Random Run-in with the Recycling Guru

By Mark Sullivan

One chilly Friday afternoon, I walked out of Samson Center and right as I was about to take a bite of my veggie bagel sandwich, I ran into my good friend Max Perelman, an IEP student at MIIS. He looked at my sandwich and said to me, “Man, I’m starving, I haven’t eaten all day. You wanna go on a field trip?”

Five minutes later, Max, Kuni Takahashi (another IEP student from Japan), David Neidel (IEP Professor) and I were on the road to Monterey City Disposal (MCD), located off Highway 68 at Ryan Ranch.

In the car Max told me that he set up this field trip to inform students about what is recyclable because, he points out, “A LOT of the crap that we put into trash is recyclable.”

As we pulled into the Ryan Ranch site, we met up with another IEP student, Kelly Rector. She took us into the office, which was empty, except for a basket of leftover Halloween candy. A few minutes later in walked in a tall burly man with a hat. This was Jaime Gomez, the Recycling Supervisor.

As we walked around the site, he answered our questions and told us all about his operation. MCD is a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) that collects all recycle bins in the city of Monterey. After they are delivered to MCD they are sorted into recyclables and non-recyclables. Then they are processed in a number of machines and packaged into large cubes.

From there they are sent off by ship to China and Taiwan, where they are sold to recycling companies. They are “broken down” again, and then re-made into new products. Jaime noted that the whole process is a “cycle” because the end-products made in China or Taiwan are usually sent back to the United States.

Jaime has a staff of 14 workers and most come from Salinas. They work long hours, sometimes until 7 at night, and sometimes even on Saturday if they are behind. Jaime leads by example by waking up at 5 in the morning everyday to answer phone calls coming in from his buyers in China and Taiwan. He treats his employees well by providing them opportunities to develop upward – from produce pickers out in Salinas, to recycling sorter, to recycling truck driver. Furthermore, Jaime has learned to speak Spanish so he can talk with the employees and develop a better working relationship.

Workers hand-sort out the recyclable materials into separate bins. Each worker is assigned a different material (e.g. plastics), and grabs it off of the assembly line and tosses it behind them into a trash can. It’s a tough job and requires quick hands.

Max Perelman had nothing but good things to say about Jaime’s recycling operation: “The facility represents sustainability in all of its three parts - people, planet and profits. Jamie is a real entrepreneur who builds his own custom equipment and has eyes on expanding in the region. He really believes in what he's doing and tries to recycle everything he gets, whether he makes money on it or not. That has enabled him to achieve a 97% recycling rate while still providing a quality product to buyers.”

There are a number of recycling practices that would make Jaime’s and his workers life a little easier:

1 Put plastic bags and wrappers in a larger bag and tie it

2 Don’t include Styrofoam – it contaminates the other recyclable material

3 Make your recyclables as clean as possible (otherwise, the hand-sorters in the photo above have to clean the nasty guacamole out of your Trader Joe’s guacamole container)

4 When in doubt, recycle it!

Kuni noted that he was motivated to participate in this field trip because there are close to 30 different recycling bins on the MIIS campus. In truth, students just don’t know where to put their recyclable material. We agreed on our field trip that there needs to be more integration among the Greening Initiatives on campus. Groups such as the Environmental Task Force and The President’s Task Force need to work together to provide more uniform recycle bins that make it convenient to recycle.

Max will continue to raise awareness about the importance of recycling by leading field trips to MCD with students from Robert Louis Stevenson High School. In addition, he is adamant about banning styrofoam in Monterey. He notes, “When you get your jumbo smoothie at Jamba Juice, ask why they use Styrofoam. Try to bring your own mug and have them fill that instead - if the coffee shops allow it so should Jamba Juice.”

As for me, I was simply amazed to see students taking action and educating themselves about local environmental issues. Admittedly, the trip was a “kick in the butt” because oftentimes I am too lazy to recycle my empty Diet Coke cans. It was also a great learning experience to finally know that when I choose to recycle my Diet Coke can it will actually be recycled, broken down, sorted, processed, packaged, shipped to China, broken down again into smaller pieces, and then manufactured into another Diet Coke can.

After we finished up our tour of the MCD facility, I drank the last drop of my Vitamin Water. Standing at the edge of a large pile of recyclables, I asked Jaime, “Can I throw this bottle in there?” He nodded ‘yes,’ and I tossed it in there feeling 100% confident that the bottle would be recycled.

Staring at the large pile of recyclables that have yet to be sorted and processed. My Vitamin Water is in there somewhere.

To learn more about Monterey City Disposal, or to schedule a visit, please contact:
Jaime Gomez
Recycle Supervisor
10 Ryan Ranch Rd.
Monterey, CA 93940
(831) 372-7977
Jaime@montereydisposal.com
Website: www.montereydisposal.com