Tell us a bit about yourself, your background, and how your path led to where you are today.
I grew up in Watsonville with two sisters and a single mother. Like any family, we had our struggles, but we all worked together and helped each other all our lives. Now as grown adults, my siblings and I take care of our mother.
My work life at UCSC began when I was 18 years old as a temporary worker, doing grounds work, cutting lawns and a little bit of everything at the grounds department. Recycling was a big deal at the time people started recycling more on campus. I landed a job there as one of the older gentlemans retired. I applied for the job and got involved with the recycling industry right away. That was about 15 years ago.
I ended up also becoming a commercial driver, cleaning dumpsters and roll-offs around campus.
After about eight years of that, I left campus for two years, moved to Houston to start my own business in trucking, hauling rocks, sand, and gravel. Eventually, I found another open position here on campus and applied again. I missed the work environment and productivity here and was happy to return in 2023. I know the UC Santa Cruz campus and its waste systems very well, so it was a great fit to return to campus in my current role.
As the Resource Recovery Superintendent, in a nutshell, what is your role, the most rewarding and the most challenging part of your work?
As the Resource Recovery Superintendent, my main responsibility is to create more zero-waste stations around campus and educate people about best zero waste practices. Also, to maintain waste systems and manage routes for garbage, cardboard, recycling, and green waste.
Additionally, I oversee the big roll-off routes for construction waste where we collect materials such as wood in our yard, which I have under my jurisdiction as well.
I also manage the compost bucket program throughout campus by making sure the crew has the necessary equipment and an updated schedule. Events change a lot around holidays and non-school days, which requires drastic modifications to the compost program.
The most rewarding part of my job is being able to look at the data, and see the impact of our efforts. When we place new waste stations in areas and see trash levels decrease, while compost and recycling increase, it is very satisfying. I get excited when I see the numbers improving, even if others don’t notice it as much.
The hardest part is dealing with areas where people aren’t as educated or willing to put in the extra effort in their sorting. It is a little disappointing sometimes when you have 50 people doing a great job but 5 that don’t, as those 5 can throw off the efforts of others, and increase contamination levels. Another hard part is not having the manpower to run the compost bucket program in every college. It would be great if we could do that.
On that note, can you tell us about your composting efforts on campus? What is the main goal and what is your favorite part about it?
We have a composting bucket program where our crew goes to each college, door-to-door in housing buildings, and other areas, to collect compost. We wash the buckets, replace the liners, and bring the compost back for processing. I like the program a lot as it has been working really well.
We have had students reach out to me and ask if they could have more service, more frequent pickups than the once a week we provide, and to have liners inside their buildings so they can bring their waste to the outside bins themselves and more frequently.
We currently run the program in grad housing, College 9 and John R. Lewis, Crown Merril and Kresgue, and these areas are already making a difference.
It is great to see the high numbers in waste reduction showing. Since I am familiar with the dumpsters, I see a significant waste reduction over these last few years. The average weight reduction is around 100 pounds per dumpster! People don’t see this “other side” like we do, and keeping this amount of food coming out of the trash is great!
My goal would be for the composting program to have the funding needed to serve all colleges on campus. I would like to see a system set up in every college where students can participate and easily compost, and put their own efforts into it as well.
I would also like to see our compost being reused here on campus, for our planting and agricultural projects on our farm.
This would save money and help our sustainability efforts.
What does sustainability mean to you?
To me it means being able to reuse the materials around you, trying to prevent waste as much as possible, and knowing the source of all the materials you buy, making sure they are from sustainable sources. Also minimizing waste by using all you buy until the end of its life, until it breaks down completely.
Is there anything else about the work you do, and/or any significant project from the past you would like to share?
I have great appreciation for the team I work with here in Resource Recovery. These guys are really committed to our goals and not just doing their job for the sake of it. They actively want to make a difference.
They work really well with the student workers, passing on their knowledge to them so they can pass it onto other students. So they are slowly spreading our efforts via the student community. They do a great job at that too.
Their names are Mario, Adan, Miguel, Frank, Randy, and Chava.
Salvador Peña, Randy Munoz and Adan Saldivar with student workers (photo by Alessandra B. Alvares)
They all do a fantastic job of keeping everything running smoothly, tracking important information with attention to detail. They are very dedicated to our mission.
I want to highlight how amazing the team is and how much they care about the work we are doing. I really appreciate the effort they put into keeping the campus clean and making sure waste diversion efforts succeed. It's a pleasure working with them.
Lastly, what do you do for fun outside of work?
Outside of work, my family is a huge part of my life. I’ve been involved in coaching my kids (15 and 13 now) in various sports over the years, including soccer, basketball, cross country and volleyball. Most of my time is spent doing that. I also recently had a son, so this little guy takes up a lot of my free time!
