Year in Review - The Spectrum Magazine - Redwood City's Monthly ...

Recology: Working for the Future, One SmartCart at a Time
By Dale McKee
Left to right: Recology team members Mario Puccinelli, Tammy Del Bene, Gina Simi, Gino Gasparini.
There’s a change coming. The wheels are already
in motion. But this isn’t the kind of change to
fear; this is something to celebrate. When The
Spectrum last spoke to the managers at Norcal
Waste, they were up for the waste collection
contract for San Mateo County. Now, their
proposal accepted, they’re stepping up to the
plate, and with the new contract comes a new
name: Recology. It isn’t just a name change — it’s
a call to action. Recently, I was able to speak with
several Recology executives and get their personal
take on this exciting change.
“Recology is a better reflection of who we
are as a company. It’s a hybrid of recycling
and ecology,” said Gina Simi, public education
manager. “It seems a little more 21st century, and
we’re moving green. And of course our tagline
is Waste Zero.” Waste Zero means focusing on
resource recovery, not garbage disposal.
With the new contract and name change,
Recology is now expanding beyond California,
with a presence in Oregon. They’re gearing up for
the task, and it’s not just a job for them. Everyone
I spoke to practically brimmed over with passion,
enthusiasm and determination.
“We’re really excited about the new program.
We think it’s going to be a huge improvement for
the majority of the county,” Simi said.
The change in services begins in January,
when Recology takes over from Allied Waste, but
Recology is already ramping up for the task.
“We’ve spent quite a bit of time educating
people about what’s coming, getting people ready
for the new cart system, what they’re going to be
receiving, and when they’re going to be receiving
it, letting them know the changes of moving
from dual-stream to single-stream recycling with
the introduction of food waste for the compost
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program, and of course all the stuff behind the
scenes, such as creating the routes,” Simi added.
Getting the word out has been a major focus.
“We’ve been all over the county, at pretty much
any art and wine festival, Fourth of July parade
and farmers markets — anything that’s going
on in the community — with all 12 member
agencies.” They’ve had booths and the carts out,
not to mention the shiny new trucks. “People
really flock to it,” Simi said. “They have a million
questions. Most people are really excited about
the services that are coming.” They’ve also done
a lot of advertising on Spanish-language radio
and in newspapers, plus a 30-second commercial
running in the Century Theatres in Redwood City
(which is also viewable at rethinkwaste.org).
“We have been making presentations to HOAs,
neighborhood organizations, all over the place
— anybody who asks us, we’ll come out and go
over the specifics of the program and answer
any questions. We sent out a card in June to all
single-family residences to let them know, first
of all, that we’re coming, that we’re going to be
delivering these new carts, what kind of service it
is.” Basically, everyone gets three carts: garbage,
recycling and compost. The default sizes are a
64-gallon recycling cart and a 96-gallon compost
cart. The default size of the garbage carts is
personalized, based on each customer’s previous
service with Allied. Each resident was informed
what size cart they’d be given and were given
the opportunity to get back to Recology if they
weren’t happy with that size.
Recology is, of course, also handling multi-residence
buildings such as condos or apartments, as well
as businesses. Some are not currently recycling at
all, something Recology hopes to change. “It is a
free service,” Simi said. “Anyone that has garbage
service has single-stream recycling included for
free. Over 700 accounts have signed on since July
1 for single-stream recycling. We’re also offering
compost service for a discounted rate.”
That’s a huge number of customers now recycling
who were not before. On the one hand, this is an
amazing improvement, but it’s also a testament to
how many people out there were not recycling.
“It’s a free service, so there’s no reason not to,
and your rates are based on your garbage levels,
so if your recycling goes up and your garbage goes
down, there’s a possibility your rates will go down
as well, so it’s really kind of a no-brainer,” Simi said.
And once the food waste is added to the
recycling stream in January, the amount recycled
will go up even further. Food waste is the largest
source of material going into the waste stream
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“Recology is a better reflection of who we are as a
company. It’s a hybrid of recycling and ecology.”