Working Group Co-Chair Profile: Susan Eisendrath

“I am self employed and manage rental real estate that we (my husband and I) own. I also do consulting work, specializing in creating training curriculum. I have a Master’s in Public Health and I’m a Master Gardener and Master Composter. I’m currently working on producing a Master Composter training for the Maryland Master Gardener Advanced Training program, which will be held in Spring and Fall of this year.

I’m on the Montgomery County Sierra Club Executive Committee and have worked on energy efficiency education projects, water protection advocacy, and we’ve recently launched a Composting promotion program. I’m a member of a community that owns 81 acres of rural Virginia land (and three houses) that’s surrounded by the Shenandoah Park. Our group of 20 friends, work together to protect and maintain the natural state of the forest, while also enjoying it as a personal retreat. My husband and I are currenlty creating another community next to it, that will be centered around sustainable living elements, such as renewable energy generation and organic gardening. I have two wonderful daughters, who enjoy the beauty of nature and motivate me to protect our planet. I love growing organic fruits and vegetables, and native plants, with my husband, on our 3,000 square foot urban “farmette,” which is mostly in our front yard!”

Why I joined the Environmental Impact Working Group (EIWG):

“The EIWG is addressing some very important issues for our County. Did you know that somewhere between 22% to 32% of all solid waste in Montgomery County is food waste? And since we incinerate our “trash,” we are missing out on the benefits of generating a valuable resource by using the food waste to produce compost for our community. Most peple just toss their food waste into the trash, where it goes up in smoke instead of producing a soil amendment that has significant environmental benefits. Compost is truely living “black gold” because it not only contains nutrients to help plants grow, it also has microbes in it, and they also work to improve soil and plant health. Compost also returns energy to the soil and reduces the need for artificial fertilizers, which are expensive and produced by fossil fuels.

Compost can also hold carbon in soils and help to reduce greenhouse gases. With the food waste we generate, we could creating green jobs, through composting processing facilities and then selling it to using for everything from large scale and small landscaping to farming and gardening. Compost can also help us reduce stormwater run-off since it can absorb a alot of water and can be used to act like a filter and sponge for landscapes, slopes, and construction sites. And finally, composting is something that anyone can do…yes, instead of having the County haul our valuable resources, like yard waste and leaves away, we can use the compost containers that the County provides for free, create our own compost for using to make our lawns and gardens more healthy.

I was impressed by the goals of the Food Council in general and inspired by Susan Wexler, my fellow Co-Chair, and her commitment to promoting composting as a way to recover food waster and process it into a valuable resource. The EIWG is playing a vital role in helping to educate farmers about the opportunities for food waste composting and expanding composting for residents and business in the County. The Food Council staff has provided excellent support for the EIWG and the recent event we held that brought together farmers and various stakeholders to brief them on new state regulations to advance composting was very successful and informative. I’m excited about working with the members of the EIWG and the Food Council, County staff and officials and others who are helping to promote more composting on a small and large scale level.

I will be working on helping establish the strategic direction of the EIWG and shaping the direction of our activities. I’ll also be focusing on identifying the various tasks that members can take on to contribute to our projects, such as researching and analyzing reports, attending key meetings, educating County staff and officials and the public. I’ll also be working with the Sierra Club and other organizations to enlist their support of our efforts.”

“I’d like for the EIWG to establish a solid understanding of the challenges and opportunities that we face as a County to expanding composting. Our members have learned a lot in the past few months about the potential for the farming community to increase their food waste composting and I want to continue to build our relationship with the farmers, County staff and others to help identify strategies that we can take action on to increase composting and the use of compost. I’d also like to expand and diversify the EIWG membership to include representatives of a variety communities in order to have a broad base of support for the projects we have set goals to accomplish. It would also be great if we could get support some more composting pilot programs that establish processing facilities, community composting and also expand backyard composting.”