Bring on the customers- champions and skeptics!
February 27, 2019
We’re 4,000 samples of compost made with Loop® lighter and countless, enthusiastic conversations richer. Another Northwest Flower and Garden Show is in the books! King County WTD Resource Recovery’s Loop team has a booth at the show every year to tell the story of how we take King County’s poop and turn it into valuable, environmentally responsible products.
Come visit our booth next year- we’re always at 2412!
It takes a team
With the help of over 30 volunteers, we connected with thousands of gardeners from near and far to share the story of Loop and the recycling power of the King County wastewater treatment system. We couldn’t stock our bags of our Loop-based GroCo compost fast enough. Happy and curious customers surrounded our booth almost every second of the five-day show—“free compost” is a powerful attention-grabber at a garden show!
By the end of the show, we were even bagging up the compost in our display wheelbarrow so visitors wouldn’t leave the booth empty handed.
Gardeners love hearing about how we create high quality, pathogen-free compost from the wastewater treatment process.
Changing minds one compost sample at a time
Many visitors made a beeline for our booth, exclaiming over the size and beauty of their plants after using their sample bag of GroCo compost last year. Other show attendees were more apprehensive, but that was no problem for our volunteers. One first-time volunteer reflected:
“It was interesting and exciting to talk to “loop poop skeptics” about how safe the product is. It made me happy to see some people who were originally very skeptical walking away with a bag of compost.”
You can see the difference- kale grown with biosolids by our University of Washington partners is on the left!
Change is in the air (and soil)
Our vibrant, easy-to-understand displays and extensive infographics helped us convert several people who started out with a “yuck” face, and send them home with a bag of GroCo and some information! The crowd’s reaction to our product pleasantly surprised some long-time volunteers:
“I noticed a major sea change in people’s attitudes toward Loop biosolids since I last volunteered several years ago. This year, people had our number on their list of “must visit” booths to get samples. Even visitors who didn’t know about Loop and GroCo were curious to learn more. With a few facts in hand, they would compare biosolids reuse to common kinds of recycling, like composting food waste and chipping downed trees.”
Visitors were amused by our tagline “Turn your dirt around” and then impressed by how well it describes our product!
Five days of great conversations
Volunteers, old and new, gave the crowd an A+, saying:
“I had such a blast working with everyone and talking to people about Loop and GroCo–I learned so, so much myself too!”
“I thoroughly enjoyed my experience working the King County Loop Booth. The public response to the display was universally quite positive. Many were already using GroCo themselves, and a few told us they had taken wastewater treatment plant tours. Even non-locals knew about Loop, and saying they recognized us from the artwork on the trucks.”
Volunteers enjoyed chatting with such engaged visitors
The Flower and Garden Show runners, as well as show attendees, appreciated all our effort and presented us with an “Outstanding Educational Award”. Here’s to another great Flower and Garden Show—we’re already looking forward to next year. Happy planting!
