Born Scrappy
The go-to podcast for scrap metal exporters and traders
Born Scrappy
Inspiring the next generation of recyclers with Scuba Jess
In this week’s episode I chat to Jessica Alexanderson, known to many in the industry as “Scuba Jess”. Jess started out in shipping with Evergreen, where she was responsible for helping scrappies ship their recycled metal around the world. In her free time, Jess cleans up the ocean on her diving expeditions.
Jess has always been passionate about the environment and when the opportunity presented itself, she transitioned into educating the net generation of recyclers. She partnered with Brad Rudover of Detroit Scrap and educator Shaziya Manji Jaffer to publish their first kids book, The Girl Who Recycled A Million Cans.
They have since published a second book, A Recycling Adventure To The Scrapyard, and are about to publish their third kids book on recycling, Recycled Lava.
Just this week Jess launched an NGO, The Recycling Society, to help students learn how recycling works, raise funds for their schools, and take real action to create lasting impact in their schools and communities.
Jess’ mission is one that every single scrappy can get behind, and if you don’t know about all the great work she is already doing, I hope that after listening to this episode that you buy in hook, line and sinker!
If you ever see Jess at an industry event, you absolutely have to meet her in person. She is a ray of sunshine and brings exactly the energy and enthusiasm we need to inspire the next generation!
In this episode, we talk about:
👉 Teaching the next generation
👉 The 2 million cans contest
👉 heavy metal elementary
👉 The recycling society
👉 Recycled Lava
👉 And more!
Listen to the full episode. Wherever you stream your podcasts.
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WHO IS STU KAGAN ANYWAYS?
26 years in the metal recycling game and still learning and growing...
I learnt from the best and worked my way up from yard labourer to Executive Director of Trading and Operations for the largest metal recycler in sub-Saharan Africa. Responsible for 4,500 employees, 85 sites, and the overall profitability of a multi-billion dollar operation.
I brought my breadth and depth of knowledge to bear and co-founded the fastest growing, most-loved, and most awarded metal recycling company in New Zealand. No small feat in a country where people are outnumbered 4:1 by sheep (spoiler alert: sheep don’t produce much metal waste).
I thought it was time that tech worked for our industry, so I took all of my experience as an operator and trader and leveraged that to build THE killer scrap app, Buddy. That’s right - built for scrappies, by scrappies.
Father of two crazy-awesome boys. Husband to Lisa. Under 9 rugby coach. YPO member. Lifelong learner. Mentee. Mentor. Chief dog walker. Committed Stoic. Undefeated dance-off champion.
COME SAY HI ON LINKEDIN
Hi, I'm Stu Kagan and welcome to Born Scrappy, the podcast for scrap metal exporters and traders. Join me in conversation with some of the most experienced traders and operators that have helped shape this incredible industry. In today's special Earth Week episode, I chat with Jessica Alex Anderson, better known as Scuba Jess. Jess is the author at Recycling is like Magic, where they educate children about the vital role of metal recycling through kids books and stories. She's also very recently founded a nonprofit called Recycling Society. In today's episode, we talk about teaching the next generation recycled larva. The 2 million can contest the new NGO heavy metal elementary and so much more. So let's jump into it with scuba, Jess, but first intro. Hi, Jess. Welcome Toby. Thanks So. It's gonna be lots of fun. We always see each other at every conference. I've, uh, I, I flew out and visited you at one stage in Seattle. You took me for an awesome breakfast. Um, so it's about time we've had you on the show and, uh, just get to hear the exciting stuff you've been working on. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I, it's gonna be great to catch up and I hope you can come up to Seattle visit again soon. That was so much fun. Yeah. Spring. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so number one, it's Earth Day, right? So now this is exciting. This is like Earth Month. This is coming out on Earth Day. So, you know, we thought who better to speak to on Earth Day, you know, than scuba, Jess. So, um, let's, let's jump into it and just understand, I mean, earth Day is a special day for you, right? It, it's, it's the one day of the year that people actually care about the planet, which is sad because they should care every day of the year. But, um, it's the day that everybody kind of gets together and celebrates our planet, which is fantastic. And I also have a really amazing announcement today. Um, I actually finally started a nonprofit called The Recycling Society, and we're launching it today on Earth Day. So April 22nd, 2025. Mark this on your calendar as the day things are happening. Um, you know, you don't even like build up for anything. You jump straight into it, like, lemme ask some questions. You know, earth Day's Night, you're looking forward to Earth Day. But I mean, now that the episode's over, because we've announced the news. So, uh, it was lovely having you and we can go now. Thanks. Oh, actually, I guess I can tell I'm actually doing on Earth. I'll be underwater. That's why I to tell now. I'm gonna be underwater up in Campbell River, Canada, on Vancouver Island, and um, it's like some of the best of the year. So we're actually gonna be doing some exploratory diving near Seymour Narrows, which has some of the fastest current in the world. Um, but it's gonna be nice. And so I'll be underwater on Earth Day, so I'm glad that you're helping me get the word out. So, okay. Let's, some people have switched on and going like. What the heck just happened. So let's tell them a little bit about your background. How are you involved in metal recycling? How did you get involved in metal recycling? Like let's start there. Good call. Sorry I jumped all over the place so I um, no, this is fine. Ever been shipping for 15 years? So if you ever see the big, huge green ships, big green containers, Taiwanese company, that was my first job outta college. Uh, I went to University of Utah and I graduated, um, in international studies and I minored in Japanese and Asian studies. So I've always been interested in how the world works. I love traveling, travel, love going all the places. And I'm like, I'm gonna work at Evergreen. They have offices in almost every country in the world. This is gonna be great. And then actually I ended up being in an office typing bill of Laings all day and making bookings on container ships. And my containers were traveling the world all day, but I was stuck in the office. And, um, but I love Evergreen because they was actually sent me out to Seattle and um, for the first time ever, and I actually gotta go down to the Port of Tacoma and go on one of the big ships. See how they load it, unload. It was just amazing. It was like life changing and I gotta go to Seattle Mariners game and see E two Row, my favorite player. Um, and I just fell in love with Seattle. I loved it. And so, um, all the trees and the water, beautiful whole office of Utah where it's like mountains and desert. Um, so I asked to transfer and I transferred up to the Bellevue office and six months later they closed Salt Lake office down. So I was really lucky. 2008 thing, crash burned. Um, and yeah, so I, that's kind of how I got into the. Recycling, uh, partially is because the number three exports out of the US are plastic, scrap paper, scrap of metal scrap. And I was more on the export side, so I was shipping like thousands and thousands of containers of scrap metal. Um, and I was typing in Bill Laings, but I didn't really know like what that meant. Scrap metal, like different commodities, um, like coppers inside or aluminum. Like I knew what obviously what metal was, but I didn't really think about it, like these were shredded cars or old cans or the things that were actually in there. And that's how I met Brad Ru over. So he's my business partner now and he owns Detroit Scrap at Scrap University and he was always one of my favorite customers because he never yelled at me. It was very, very rare. So people are always freaking out. Uh, we got our shit stuck in the Sue US Canal. I was there for that. I dunno if you remember the mees that came outta that were amazing that for safety or not the ever given. Um. I do, I was stuck in the Sue Canal and they have like awesome towers and they're like driving back and forth. Yeah. Thousand point turns. Yeah. And everybody knew I was a diver, so they're like, yes, go out there, you can push a ship. I'm like, yeah, I'll get rid all that. Um, so at that stage, are you then, you now with Brad, did you join Detroit Scrap? Uh, so I left Evergreen after 15 years. January of 2022. Uh, it was right after Covid, the whole world broke. And I called Brad one day and I was like, Hey, are you hiring? And he is like, uh, hire you in a second to my shipping department, but is that what you wanna do with your life? And I'm like, no, I've done that for 15 years. I'm so sick of shipping. I wanna do something to help the oceans and help the planet. And I'm a scuba diver and I always do these cleanup dives and I put all of my trash out on his by the aquar little kids. And so I love to show kids in the ocean. I want a job that has nothing to do with your company, and I think it has to start kids, and I want it to be about how we can help the planet. And he's like, okay, well this is perfect because I have two daughters, Ellie and Lexi, they were six and three at the time, and he had this story idea already on paper with his best friends by Shazia for the girl, recycle a million can. And so he's like. Uh, we decided to teach kids about metal recycling and focus on all the positives of metal and how metal is magical. And it could be recycled forever. And if you take it to a local scrapyard, they'll pay for it. Uh, yeah. So we decided to start writing kids books. I mean, that is, that is so cool. I, I love Brad. Brad's so cool. Like that is just, um, that's real value like for Brad to say to you, okay, brilliant. You are gonna come on now and not even be involved in the recycling side of things. You up. Things for kids and instead of, what did he say? A kid's division? A kid's division. We're gonna start a kids division of his, um, because he has scrap university was like a class for adults in metal recycling that anybody can take anywhere in the world on his, on the computer. You log in, you learn about all the different metals that come into a scrap yard, how to upgrade them, sort them properly. It's an amazing training class. And so he's like, you're gonna start a kids division. So we call, we started by calling it scrap University kids because it's the kids. But then we, uh, we recently rebranded and decided to change the name to recycling as like magic, just because it's a little bit more fun and I'm calling schools all over the place and they don't really know what scrap it. They don't really even know what scrap metal is or scrap. And so recycling is like magic, just a little bit more, uh. I remember when you first, I mean, when we first were introduced to you and like we got the books and we took them to New Zealand and we, I remember reading with my kids and it's just unbelievable. Um, the journey that you've been on and the value that you brought to so many people. Let's talk about more value and the future of the value you're gonna bring because it doesn't stop on the first book. Then there's a second book and it doesn't stop. Yeah, there's the second book exactly. Yeah, so the first book's all about cans. Ellie loves unicorns. She decides she wants to buy a unicorn with the money from the metal, uh, from the cans she recycles because she gets paid for her cans. And in the second book we're like, okay, you know about your cans, but where do you actually bring your cans if you wanna get paid for them? Unfortunately, most of the states in the, in the US don't have a deposit, so you can't just go, like, in Michigan, you get 10 cents a can. Super easy, but if like you're in Utah or Washington state, you have to take the scrapyard. And so we teach the kids when you're gonna, the scrapyard, um, obviously bring your cans, but bring all your other metal items that are getting thrown in the garbage, like your Christmas lights and your wires and your pots and cans and your barbecues. And so, uh, Elliot and her friends, they learn the difference between Ferris and Non Ferris and they, uh, we teach kids to go around the house with magnets and just test everything out. So we have a little. Non section in book two and, uh, all sorts of fun stuff happens. Unfortunately, dad's dad had a bad day and his down at the scrap, but luckily had so actually shred his and teach the kids about how you. How everything has metal inside and so never ever throw on the garbage. And, um, yeah. And then we're almost done with our third book. Yeah. Yeah. Let's, let's announce that. So, so what's book three called and where are we? When is it coming out? Okay, so have some secret sneak, peak artwork here. It's called Recycled Lava, and I shoulda page, um. Oh shoot. Well cover in going to the factory and we're, uh, comparing. And the m metal that comes out volcanoes to the mulch metal, um, or the melting process at, uh, Newport in Seattle. I actually gotta take a tour of the melting facility. So this is kind like the opening page that I, I love that. Um, has learning lessons in the book, geography, history, recycling, volcanoes, construction science. And then we have Mr. Mag marshmallow. Oh, when are we expecting this out? Uh, this is kind of like we're almost done with the final rough draft here, and I'm waiting to get a couple more approvals from some people that we might have in the book. Um, I randomly reached out to Hawaiian Airlines. We have a scene where the kids and the family were just in Hawaii learning about volcanoes, and now they're flying back home to Seattle. Um, and so we put little airplane and they're flying home on the plane. So if I can get approval from them, then we'll put their logo and them in. We'll spot that out. But, um, here they are flying on the plane, so they're in Hawaii and then they come over to Seattle. So, so incorporate some like real live companies in so kids and learn about like real companies, just like. Uh, here's the cover. So, so the likes of like, um, an airline company, Uhhuh, would they promote it then if they, they were in it? Like, would, could you get them to promote it? That's kind of what we're, we're hoping for. Or at least like, um, if we put them in the book, like, I mean, it's a long flight. It'd be great for kids to read the book on the airplane and learn about recycling while they're headed to Hawaii headed home. Uh, so that would be amazing. And then also we featured the, uh, Seattle skyline and it has the Space Needle. So I actually reached out to the Space Needle in Seattle, which is like one of my favorite places in the world. And the lady from the marketing team there likes the book and she says that it gets approved and they might even sell it in the Space Needle gift shop, which would be really cool. Uh, so I'm working on this kind of crazy random stuff over here, but, um, doesn't what? Are they in it again? Okay. So I was gonna ask you that. Yeah. But let's just, you talk about Aiming High, you know, book one had Pearl Jam in it. Yeah. Pearl Jam. So she's got little Ellie's wearing her little alive Pearl Jam shirt. Yes. Yeah. And you guys got approval from the band to actually do that? Yeah. It was pretty amazing. So we actually autographed copies of our book for like Eddie Ve and the whole band, and sent it down to them. And, uh, yeah, they, they approved us using their logo in the book if, um, and they had us donate some money to a charity for young authors in Seattle. Um, and then they let us use their, their logo and license for the licensing fee and stuff. So it's pretty amazing that this, because we're in Seattle and we're like, Hey, pro Jam. You're in Seattle. We're in Seattle. Let's be friends. Yeah. As everybody does, obviously. Yeah. Right. So what about if you're a company, like you said, cbo, right? What happens if you're a company and maybe I make shredders? If I wanted to be in that book, like what can I do? Yeah. Or if I'm a, if I own a scrap yard metal recycling facility, like what, how do I get, get my name in, uh, that, um. The sponsors wanna be in our books. We have them order a minimum of a thousand books to give out to their customers, friends, people in the company just help us with our artwork and our printing chart and all that and stuff. But yeah, if they wanna order some books, okay, uh, we'll throw their logo in there and, um, help, they can help us promote it and everything. Um, and then people can also, um. If they wanna also be in our cartoons, we have a new cartoon series so they can also get to the cartoons to be event. Yeah, we're gonna get to the cartoons. Yeah. But I wanted just ask about the book. So, so you're saying that even for book three, if somebody orders a thousand books upfront, we can get our brand or our name inside that book? Uh, yeah. As. Like going along with the storyline. It's not just like some weird random thing, obviously, like it has to kind of flow with the story. But we actually have a Resnick graphite in here. Uh, they make the graphite that goes in the electric arc furnace that like electrocutes the metal to melt it. And so Resnick is in here. And then, uh, we also have new core steel. So, uh, we have a lot of, we have a lot of sponsors on this book, which is amazing. Like so much support's been really cool. Yeah, that, that's awesome. And, and it just basically allows you to go further, um, carry on, making new books, adding to the series, getting it out to more people like I. Thousand books even without their name on it, right? Like, I mean, if you are in an area, you know you should be buying a thousand. I'm talking to the companies now, owners of company, buy a thousand books, get it into all the schools in your area, get it into the libraries, and get it to as many, many places as possible. So the kids start learning about what we do in this industry. Yeah, that's, I agree with that. I mean, the, I feel like metal recycling really gets overlooked by, um, like schools and kids never really learn this information as kids, which is so important. It's like the easiest way to help our planet is by recycling your cans. It's like 95% less energy to make a can of recycle aluminum, but they don't really talk about that school. And so, um, so we're trying to make it like fun and easy and like give all of these tools that anybody can use to teach kids in their lives. Like they can, you can go read at the library, you can go read at your local school. Donate books to the, the Boys and Girls Clubs. Just so many opportunities out there to help get this word out. You can do like little mini competitions. Um, I have four boys and girls clubs locations in Tacoma right now, um, that I teamed up with. Radius Recycling and the four locations are, um, competing for the whole month of April to see which location we'll recycle in cans. Uh, I wanna stop for a second because we have the 2 million can contest. Talk us through, how did that come about? How is it going and what's the plan for the future? Uh, it's been pretty amazing. So about last year, um, manufacturers Institute, CMI in Washington, their trade association. They reached out. They're a huge, they represent like all the largest aluminum companies, novellas, Tris, Constellium, our dog, um, Voss, just all these huge, amazing companies plus the paint companies like TPG and Sherwin Williams that make the coating and paint on the cans. Um, they saw my posts actually about Pearl Jam, uh, Knight at the Mariners Stadium. And I just posted on LinkedIn about how I love the Mariners, uh, safe, fulfilled back then because it's so green and can everywhere, everything's compostables. Everything was like this and the lady post. What's this book about? So we connected and they decided they wanted to help sponsor a contest. So we started with eight elementary schools all across the US and we focused on the lowest recycling rate states first in, um, schools, in areas of the country that don't have access to curbside recycling. So we're mostly getting thrown in the garbage and, um. I had this crazy idea. I'm like, why don't we team up the school with a local scrap yard so the kids can just bring cans to school on the school bus? Or when parents are dropping off their kids, they could just drop off a bag of cans at the same time. Um, because a lot of people dunno where the scrap yard is, or never even heard of the scrap yard. They know where to bring their cans. And so, um, those eight schools, uh, it was a success from, uh, it went from November through May. They recycled 1.3 million cams. Our school in Waco, Texas had almost the most cans, the most can almost. Uh, yeah. So that was fantastic. And so then CMI was like, okay, it worked really well the first year. Let's expand and do it again. So we decided to call the 2 million cans contest, uh, and we expanded to 18 schools all across the US and currently West Virginia's in first place. And I wanted West Virginia so bad in this contest because they're the worst in the us. Um, at 6% of recycling can. Wow. For a second, just for, just so we understand, any listeners listening. You said 6% of the aluminum cans in West Virginia are recycled. I'm not great with mats, but I'm gonna say that's 94% that is not recycled. Going right into the trash can. And so crazy when I Crazy. Insane, right? Isn't it so sad? It like breaks my heart. It's like, wow. Uh, but I talked to the principal and she said you could drive for hours in any direction and never find a bin. It just doesn't exist. She's at in. Um, and the closest scrap yard, um, RJ recycling hour. And so when the teacher said, yes, we wanna do it, I was like having such a hard time finding a scrap yard that'd be willing to drive an hour to this tiny little school. Um. But the school, it's just been amazing. They only have 19 third graders. They have a hundred students total at the entire school. It's this tiny town in the middle of nowhere. And, um, she said that, and they're leading right now. They're leading, they're leading the contest. Wow. Yes. So they're in first place. They have 5,176 cans per student. Um, they need a new playground. And so the principal's like, we're gonna to redo our playground. And they, the word out community, everybody know. Take my cans, I'm helping a kid get a playground like this is exciting. And so they been bombard with can they have really massive roll off and it's always overflowing, um, because there's no other options to recycle your cans in that town. This is the only place it's at the school. And so it's just really cool to see it working. And so, yeah, they have. Three 50 cans right now, they're in first place and so I'm pretty sure they're gonna get the first place prize, which is 3000, and then they keep a hundred percent of the money from the cans they recycle. Um, and I asked all the scrapers for a minimum of 50 cents a pound. So if you do the math, 35 cans for a pound's, basically 70 cans for a dollar. So, um, hopefully they'll get a nice. It's not gonna be a huge chunk of change, but it, it all adds up over time. And for these schools, um, they, they really need the money. And so instead of like going around selling chocolate bars and wrapping paper and stuff, this is like a really easy fundraiser, but it's in reverse. Instead of people changing, like they don't really to change any of their habits except for what they actually do with the can when they're done with it. So what, um, on, in total, at the moment. How far are we? So we started October 1st and the contest runs end of April. April. We now at one 70, broke million. The other day I haven't announced. Um, and in this contest. Um, and then overall, if you add up all the cans from last year, this year, and I'm also doing a little contestation for another 18 schools. Um. That's incredible. How do we get the, the scrap yards and the middle recyclers to start competing too? It's like, I wanna get, I love that. All the school area, all the schools in my area. I wanna recycle more through schools than, you know, another scrap yard, another middle recycler, well, not even like in another town, like how can you run like the town competition? We have one scrappy on each town who, who runs all the schools and make sure it all comes into them. I mean, I would love that to get it even more competitive, I actually reached out to Rema, um, the like Metals Association to see if, like they have a, um, educational outreach section on their website and it goes to Jason Learning, which is like this amazing program that schools can use to learn about so many things, but it's not like a contest. And so I asked if maybe they could put a little thing and have scrap yards around the US sign up if they wanna help. A local school. Um, but I have amazing scrap yards right now helping me. I have alter trading, I have SA recycling, I have some little scrap yards. Um, the one in Illinois has the best name, big Daddy scrap. I have two locations in Illinois with them. Um, and, but I think you should tell us who's winning SA or alter, who's winning, who's got more cans, and let's get them to start competing with each other's it themselves to more schools. Yeah, well, SAS been helping me a lot because, um, for the, this 18 schools with, um, CMI, they have, uh, four locations for sa that's helping me. And then I only have the one altar in St. Louis, but hopefully next year altar will do more. Um, but then for the contest I'm doing for the ball can do challenge. Um, SA Recycling has the entire school district Bowling Green, so. For she right now. But, uh, I would love to make it even more competitive next year, like scraper versus like, I like how the sap uh, race team, like, I think it was like, and OmniSource or something were like racing at the NASCAR race and I'm like, we should have that for my, so, so what, what's the plan for next year? Like, what happens after April? So sorry. So I guess I. And, um, I wanna get at least three schools in each state so we can have a state champion and then a regional champion and a national champion, just to make it a little bit more competitive for the, like, the schools in the state so that there's more prizes. Because right now I have 18 schools, but there's only three prizes like for second, third, and then I feel bad for the rest. Um, but they do have fun incentives. Um, if they get up to 75,000 cans. Or when they get to 75,000 cans, the third graders all get a pizza party. So five of my schools have had their 75,000 can pizza party, and if they get up to 150,000 cans, they get a 500 bonus. So there's like school incentives to keep them motivated, all school year long. Cool. Um, and then as sponsors wanna help out, like the scrap yard, like I think it'd be amazing. They're already donating their time and their trucking in the bin, which is a, so. Essay, sending them the checks for, I'll just say thousand dollars, like, we wanna double that, or something like that. That could be fun. Um, so, so you've got a not-for-profit starting in the next few months? Um, yes. And are you then gonna be approaching everybody? Are you approaching metal recyclers? Like how are you gonna roll that out? Yeah, so well, this is gonna be the rollout on Earth Day, but where all of our board members are gonna update their profiles today, saying that they're now a board member of the Recycling Society. And we have an amazing board. I found some really awesome people to help me out. You have to tell us. Um, and so anybody can go on to recycling society.org and donate. Um. They could donate now, but unfortunately I can't give out the tax receipt yet. I have to wait for the IRS to approve my letter. And, um, like half IRS just got fired, so I'm not sure when it's gonna get approved. Can you tell us who's contest starts? Can you tell us who's on the board of directors? Yes, I will tell you So, um, our amazing president is Mr. Andrew Hyde from, and then our vice president, somebody that you know and. From America in Tennessee, and she's a wonderful lady. Uh, she, I met her at the Isri Show in Nashville a couple years ago, and she just took me around the whole, I've never been to Nashville before. She gave me the whole four. She's fantastic. And her company makes the aluminum foil for the Hershey kiss wrappers and. They do all sorts of other aluminum products. They don't do cans, but um, they do all the other aluminum. And then I have the amazing Jenny, um, I'm not even gonna pronounce her last name. She's from Broda, the Netherlands, and she works for, uh, tri packaging or she works there. Um, and she's just a wonderful lady. And I actually got to meet her in Seattle with her kids. She, uh, her family came out here for a wedding of their nanny and. We just have the best time and slowly hit it off. Um, and then I have Christie Longdon, who's a fellow scuba diver, um, here in, uh, she lives about an hour north of me, so it's nice to have somebody on the board close by and she's, um, really into doing presentations at schools and libraries and she'll, uh, so she's like perfect on the education side. And then my other best friend Lindsey, uh, Lindsey Kelly that I met back in 2003. She's my Will Nelson buddy. Um, she's our fundraising director and then we have from the aluminum Oh, brilliant. Uh, Phoenix. I think you guy such amazing on our board and. Uh, Zach is fantastic. He's our treasurer, and then obviously the dude, Brad, whatever. So yeah, I was wondering where Brad was. Um, he always wants to go last, and I'm like, okay, Brad, he's our metal recycling wizard in our books. Brad is the wizard, but you never see his full face. You just see like the hat, the wizard hat hiding behind a pile of scrap metal. Um, so that's our board. Tell me about the cartoons that you've been working on because there's some amazing animation and what, is there a YouTube series as well coming, or what have we got? Talk me through it. Yeah, thank you. So, uh, our cartoon came out a couple months ago. It's called Heavy Metal Elementary, and it's all of the characters from our books, Ellie and her Friends, and Gall Mar Unicorn, and they are metal recycling superheroes and they go to Heavy Metal Elementary in Seattle. And, um, the basis of the show is that they go, if there, there's anybody littering or people throwing metal in the garbage, they have like a run alert almost, and they get on their magic bus and they fly over there and they teach the kids about recycling and not throwing the trash in the garbage. Um, and so the first episode is kind of like a pile episode where we kind of go through the whole process of how the metal gets collected and you bring it to Radius recycling to recycle it and it has the ice scrap app. So you can figure out like where your scrap yard is closest to you. Um, and then it shows the whole melting process and everything. And we teach the kids like, if you don't throw this can in the garbage, it could be a bicycle, it could be a car, like just so many different things. Um, but for future episodes we are looking for sponsors to help and we wanna do, we wanna do all 50 states eventually, but we would love to feature. A real life company in that state, like so either a metal recycler or somebody in manufacturing that wants to show kids about their company and the kids will go on and visit that company. And then we also wanna show like a historical landmark in the state. Something made out of metal like the Statue of Liberty or the State Louis Arch. Um, and then feature a local band or like a big band in that state. So kids are learning about. Real life companies in their state and like music and just make it really fun and entertaining. There'll be short little episodes because kids don't have a long attention span. Um, and our really amazing, um, animation team and friends at Fungi Media in Chicago are the ones that do all of the, um, the animation work for us. They did a great job. So I really hope we can do more episodes. I would love to do a scuba clean up the ocean cartoon episode, um, and just have like all our local, like animated and have going by, uh, so day. Those, those episodes take longer to make those. So we might of course, be able to do like maybe four episodes in a year. Uh, it's a little, it's a lot, a lot slower with the animation than just making the books is a little easier. And if a company is in a, a Texan company wants to do one, you know, in the States, what do they do? They reach out to you. But what have they got? How much is there a big out they have capital. Uh, yeah, it's, it's definitely more expensive than the books. The animation is pretty, uh, pretty pricey, but they can reach out to me, email me, and I can send over a rate card of how much, and we we're looking for like, maybe three sponsors per state so the kids can visit, like, or learn about three companies in that state. So that'll help kind of break up the prices. Um, but yeah, animation is a lot more, uh, expensive these days whenever they watch. It's pretty cool to see. I think the idea is, you know, people can get a hold of you if they are interested. Yeah. In doing that For their, for their area. For area. Yeah. You're gonna be building a whole series. Will this be like a series? Um, yeah. That you'll be trying to get on? You know, it's on YouTube at the moment, but is there somewhere else you'll try and get it? I mean, if one of the big companies wants to take it on, take it on like, like Disney or, uh, Nickelodeon or any like Netflix, I don't know. I mean, we'd totally be open for that. So I just dunno how to get in touch with those big guys right now. Even, or like, you know, they have Sesame Street, they should have like. Come on and yeah, just we want it to be very fun and informative. Um, but right now it's just free on YouTube so teachers can watch anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world. Like I just have somebody from Reach Out, I'm like, here's a link. You can watch my cartoon. And that's awesome. Uh, yeah, so it's pretty fun. Jess, you mentioned something about Pittsburgh, um, recently, what happened in Pittsburgh? Oh my gosh, it was so fun. Um, so March 18th was Global Sustainability Day and the Pittsburgh Penguin Hockey team, it, they play at the PPG Paint Arena in Pittsburgh and PPG is one of the members of CMI. And so they're one of the sponsors that, I have two schools in the Pittsburgh area, so, um. G sponsors, um, ECS, environmental Charter School. And so we went over to the school, I flew out to Pittsburgh and we had a big, huge rally with all the second graders at the school and the Pittsburgh Penguin mascot, his name's Iceberg, the big penguin guy. He came to the school and, uh, we, we just taught the kids all about metal recycling. We had them all take the pledge. Teach about how they make the can. And then my friend Christine from Mon Recycling was there and she taught what they at the process, um, and had parade with Penguin. So that was fun. And then we all got to go to the hockey game that night. Um, and before the game started, there was a sustainability summit. So there was like, uh, members from like a hundred local companies in Pittsburgh that were all into sustainability. And it was like a really cool conference. And then they had me go downstairs. Before the game start and I got to ride the Zamboni, and this is like my first ever NHL game. I've never even been like, I've been to minor league hockey and it was so amazing. And so I was like on this big Zamboni while they were cleaning the ice before the game started. We were like going in circles. It was so much fun. But I've never been in a parade before and I'm like, I was like waving. I'm like, like, I didn't know what to do. Um, and then they, they had me come over to like the TV and like yell out like really my loudest voice ever, which I'm like, nobody wants to hear this. It's the hockey night in Pittsburgh to start the game. And so it was me and two of the kids from the school and the teacher, and it was just so much fun. And then all of the, the second graders from the school were there at the hockey game and they kept showing them on the screen and they were having the best time ever. So. Unfortunately the ping was lost that game, but like it was still, uh, fantastic. And then, um, they actually donated all of the cans and aluminum cups from the game to the school. Uh, awesome for that one. Game's worth, but I don't have the yet. So excited. See what they got. That's obviously, you know, we've got San Diego, the show, the Rema show coming up in just under a month now, and you'll be on stage. I. Talk me through what you're gonna be doing on stage and what people will here and also most excited about, um, for that week in San Diego. Oh my gosh, I'm real. We have the best time ever. Um, and, um. I'm so lucky I get to be on a panel with him from Shapiro. He's one of my favorite people, and he invited me to be on his storytelling panel. And so I was gonna tell stories about like the success we've had with the canned contest and the books and just teaching kids and how it, how it's all working. Um, and I love the fact that it's storytelling since we write kids books and we love to tell stories here. Um, and then we. I just wanna interact with people and just try to get more sponsors and help expand the contest in, in the upcoming years. And then I'm just also, yeah, I'm again, in real life. Um, have a dinner with some my board members, which would. While I'm down there, because I haven't ever done San Diego before, so I'm really excited about that. Look, I don't dunno where you'll find the time. Oh, thanks. Thanks Jess. Um, I, I don't know where you'll find the time because those few days are absolutely manic. So I just hope you plan an extra day on one of the sides before or after, because you know we're not gonna get away while we're there. Definitely, I think I'm gonna go in a little early and dive before the conference, so I don't like get too exhausted. Because you don't wanna dive when you're like really tired. Yeah. So I might dive and then, and then do the contest. Plus you can't fly, you can't dive and then fly on an airplane. Um, you have to do it reverse. So I fly and then dive and then decompress at, at rema. Yeah. Decompress. Rema said nobody ever decompress after. That's also true. Yeah. But I'll be offing the nitrogen. Jess, um, look, we're running outta time. This is lots of fun. But who would you, if you could, anybody on Scrappy, who do you think I should have on next? I. I don't know if you've ever had talked to Rosa before, um, from Grand America, but she's amazing. Mm, awesome. I think basically my board members, they're all cool. All your board members Of course. And we'll do 20 minutes about the not-for-profit. Yeah. Let's do talk so much before we go because we do and chatting to, but before we go, we need ask you our. Favorite. Star Trek, the original series. Um, I do love all of the Star Trek though, but Perkins fuck, that's what I grew up watching with my dad. Uh, my parents are big Trekkies and my dad had'em all on beta as kids. So every night after dinner we pick a Star Trek episode. And so, uh, star Trek my favorite, and you're not actually that old, that when you were a child they used beta. You actually, they just had a beta one because you're, you're much younger than me. I was super young when beta was being used. Those beta tapes are, uh, old one. Uh, I'm 42 now, so, uh, but no, my dad was a big trek when Star Trek was out. Um, and so when he was, when they started coming out, my dad's a collector, so he has them all. But it was just fun, I think for kids because it was like mini tapes. Yeah, yeah, I remember. And he still has it, it still works. So that's good. Technology's amazing. It's pretty impressive. Our kids wouldn't any idea what to. I know, right? Yeah. Okay, so, um, favorite place to visit? Oh, gee, that's a good one. Uh, Fort Hardy on the very northern tip of Vancouver Island. My favorite place to go scuba diving. Um, most amazing sea creatures in the world. Epic. Just walls covered in life. And it's out in the middle of nowhere on the top of the island, but it's just beautiful. Trees. Trees for days. Bald eagles everywhere. Otters it. That sounds amazing. Favorite book? Favorite book? The Girl Recycle 1 million Cans. Oh, obviously, what a silly question. She's just that question. Kidding. Um, I just got, I also just got this book. I actually haven't read it yet, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be my new favorite. It's, um, from Gary Lightbody, the lead singer of Snow Patrol, which is my favorite band, and it's, um, a new book that he wrote about losing his father. Um, and yeah, I'm really looking forward to reading it, but I know I'm gonna be bawling the whole time, so I haven't done it yet. Yes. What's it called? The forest in the park? Yeah, the forest is the Path, which is the same name as their newest album that just came out and I actually just gotta see them in Seattle like two weeks ago. And my sister saw them. My little sister moved to Dublin, Ireland and she saw Snow Patrol a couple weeks ago. So this book's not even released yet. Um, in the US not doesn't come out till September. And she got me an autograph. You're into scrap. What's your favorite quote? Oh, my favorite quote, yeah. Uh, is from Star Trek, live Long and Prosper. I thought you were asking my favorite medal, which I'll tell you though you didn't ask. Okay. Tell me your favorite medal. It's yeah, lead, which I don't think you would've expected that, but screw never. I need the, my and all of that. So I 34 pounds of lead, so is my favorite. Jess, this has been lots of fun. Thank you so much for being on Scrappy. Thank you.
