Episode 019: “So I’m a product geek. I’m a stormwater geek. So I just like it when people are innovating and coming up with new solutions.” Dylan Drudul has worked on both sides of the figurative fence in stormwater. Dylan started his career on the regulatory side working for the City of Rockville, MD doing stormwater quality sampling. “I would go through the expo hall and see all these products, but I come back to my office, and I’m doing my inspections, and I’m not seeing these products in the field,”Dylan says. There were all these innovative products that he was seeing on the market, but they hadn’t made it through the local approval process so they weren’t being utilized. A lot of the older products that have existed for 30-40 years work, but there have been improvements that could push the industry to the next level.“Was there anything that really was a tipping point in any of your projects where you can think of that, that made a difference that you’d like to share?” asked host Ty Garmon. “Yeah, absolutely,” answers Dylan. “I mean, I think just the failures of our standard practices. Look at what we’re doing, here’s the status quo.” Dylan said he always felt like there was animosity between the regulatory community and the product development community. He didn’t understand why they couldn’t work together for the good of the industry. Sales is education. Product developers and their salespeople have to educate the construction and regulatory communities about what is available and the benefits these new products offer over how things have always been done.

Dylan is now on the product side of the stormwater industry. He is the Regional Business Manager of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast area of the country for Profile Products. Profile Products produce different hydromulches, which are a blanket alternative for erosion control of excavated areas. There’s this discussion around microplastics and concern around polypropylene and plastic base erosion control technology; we’re actually making an issue from solving another one. We are trying to make water better, keeping stuff out of the water, filtering stuff from the water, and those devices actually polluting the water with micro microplastics. Dylan says, “a big initiative I do nowadays, especially working for Profile and having 100% bio based all natural, biodegradable products… is really that push to try to remove that intentional introduction of plastics into our environment.” There are solutions that exist now to get the same level of performance that do not intentionally introduce polypropylene into the natural environment. “I read an article the other day that said, you actually consume about five grams of plastic every week, it’s a credit card. I mean, isn’t that wild to think that we’re eating that much and drinking and breathing that much plastic in on a weekly basis? It’s the next thing that we are really going to have to think about,” said Dylan.

Special mention of the IECA, International Erosion Control Association. Dylan and Ty have both served on their local IECA boards, and Dylan has also served on the international board. Find out more at: https://www.ieca.org/

Quotes:

• “So I’m a product geek. I’m a stormwater geek. So I just like it when people are innovating and coming up with new solutions.” (25:15 | Dylan)
• “There’s just a lot of stuff in our industry that’s been used for 30-40 years. And I’m not saying it’s, it doesn’t work, but it’s definitely been improved upon and can be improved upon further to just push our industry to the next level.” (2:37 | Dylan)
• “I always felt like there was this, this animosity between the regulatory community and the proprietary development products type community…Why can’t we all just work together to better this industry, and to move it forward?” (6:27 | Dylan)
• “I read an article the other day that said, you actually consume about five grams of plastic every week, it’s a credit card. I mean, isn’t that wild to think that we’re eating that much and drinking and breathing that much plastic in on a weekly basis? It’s the next thing that we are really going to have to think about.” (10:27 | Dylan)

The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.

Connect with Dylan Drudul, CPESC, CESSWI, CBLP:

http://linkedin.com/dylandrudul

ddrudul@profileproducts.com

Connect with Ty Garmon, LEED AP:

Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/

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