One Man's Trash with Kelly Warbis

Show Notes

Join Kosta and his guest: Kelly Warbis, CEO and Co-Founder of EKAMOR Resource Corporation.

With a mission to drastically reduce the major challenges of managing municipal solid waste, EKAMOR is working to change the world's management of waste from an extractive economy to a circular economy.

In this episode: Where does your trash go? Does recycling actually help the environment? What is carbon neutrality? Why do we hear about it so much? How is EKAMOR going to change the way we process trash in Cookeville and United States? 
 
Find out more about Kelly Warbis and EKAMOR:
https://ekamor.com/

Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a product of Morgan Franklin Media and recorded in Cookeville, TN.

This episode of Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is made possible by our partners at Wildwood Resort and Marina.

Find out more about Wildwood Resort and Marina:
https://wildwoodresorttn.com/

What is Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev?

Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a podcast about business, parenting and living life intentionally. We're here every week to bring you intentional conversations on making your own path to success, challenging the status quo, and finding all the ways we're better. Recorded in Cookeville, TN, Kosta joins guests from all walks of life to bring fresh perspective and start your week with purpose. We're better together.

Kosta Yepifantsev: This episode
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Kelly Warbis: Wow. So we've been
talking about recycling for a

long time. And the reality is
maybe 14% that most of the

recyclable material that's out
there that can be recycled

really gets recycled. It all
ends up in landfill. And the

reality is, is that and there's
nothing against landfill

operators, we need them
civilizations got to have a

place for our garbage to go.

They make more money by burying
our garbage than they do trying

to sort out the materials and
doing that with it.

Morgan Franklin: Welcome to
Better Together with Kosta

Yepifantsev, a podcast on
parenting business and living

life intentionally. We're here
every week to bring you

thoughtful conversation, making
your own path to

success,challenging the status
quo, and finding all the ways

we're better together. Here's
your host, Kosta Yepifantsev.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Hey, y'all,
it's Kosta. Today I'm here with

my guest, Kelly Warbis, CEO and
Co-Founder of EKAMOR Resource

Corporation, with a mission to
drastically reduce the major

challenges of managing municipal
solid waste, EKAMOR is working

to change the world's management
of waste from an extractive

economy to a circular economy.

Kelly, first off, let's talk
about something everyone is

familiar with trash. We'll start
with a regular bag in

Cookeville, Tennessee, we filled
up the bag and now it's time to

take it out to the curb where
the city of Cookeville will pick

it up. What happens from there?

Kelly Warbis: Soon as it goes
into the truck. It arrives at

our transfer station where it is
dumped with all your neighbor's

garbage. And then a big in
loader picks it up and dumps it

into a semi where it's hauled to
the landfill in Murfreesboro,

Tennessee. Wow. And it just sits
there. And it sits there

eventually gets covered with
some dirt on the landfill and

will sit there forever.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Is there a
landfill in Cookeville?

Kelly Warbis: There used to be
okay, so

Kosta Yepifantsev: there is no
landfill here in Cookeville.

Kelly Warbis: There is a
landfill. It's now construction

and green waste correction
debris.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Gotcha. What
if we changed the details of the

story? Let's say we bag up that
same trash. But this time it

goes to eco more what happens to
the trash?

Kelly Warbis: Well, let's say
instead of one bag, there's 100

bags, because that way, it's a
little bit easier for us to see

what happens. Okay, so instead
of the 100 bags going into the

landfill, eight bags would now
go to the landfill. 14 of those

bags would be recycled. Okay,
but plastics, metals, that sort

of material that's easily
recycled. Sure 50 of those would

become a clean fuel that can be
burned for gasification to make

green energy, green chemicals,
sustainable aviation fuel, and

that sort of thing. So that
leaves 28 bags, if everybody was

doing their math, what happens
with a 28 bags, the 28 bags was

full of water that our non
thermal system took out of the

garbage

Kosta Yepifantsev: and
evaporated and evaporated. Wow.

So explain this to me. Okay. And
we're going to talk a little bit

about carbon neutrality. But I
want to just focus on a few

things that you've just said in
the last statement. What is

green energy? What are green
chemicals. And when you say the

water just evaporates, it just
goes into the atmosphere. And

when it goes to the landfill, it
just gets soaked into the

ground. Like give me a
visualization of what you're

describing?

Kelly Warbis: Well, water is the
biggest issue with garbage.

Probably the highest cost. The
garbage trucks get paid, the

garbage companies get paid per
ton to handle your garbage. So

if I was a garbage company, the
wetter it is, the more money I

make. But if I'm a city or a
community that has to pay to get

rid of that, I'm paying a lot of
money to haul water off

basically. So in our garbage, it
ranges anywhere probably

averages about 40 to 43% of
water in our garbage and people

don't think so. But that's a lot
of money when you're looking at

hauling garbage every day out of
your city at the landfill. Water

is also the main problem. It
allows an atmosphere or an

environment for the bugs to keep
me Late spread disease. Well,

when I'm saying bugs more than
biological activity, eating the

organic matter, methane, okay, a
lot of people don't realize it.

Landfills are our third largest
contributor to methane in the

United States. And globally,
yeah. And it's a lot more

harmful than co2. Eventually, it
goes to the atmosphere and

eventually breaks down and co2,
but it's a greenhouse gas

emission. So in our process, we
d water, the material, non

thermally. But our material once
it's below 15 16%, moisture, the

biological activity stops,
therefore, the methane stops. So

in a sense, we have a green
fuel, when we're finished with

our process so we can provide to
other people. And what is this

green fuel look like? A brownish
colored blown in insulation?

Okay, it's fluffy, it is still
garbage, if you're gonna do a

chemical analysis of it. But
physically, we change it from a

putrified smelling material to a
kind of a musty dry fluff

material.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Why would
anybody buy green fuel?

Kelly Warbis: Well, green is the
you know, it's an issue

worldwide, there's major
pressure on fossil fuels.

Garbage, once it's dried, has
virtually been equivalent to how

to River Basin coal from
Wyoming, the BT value or the

calorific value of the fuel is
great. By us taking material and

drying it, instead of it going
to the landfill, we take about

1.7 tons of co2 out of the
atmosphere by using it instead

of letting it lay in the
landfill. And therefore, that's

where green becomes. So people
that are burning fossil fuels

are starting with something that
fuel that's not green. And in

their combustion and everything
else, they're putting more

carbon into the atmosphere just
by the processes. So if they can

start with something that is
negative carbon, and still

combust it, then they become
carbon neutral, or maybe even

carbon negative based on their
processes.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Okay, so who
do you sell this product to? Or

who do you plan to sell this
product to? And what type of

processes are they using to burn
fossil fuels? And explain carbon

neutrality? And also the
importance of it and why we hear

it so much?

Kelly Warbis: Well, let's start
with carbon neutrality, okay,

most processes put carbon into
the atmosphere. And that's bad

because of global warming,
because of global warming, okay,

and the genies out of the
bottle, right? It's everywhere.

The problem is, is that when we
come home at night, we want to

be able to flip our light
switches on and the lights come

on, right? We want to open a
refrigerator and our foods still

cold. And you've got to have,
you know, a good way to make

energy or do that the challenge
that I see is in making that

exchange, there's people
spending billions of dollars,

trying to figure out how to get
carbon out of the atmosphere,

carbon capture, carbon capture
trying to put it into different

Yeah, capturing it, somehow
sequestering it somehow. My

thesis and that of our
management team is why not take

one of our largest carbon
producing greenhouse gas

emitting issue that's out there,
use the material and keep it

from becoming an issue in the
first place. When you start

trying to get carbon negative,
you're trying to take the

processes that affect carbon
that add carbon, and create

processes that are negative to
bring that down to a neutral or

negative number.

Kosta Yepifantsev: So the best
way just to summarize it, so

people understand what we're
talking about. If you are a

factory that's burning coal, and
the measuring units for how much

co2 You're producing from
burning that coal is say, 100,

we're just going to use round
numbers. They use your fuel

instead of burning coal. And
that offsets the 100 units that

they produced in co2 from
burning that coal crude. Okay,

so if they're carbon neutral,
essentially, what you're doing

is you're saying, okay, look, at
this point in time, I can't

supply you with enough garbage,
processed, you know, garbage to

be able to meet the demand of
fossil fuels, like coal and

other stuff. But I can at least
offset the amount that you're

using. And then as I as this
process becomes more and more

advanced and becomes to scale,
you might be able to transition

all of your operations to using
Eco Moore's trash, essentially.

Kelly Warbis: Yeah, that's a
correct statement in. In the EU,

for example, it's driven by
mandates. The mandates aren't

here yet. You think they will be
Yeah, okay, we may be 20 to 30

years behind that. But I mean,
you look at what's happening on

the East Coast, you look at
what's happening in the west

coast. It's working its way
here. I mean, even in Tennessee,

there's not going to be another
new landfill built in the state

of Tennessee. Wow, there was a
Jackson law that was put in in

the in the 90s. Because of that,
there'll be no new landfills put

in in Tennessee. So as rural
areas we have here, you know, I

moved here from Southern
California that had a county of

3 million people, to Putnam
County, lot of green lot acres.

And we have a huge landfill
issue in central Tennessee that

a lot of people aren't aware of.

Kosta Yepifantsev: So what is
the issue? Well, the

Kelly Warbis: issue is our
largest landfill in the area,

which is middle point landfill,
will probably be closing down in

less than four years. Oh, wow.

And at that point, the garbage
goes out to smaller landfills

with less capacity. And they
fall just like dominoes. So you

know, some of the experts that
I've talked to in central

Tennessee, we may not have a
place to go, we're very, very

close proximity, a place to
handle our garbage within the

next eight to 10 years.

Kosta Yepifantsev: We're going
to talk about how you got into

this. And it's a very
interesting journey, a very

interesting road. But I want to
ask you one question, before we

do. You said, mandates will
apply in the United States in 20

or 30 years, do we have 20 or 30
years?

Kelly Warbis: No, there's 1400
operating landfills today. And

about 350 of them are due for
closure in the next 10 years.

Kosta Yepifantsev: But do we
have enough time to affect the

issues of climate change? And
this is the only time I'm going

to ask you so we're gonna tease
this out. And then we're gonna

move on sea level rise, I mean,
droughts. There's flooding in

New York City, I understand that
natural progression of climate

is that the world changes in
terms of temperature, sometimes

it gets hotter, sometimes it
gets colder. But you've been in

this business granted, maybe in
one specific sector of this

industry, but still, you've been
around it for the last decade.

In your professional opinion, do
you think that we are about to

witness some significant drastic
and dramatic changes in our

climate that's going to affect
the way that we live? And do we

have 20 or 30 years to start,
you know, following the drumbeat

of Europe?

Kelly Warbis: Well, there's a
lot of people that are a lot

smarter than I am on that, I do
believe that a lot of climate

changes are historical. And, you
know, we've gone through ice

ages and droughts and everything
else for millennia. So in the

little time that I have here, to
do this, the effect that I can

cause is to go to the root
problem here. Instead of trying

to figure out how to suck co2
out of the atmosphere, I want to

take something and turn it into
a fuel that everybody can use

and keep their lights on.

economically. Yeah, instead of
trying to do that if I do my

little piece that I can do, and
leave this world a better place

than it was when I got here.

That's, that's about all I can
do. In 2016,

Kosta Yepifantsev: you took a
sabbatical to do something I

personally believe is what
separates the great innovators

and thought leaders from
everyone else. You went to work

on the front lines, what did you
learn about this industry

firsthand, working as a garbage
collector and a processor?

Kelly Warbis: Well, I pierced
the veil to really see what was,

you know, behind the curtain of
the waste industry. Okay.

Basically, it started out as
simple as following my recycle

bin at my home in Southern
California. And what I found was

in that bin of recycled
material, that was all recycled,

all plastics, everything that
was in there could be recycled,

that nearly half of that still
went to the landfill. Why? Well,

I put my recycled material in
bags. Okay. They had two shifts

of 140 people at this facility
working there was there was some

automation but a lot of people
that were paid to make 40 to 45

picks. And when I say a pick,
they had to grab 40 to 45 items

a minute off the belt. When a
garbage bag went by, if they

would have stopped to open it.

They didn't have time to make
their picks that they required

to pick so every bit of my
recycled material for years at

that facility went right to the
landfill. From the waste

management side when I say Waste
Management's not the company,

it's just manage our waste. If
it was more to see what happens

when it goes from the curb to
the landfill, what are all the

steps? How many people does it
touch? Those people all make

money along the way. So when we
roll a bin full of garbage out

to our curb in the morning on
garbage day, we hope it's empty

when we come out, right? So I
basically went around to figure

out what all happens to that.

And what's the reality, the
reality is that there's not a

lot of recycling. As much as
we've been talking about it. My

youngest daughter will be 41
years old soon. And when she was

in kindergarten, I remember
having to build a recycle bin at

my home for magazines and
newspapers. So we've been

talking about recycling for a
long time, right? And the

reality is maybe 14%, that most
of the recycled material that's

out there that can be recycled,
really gets recycled, it all

ends up in landfill. And then
and the reality is, is that and

there's nothing against landfill
operators, we need them

civilizations got to have a
place for our garbage to go.

They make more money by burying
our garbage than they do try to

sort out the materials and doing
that with it. So

Kosta Yepifantsev: is it because
it's just so labor intensive? It

is okay, so it's just like they
can't they can't hire enough

people, because the value of
what they're doing isn't

commensurate for them to be able
to hire and paying them to do

it. Or I mean, what explain that
statement.

Kelly Warbis: Well, I think, to
stay in business, you have to

have more money coming in and
you have money coming in, right?

So if the easiest thing to do,
is dump that garbage in a hole,

right? Cover it with a little
dirt every day. Yeah. And never

worry about it again until you
know somebody else's issue.

That's that is the most
inexpensive method to take care

of garbage doesn't mean it's
right now.

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Kelly Warbis: Some things break
down? But you know, we started

this by what happens with the
garbage right? You know, so all

the water that's in there
eventually seeps out to the

bottom of the landfill. Most
landfills today are mined. It

creates something that we call
lead sheet. Are those in the

business? So it's any moisture
water? You

Kosta Yepifantsev: need? I'm
just trying to get into the

groundwater. No. It should be
surely

Kelly Warbis: if it's
constructed properly. Okay. Are

there issues with it? There's
Superfund sites there's Yeah, I

mean, there's major liability on
the landfill. But if it's built

correctly, no, but what happens
is they have to pump that leach

aid out every day. So like in
Murphysboro at middle point. The

leech eight gets pumped out. It
goes to I believe it's

Nashville, where all the
wastewater in the metropolitan

area goes. It

Kosta Yepifantsev: just watching
you Yeah, God.

Kelly Warbis: So it goes through
the sewer system. It goes it

goes through the whole process
again, and then they get as much

water as they can out of it. And
they bring that material back

what's left over after they
process it. So this is you

talking about a circular
economy. Sure. We chase made

Every day, leachate gets hauled
to the waste water facility

every day. Yeah, what's left is
they call it a cake. It's still

probably 70% water or more, it
goes back to the landfill and

gets dumped in landfill.

Kosta Yepifantsev: What happens
to that lead chain?

Kelly Warbis: When that cake
goes to the landfill? Yeah, it's

70% water. That water will
become leachate again, someday.

It's a it goes on and on when

Kosta Yepifantsev: they take
this nasty water to Nashville,

what do they do with it?

Kelly Warbis: Well, they do what
they do when you flush your

toilet.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Like the
sewage treatment in the

treatment facility, and then if
so if you like drink from the

tap with unfiltered water,
you're just drinking like

leaching

Kelly Warbis: through water from
somewhere else.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Just goes
into the Cumberland River,

folks. I'm not gonna put words
in your mouth.

Kelly Warbis: But it's, but it's
a crazy thing, right? You have

rainwater. And so to get back,
what happens to the garbage,

some of it breaks down. Yeah,
that's why we have methane.

That's why landfills contribute.

They're the third largest
contributor to methane in the

United States and globally, for
that matter. Because that

moisture that's in there is
creating bugs creates heat, it

eats the organic material.

Methane goes into the atmosphere
and it breaks down but they've

done core samples of landfills
old landfills in the Northeast,

and you can read checks from the
early 1900s. They tried to keep

the air out when they seal it
and they cover it and everything

then and it becomes kind of a
anaerobic stage. So some things

are preserved and doesn't break
down. But landfills over the

years do shrink a little bit.

That's how they can keep coming
back in and adding a little more

garbage because it will break
down eventually.

Kosta Yepifantsev: I want to
talk about your co founder

Michael Adel check. For anyone
that doesn't recognize this

name. Michael is one of the most
accomplished engineers and

celebrated voices in innovation
across the globe, a leader of

five divisions during his career
at General Electric, he was on

the front lines of creating
world's first products that

revolutionized health care and
aviation. How did Michael start

working with ACA more? And how
is his perspective changed the

company?

Kelly Warbis: So I met Michael
out of the blue, I had worked

with a consulting company to
raise some money back a few

years ago, probably about four,
four and a half years ago now.

And this company reached out to
Michael because Michael worked

with a lot of venture capital
firms, private equity firms, to

vet technology before they
invest in it. And he was doing

these people a favor to call me
up. Just say, Hey, I've heard

about your technology. What can
you tell me about it? So we

started talking, I told him a
little bit about it. Kind of a

Funny conversation. He asked me
where I had my engineering

degree since he's got a degree
from Columbia and two degrees

from MIT. Oh, wow. And I said, I
had mine from Calhoun County,

Iowa. And he said Calhoun County
never heard of such a school.

And I said, No, it's a farm out
in the middle. farmland in the

Midwest. Yeah. And that began a
relationship though he went

radio silent on me for about
three or four months, didn't

return a phone call, didn't
return an email. He called me a

blue one day and he said, All
right, I've got to figure it

out. Let's go out, raise some
money and do this. fascinate. So

that's what's basically what
started and I think what's

changed our perspective, is that
I'm an entrepreneur. So to me,

it's about how much it costs.

And what's my return. And
Michael, instilled in me that,

you know, we're a technology
company, we're developing

disruptive technology that can
change how the world views

waste. So with that, it was
design of experiments, putting

sensors in for recording data,
putting all the reporting

methods together. And then what
do we do with that data? Once we

have it, we did some runs this
morning, we spent two hours

after the runs breaking down the
data. And we do these runs

pretty well every day. But it's
to create a baseline of things

that are out there.

Kosta Yepifantsev: What are
these things? And what is the

data telling you right now about
the processes that you guys are

doing?

Kelly Warbis: Well, we record
everything. We're a non thermal

process, right? So we use
whatever God gives us. There's

days this summer where it was,
you know, raining heavily while

we're running material, the
atmosphere should not be able to

hold any more water. So what
really are we doing? How are we

super saturating saturated air
to be able to still dry material

working with Oak Ridge National
Labs and MIT we've developed or

we've come to several different
conclusion on on what we're

doing. And so, you know, on a
dry day, that's we don't get

very often around here, but if
we could get a 90 degree day

with no humidity, good luck, you
should be able to dry. But on a

day that it's 90 degrees and
raining out there, how do we do

it. And basically, what we do is
we super saturate the air, we

make clouds inside of our
systems, really. And those

clouds pull the moisture, you
know, right out.

Kosta Yepifantsev: So what
you're saying is, it doesn't

matter what the conditions are
outside. If it's wet and humid,

you can still complete your
processes, right. And that's

what you're measuring. Using the
sensors is to determine because,

you know, when we toured your
facility, and we looked, you

know, the conveyor belts, and we
saw trash, and we saw, you know,

the rare earth mineral extract
portion, and then where it goes

up and it gets dried, we saw the
finished product, we saw it all.

Are you trying to create
something that only eco more

does? Or are you trying to
create something that you can

then license to other companies
and other facilities and other

countries? Because it sounds
like when you say

groundbreaking, disruptive and
transformational? It sounds like

that?

Kelly Warbis: Yeah, it's all the
above, because of what we're

looking at moving forward. I
mean, it's, we've had people

here from Asia, Africa, Europe,
South America, in Cookeville, in

Cookeville, nice, Canada, and
then major cities all there's

lots of parts of the world, I
don't really care if I'm there

to operate the system. You know,
we'll do licensing agreements

and stuff like that. And that's,
you know, when he talks about

what's Michael brought to that
GE licensed technologies all

over the world. And it's having
that perspective to understand

that and how to put those
together. So Kelly,

Kosta Yepifantsev: here's the
million dollar question. I have

talked at length on multiple
podcast episodes about having a

company or an industry come to
this area that is going to be a

part of the 21st century
economy. That's essentially a

part of the future. Now, there
are a lot of companies that get

brought up like Google and Tesla
and Facebook and data centers

and Giga factories. And we need
this we need that. People talk

about retail shops like Target
and then you know, you hear the

regular players like Averitt and
Feitosa, and Academy sports.

I've never heard of echo more
intel, we reached out and made a

connection. I toured your
facility. You are literally

doing what I bring up in
multiple episodes in the past.

So why have I never heard of
echo more intel today?

Kelly Warbis: Well, it's pretty
much been intentional. Okay. The

waste industry, or one of the
things that I've found, is

basically ran by a couple of 800
pound gorillas, okay. It is the

company waste management, it is
Republic Services, it is two or

three other companies. For us.

This is really a feedstock
acquisition play. Because now

that you can dry it, right,
you've got to get the feedstock

sounds kind of crazy, you know,
everybody out to give you

garbage. But they've got long
term contracts and all these

municipalities and you know,
where's the easiest place to go?

That's one of the things that I
looked at, when I spent six

months in the waste industry was
worse, the easiest place for me

to plant the flag and not wake
up the sleeping giant.

Kosta Yepifantsev: And that
happened to be Cookeville.

Tennessee. Well, it's

Kelly Warbis: in Cookeville. I'm
not giving, I'm not gonna say

Kosta Yepifantsev: no trade
secrets here.

Kelly Warbis: Cook will is I was
looking for a reason to get out

of Southern California. And
Cookeville. My wife's from

Tennessee. Okay, and Cookeville
worked Nice. So through some

mutual friends, I have found a
person here. The county was

interested in trying to do
something different than send

all the garbage to the landfill.

And so we did waste out it. We
did a lot of things. And you

know, we call it home now.

Kosta Yepifantsev: That's great.

And I mean, here's the thing, I
can't wait to get trash out of

my house, like I will go out of
my way to just throw stuff away.

You're saying it's hard to get
trash? And I'm saying I know a

lot of people who gave you
trash? Yeah.

Kelly Warbis: Well, I don't want
you and everyone else just come

into our facility to do it.

Kosta Yepifantsev: I mean, but
if are you saying that you have

a hard time getting trash?

Kelly Warbis: No, I'm just
saying that we're at the process

right now. We're we're going to
market. So when you're talking

to a community, there's a lot of
them just like Putnam County,

everybody's the same. They're
these are elected officials.

This is new technology. This is
disruptive technology. And I

think one of the things that we
discussed when you were here the

first time as well. It kind of
looks like you've been ready to

do this. Why aren't you in the
market? Right? And a lot of it

is is putting the science
together, working with the

Department of Energy working
with large engineering firms. To

get them to vet our technology
to understand what we're doing,

so that when we go to a
municipality, large or small,

elected officials do not want to
get unelected. Correct. And what

we're doing is putting together
something to give them the

comfort and bringing our system
into their market.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Absolutely.

Echo Moore's process will
revolutionize how we handle

waste, reducing landfill
dependence by up to 90%. How

does improving our systems of
waste management improve our

community?

Kelly Warbis: Well, I think a
couple of ways one is just in we

become a green community, we're
not sending it to a landfill and

for every tonne of garbage,
producing 1.7 tonnes. And that's

hard to it's hard to fathom what
that tonne is, but say, the

county of Putnam County, if our
garbage goes to landfill, it

puts enough co2 in the
atmosphere, it's about the same

as the emissions from 26,000.

Automobiles. Wow. And it's about
the same carbon that can be

sequestered by planting nearly 2
million trees as seedlings, and

grown for 10 years. That's every
year. Yeah. So our system now

automatically affect garbage
doesn't go to the landfill.

That's how much carbon it's
taken out every year, year in

year. So

Kosta Yepifantsev: we're doing
our part. Yeah. And it's it's

fascinating to me is that one of
the biggest issues when it comes

to affecting climate change, you
know, global warming, whatever

you want to call it, releasing
carbon into the into the

atmosphere, is behavioral
modification, as the hardest

thing, you know, like you said,
everybody wants to come home,

they want to flip their light
switch on, they want the lights

to come on, they don't care how
they how the energy gets there,

they just want it there. But
what you're doing is you're

saying, Okay, listen, I have
come up with a completely new

process that you don't have to
modify anything, I'll do all the

heavy lifting. I'll do all the
legwork. Don't change anything.

I got it, I got to figure it
out. And, you know, I believe

that there's a lot of
applications when it comes to

combating some of the shifts in
our environment, that people are

very smart people like yourself
and others are using these this

new technological advances to be
able to positively affect the

things that we just won't change
ourselves. So when you say our

dependence on landfills will be
cut by 90%. Are you saying that

if your system or when your
system works when Atmore goes

live, and you start rounding up
garbage? That we're not going to

have a landfill anymore? No,
we'll

Kelly Warbis: still have a lamp.

How

Kosta Yepifantsev: big will the
landfill like? What's your goal

for reducing the size of the
landfill and Murphysboro?

Kelly Warbis: Well, it's okay to
keep it open. Right? I just want

to keep it open forever. The
only stuff that I want to have

go there are things that don't
cause environmental challenges.

Okay, like bio, didn't know not
material, biodegradable stuff is

the problem with that's what
creates the methane and

biodegradable, it's not good.

That's the bugs.

Kosta Yepifantsev: What goes
let's see, this is what I just

don't know. I have been taught
this my whole lot biodegradable,

it's okay to throw a banana out
the window when you're driving

because it biodegrade?

Kelly Warbis: Well, as it
degrades, there's bugs that you

don't see. So when I say bugs,
it's just the organic matter

decomposes. As it decomposes, it
makes methane, the only things

you want going into the
landfill, or things that don't

decompose. You want the
concrete, the dirt, maybe

pulverized glass, the inert
materials to go to the landfill.

I guess what we're trying to do
is, I always tell people, it's

easier to pull a rope than it is
to push a rope. Well, we've been

trying to make people recycle
for the last 40 years. It's not

happening. Any major effect. You
know how to football coach in

high school, keep it simple,
stupid, don't think so much. And

that's really my approach to
everything. Why I have two or

three garbage bins because most
of the people will throw you

know contaminated stuff and
something that's not supposed to

be contaminated. For eco more
our process, we go to a

municipality, let us pull out
the stuff that's easy for us to

pull out.

Kosta Yepifantsev: And if it's
in a garbage bag, it doesn't

even matter anyway, because it's
not getting recycled. So

Kelly Warbis: yeah, they're
getting better at that. But yes,

that's I mean, we, they are but
yeah, I mean, that's the

process. So we're not recyclers.

If you look at a Material
Recovery Facility, millions and

millions of dollars, conveyors,
going everywhere, trying to get

every water bottle, trying to
get every piece of film plastic.

Our approach to it is keep it
simple. You know what throw

everything you want to in your
garbage bin at home, make

something that's a cost center
for the municipality, a revenue

generator. For us, our whole
process is keeping it simple. We

feel that we can do that because
let us pull the recyclables out

of there. We know which one's
worth more than it's a commodity

film plan. See tomorrow, but
maybe worth more than water

bottles are today. And that
changes month in month out all

the time. If we miss a water
bottle, it's not a big deal. It

has a lot of BT value to us. So
we don't spend several million

dollars trying to get every
water bottle out. But at the end

of the day, we will pull more
recyclables out overall than

what most people are doing by
trying to what they call single

stream recycling and things of
that nature. So that's basically

it in a nutshell, try to make it
simple. We've taken a complex

system from a on the front end
of our facility is basically a

Material Recovery Facility. They
call it merps in the industry,

but we do it streamline. We've
worked with some groups in out

of Europe to take all the
nonsense and cost out of things

and keep it real simple. Metals
are easy to get out. Aluminum is

easy to get out. Water bottles
are easy to get out. Milk jugs

are easy to get out if
something's not really easily be

it out, but it creates BT value.

The truth of matter is
everything that can be recycled

always has an end of life and
will end up in a landfill one

day, if it isn't the first time
it gets used. It may be the

second it may be the seventh. So
if we miss something today, and

it goes in as a fuel, at least
we're creating green energy or

green chemicals with and that's
kind of our approach to

Kosta Yepifantsev: it. Yeah,
instead of it going into

landfill instead of it going
into it. So your goal is to

reduce the size of this landfill
by 50%. By 75%.

Kelly Warbis: I'd say right now
our goal is to keep a landfill

open. Okay, it's reducing the
amount of waste that goes to the

landfill. I see. But it's
keeping the landfill open.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Okay, we need
landfills. But we need the inner

materials, we do not need all of
the unnecessary waste that will

turn into co2. Instead, we
should give it to you. And you

will turn it into green fuel and
green chemicals. Before we wrap

up, I want to talk about where
ectomorph stands today. And

where do you expect the company
to be this time next year?

Kelly Warbis: That's a really
good question. So where we're at

today is just at the beginning
of commercialization. I've told

you we've had people from all
over basically the world come in

and come to Cookeville,
Tennessee, most of them only

spend a night here. But a lot of
people have came to see us the

over the past, really 2023 This
year, we've had the most come

in. We are at the point where
we're putting a lot of proposals

together. Within the next year,
we will have probably two

municipalities where they're at
I can't say that's okay. But

we'll probably have two
municipalities operating as well

as a couple of private, not
really garbage more in the paper

mill industry that ends up in a
landfill as well. Wow. So

there's, there's more
applications and you know, stuff

that ends up in the landfill.

But that's where we'll be
probably,

Kosta Yepifantsev: I love it.

You know, you got that big
factory next to the factory that

you already have. So your goal
is to box that puppy in and

expand your services. Well, we

Kelly Warbis: haven't made any
commitments on that yet. Okay.

Kosta Yepifantsev: We always
like to end the show on a high

note, who is someone that makes
you better? When you're

together?

Kelly Warbis: Well, I'd be
remiss to say that my wife is

probably the number one person
that makes me better when I'm

together. She's actually my
business partner. When I say

business partner, she's always
been my sounding board. You

know, we've had several
businesses and she's been the

main cause of success for those
businesses all along the, you

know, along the way. So she's,
she's the one that keeps me

grounded. But we've put together
a real interesting management

team, they all have one focus in
mind. And that is to change the

way the world views garbage and
manages waste. And most of us

talk every day. But when we are
together, the synergy that's in

that room and the commitment
that we all have, and these are

all people that don't need a
job. They don't need to be doing

what we're doing. Trust me when
I say Michael idle chick, you

know, how does how does somebody
like me? Take a person that's

one of the top 10 engineers in
the world and land and Michael

idle chick, and he can do
anything that he wants to, at

all whatever he wants, if
nothing's it, that he doesn't

have to do it. He wants this to
be his legacy. And so when all

of us are in a room, it's magic.

When we're together, we know
we're gonna change the world.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Thank you to
our partners at Wildwood Resort

gotta go with mom. and Marina
for presenting this episode.

Wildwood Resort offers guests a
rare collection of lodging

styles from vintage airstreams
and waterfront cabins, to

floating harbor cottages and a
new two story inn. It's the

perfect destination to visit
this fall to explore nearby

hiking trails and waterfalls.

Walk on Tennessee's longest lake
boardwalk, enjoy authentic

dining at the Lakeside
Restaurant, be energized with an

on-site massage treatment.

Wildwood is tucked away off the
beaten path, nestled in nature.

This is a hidden gem. For more
information go to

visitwildwood.com

Morgan Franklin: Thank you for
joining us on this episode of

Better Together with Kosta
Yepifantsev. If you've enjoyed

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Leave us a review or better yet,
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friend. Today's episode was
written and produced by Morgan

Franklin post production mixing
and editing by Mike Franklin.

Want to know more about Kosta
visit us at

kostayepifantsev.com. We're
better together. We'd like to

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during this episode are those of
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