On Wednesday, May 14th, the club was hosted, along with members of the Pittsburg Rotary Club, by Mt. Diablo Recycling. Now, you may wonder, “What is it like having lunch at a recycling facility?” The answer: Nothing like you would imagine.
Jeff Kasper made his return to the club after an unexpected absence, for which he pledged $100 to his Paul Harris in recognition of his 20th Anniversary to fellow Rotarian Beri Kasper. (Beri was out of town at a board of director’s meeting this day)
In what may have been our longest traveling visiting Rotarian John Kirkwood, from the Rotary Club of Jinja, Uganda. He talked about a program where they offer scholarships to young people who want to attend school. (In Uganda, there is no free education for children.) He has been working with these children since 1976, For more information about the Lords Meade Vocational College, go to www.lordsmeade.org
Next up, our host Dave Adler talked trash – literally – and about the commitment their company has made to zero waste. This means that everything is recycled or reused, and out of the landfill. When you consider the tons of trash that are brought into the 100,000sqf + facility each day, and sorted, placed into bundles, and then into shipping containers it is simply mind boggling.
Dave also shared with us the different educational programs that Mt. Diablo Recycling has that impact local school children. Thousands of kids each year learn about the importance of recycling.
One interesting fact that Dave mentioned was that much of the shredded paper they receive is packed up and sent to China. There are facilities there that turn it into different products.
What perhaps was most interesting to this reporter was the cleanliness of the overall operation. When you think about the various and sundry materials, and how dirty they can be, the facility was really very clean.