We met at “JOE’S PLACE” – better known as RethinkWaste’s new main offices in San
Carlos. Joe La Mariana, our long-time Rotarian, is the Executive Director with a staff of 16 employees.
We had a great turnout and were accompanied by San Mateo Rotarians as well as spouses and friends. RethinkWaste supplied the “make-it-yourself” lunch as we all took our seats for some fellowship time.
Joe did a wonderful presentation of the overall operation of the recycling facility and the new offices for RethinkWaste. The following is a brief summary of the main points:
• RethinkWaste is the Public Agency that hires Recology and owns the recycling facility. They have just relocated the offices to San Carlos Avenue which contains state of the art meeting facilities and offices. It was completed in record time. The staff at the offices do solid waste program planning and compliance reporting; system budget and contract management; management of operational contractors (Recology and SBI), facility maintenance management and long-term capital project planning.
• Much time and effort is spent on public outreach and education including many
children’s tours and award programs. Joe hopes to make it a world- class education facility about waste and the recycling message.
• Their 100 square mile service areas run from Burlingame to East Palo Alto and serve 420,000 residents and 11,000 businesses/multifamily dwellings.
• RethinkWaste contracts with Recology to collection solid waste, recycling and compost materials and SBI to run transfer station collections and the recycling facility operations. There are 265 collector workers in the field, and 120 workers in the 2-building recycling facility. Recology is a 100% employee- owned company!
The biggest challenge is moving the waste every day to make way for the next day’s loads. Over 600 tons per day are processed at the transfer station. Recycling does not pay for all of their costs, but they make about $8 million per
year in commodities income. Bottles and cans sold stay in the USA for reprocessing. Cardboard is sold to Asia and has the biggest value – currently about $220 per ton. Only #1 and #2 plastics are saleable and unfortunately all
others are treated as landfill. The commodities market fluctuates so prices and demand are always changing. The materials recovery center recovers about 85% of the incoming waste.
Another challenge is a lack of space. They currently have 16 acres and could use 20, and Joe has tried for years to acquire adjacent land but no success.
Joe also spends time in Sacramento on legislation and advocacy. 14 government agencies regulate their operations which poses many hurdles.
Lithium ion batteries pose a significant fire hazard, and there was one serious fire at the facility in 2016. Hence their fire insurance rates have risen from $180,000/year to $3.1 million per year last year. – Remember to put those batteries in your orange recycling bag and place it on top of the black bins on recycling day!
Following the presentation we all carpooled to the facility for a tour of the transfer station
and the sorting facility.
Thanks to Joe and RethinkWaste for a very educational day!
The Case of the Blind Venetians: Silicon Valley and the Perilous Road to 2035.
The secret to Silicon Valley's longevity is its culture of deep entrepreneurial adaptability. However, events unfolding far from Silicon Valley are creating challenges like nothing the Valley has ever faced. How the Valley responds will determine the shape of the Bay Area's future-and quite possibly determine whether the United States still exists as a nation a few decades from now.
