the sorting and processing there. You 00:05:31.230 --> 00:05:33.730 know, these facilities handle massive volumes. 00:05:34.189 --> 00:05:36.670 Ah, OK. So the receiver's journey seems a bit 00:05:36.670 --> 00:05:39.350 more like what you might expect for regular waste 00:05:39.350 --> 00:05:42.790 disposal. Exactly. Its path was more, let's say, 00:05:43.709 --> 00:05:46.449 typical collection, temporary holding than processing 00:05:46.449 --> 00:05:48.810 by a specialized company contracted by the city 00:05:48.810 --> 00:05:50.889 for proper disposal. It still sounds like an 00:05:50.889 --> 00:05:53.910 incredibly complex and frankly long process overall. 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:56.199 The article mentioned cleanup was still happening 00:05:56.199 --> 00:05:58.720 five months after the storms hit. That's a really 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:01.040 crucial takeaway, I think. Even for a relatively 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:03.360 small area like Treasure Island, the cleanup 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:05.660 takes a huge amount of time and resources. Just 00:06:05.660 --> 00:06:08.060 underscores the scale. It really does. And think 00:06:08.060 --> 00:06:10.800 bigger. St. Petersburg, the largest city in that 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:13.660 county, they cleaned up over two million cubic 00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:16.529 yards. of waste. Two million. And statewide. 00:06:17.170 --> 00:06:18.949 The Florida Division of Emergency Management 00:06:18.949 --> 00:06:21.889 reported over 36 million cubic yards removed 00:06:21.889 --> 00:06:24.790 after those storms. 46 million cubic yards. It's 00:06:24.790 --> 00:06:27.149 almost impossible to visualize. It is. And a 00:06:27.149 --> 00:06:29.189 lot of this work, it's important to note, is 00:06:29.189 --> 00:06:31.209 supported by federal funding. Right. You know, 00:06:31.389 --> 00:06:33.569 from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 00:06:33.750 --> 00:06:36.860 Right. The cost must be astronomical. This whole 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:38.819 tracking experiment, it really shines a light 00:06:38.819 --> 00:06:41.480 on the hidden side of hurricane recovery, doesn't 00:06:41.480 --> 00:06:46.139 it? The logistics, the sheer volume of broken 00:06:46.139 --> 00:06:48.639 lives represented by that debris. Absolutely. 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:50.779 It makes you think about the long -term effort 00:06:50.779 --> 00:06:53.439 long after the news crews have left. What a revealing 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:56.220 look at where things actually go after a disaster. 00:06:56.699 --> 00:06:59.100 It's so easy to just forget about the debris 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:02.120 once the trucks haul it away. The Washington 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:05.660 Post using those air tags gave us a really compelling 00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:08.439 window into that whole complex journey. Any final 00:07:08.439 --> 00:07:10.379 thoughts for our listeners? Well, I think this 00:07:10.379 --> 00:07:12.240 investigation raises a really important question 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.240 for all of us, actually. As these intense storms 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:17.939 become... potentially more frequent or impact 00:07:17.939 --> 00:07:20.519 more areas. How do we get better at handling 00:07:20.519 --> 00:07:23.180 this? How can our waste management processes 00:07:23.180 --> 00:07:25.420 become more efficient, maybe more sustainable 00:07:25.420 --> 00:07:28.480 when faced with just these unbelievable amounts 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:31.480 of debris? What kind of innovations might we 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:34.079 need for dealing with hurricane waste in the 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:36.180 future? That's definitely something to chew on, 00:07:36.199 --> 00:07:38.660 a really critical question for the future. If 00:07:38.660 --> 00:07:41.000 you found this look into hurricane debris as 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:44.019 fascinating as we did, be sure to follow meteorologist 00:07:44.019 --> 00:07:47.689 Rob Jones. on Instagram at meteorologist on TikTok 00:07:47.689 --> 00:07:50.370 at TV meteorologist and on YouTube to search 00:07:50.370 --> 00:07:53.050 for Rob Jones hurricane. You can also find the 00:07:53.050 --> 00:07:55.250 Meteorology Matters podcast playlist there on 00:07:55.250 --> 00:07:57.230 his YouTube channel. Thanks so much for joining 00:07:57.230 --> 00:07:59.230 us for this edition of Meteorology Matters.