Unsung heroes: Two faces behind Kalamazoo's recycling efforts

Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.
 
KALAMAZOO, MI — We have certain expectations regarding convenience in the 21st Century: that the lights will turn on, clean water will flow through the tap, and that our waste will be disposed of in a proper way.  

While we may not necessarily take these services for granted, we may also not be fully aware of all that it takes to ensure that they occur. Behind every residential service, including recycling, are unsung heroes.
 
For the City of Kalamazoo, remarkably,  there are only a few people who pick up all of the residential recycling. One of those drivers is Dale Mentor. The residential recycle driver for Republic Services, Mentor has been in the waste management business since 1987. Prior, he worked in factories, recalling that “every time I got a job in a factory, factory would close,” and with a family to provide for Mentor had to look elsewhere. 
 
Taylor ScamehornDale Mentor, Republic Services recycling truck driver, gives a tour of his truck.After getting his Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) through his church, he received a tip about a job at Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI), Kalamazoo’s previous waste management company. BFI would later merge with Republic Services, one of the City's current contractors for residential recycling collection. 

A typical day in the life of a recycling truck driver
 
Mentor’s day starts at 5 a.m. with a meeting on the day’s route. He then inspects the truck to “make sure it’s in good operating condition.” By 6 a.m., he’s grabbed his coffee from Speedway and is on the route.
 
The City of Kalamazoo's recycling truck that Dale Mentor drives.To cover all the stops in Kalamazoo, the route is divided up into two-week blocks, with an “A” week and “B” week. “‘A’ week, Mondays are a 13-hour route generally,” with 1,636 stops on that day alone. ‘A’ week Tuesday’s are a little less strenuous with only 495 stops but that week’s Wednesday’s see over 1,500 stops. Thursday has over 1,100 stops and Friday has approximately 1,200, making a total of about 5,800 stops in the first week of the cycle alone. 
 
Mentor averages a 13-hour day, but differences in neighborhoods, traffic patterns, and the amount of obstacles affects how long it takes to finish a route. Obstacles include parked cars, mailboxes, pedestrians, and bicycles. 
 
When asked what the most difficult neighborhood in the city is, Mentor answers the Vine neighborhood. What makes the area so difficult is the number of street-parked cars. If a car is in the way of the truck’s arm, Mentor must get out and manually dump the recycling, adding work and lessening efficiency. He adds that “it’s not always the customer’s fault,” but rather the configuration of the parking zones. 
 
Taylor ScamehornThe City of Kalamazoo's sole recycling truck driver, Dale Mentor, opens the cab of his truck.An artificial intelligence (AI) program was added to Mentor’s truck earlier this year to compile information on recycling habits in the city. When asked if AI has made his job simpler, Mentor replies, “iI doesn’t really impact how I do the job, but it has, in a sense, made it easier.” The program is run by a company called Prairie Robotics.

For example, when it comes to recycling bins, the AI camera can recognize if a customer needs an updated cart based on lid color. In the past, Mentor would have had to manually take notes for the correction, taking up time. Additionally, the camera can pick up who has and who has not been putting out their bins.
 
AI also helps recognize contaminants, such as plastic bags, pizza boxes, and large chunks of Styrofoam. In the past, Mentor would have to get out of the truck and take a picture of the contaminant. Now, the AI system can identify it as well as take a picture of the cart and the house so that the customer can be notified. 
 
Mentor remarks that the goal of the notifications is not to chide people but to educate the customers so that they understand the implications of their mistakes. He adds that it’s easier to get a notification in the mail identifying a mistake than having to vocalize it to a customer because “they can take it the wrong way.” These postcard notifications are set to be implemented sometime in September or October.
 
Taylor ScamehornInside view of the recycling truck cabWhen asked where he sees the future of his job, Mentor responds that with more education on the importance of recycling more people are bound to get involved, meaning additional routes and expansion.  

“Sometimes people are just ignorant to the fact that [recycling] is a real thing,” thinking “that the recycling system isn't anything” and that it all just goes to the landfill, he says. But, hopefully, with more education about the pros of recycling, more will use the system. 
 
Another improvement Mentor has seen in the system is the adoption of single stream recycling. With this practice, customers no longer have to sort their recycling, making it simpler and encouraging more to do so. Just as education drives more recycling, Mentor anticipates growth as recycling becomes more convenient for customers. 
 
Taylor ScamehornRepublic Services' transfer station on Gembitt CircleAdvancement in waste management technology has also changed Mentor’s relationship with the community. Most notably, the implementation of trucks with mechanical arms that can reach out and grab recycling bins has reduced the amount of time Mentor spends interacting with customers. In the past, he had to get out of the truck and grab the bins, giving him “an opportunity to meet people and talk with them.” 

“I had customers that I would have coffee with…one guy would let me on his property," he says. He even invited some customers to his wedding.

Remarkably, Mentor also met his wife on the job, recalling that they had known each other prior but hadn’t seen each other in years before meeting again on his route. He invited her over, sparking 18 years of partnership. 

One request: Break down the boxes
 
Mentor’s job is no easy one, demanding regular physical labor while interacting with refuse. To make his job a little easier, he asks that people “break down their boxes.” It’s the simplest thing that people can do and really makes a difference. 

“If there are whole boxes in a cart, one it takes up a lot of room, and two, when a car goes upside down,” things can get stuck. When the truck’s arm comes back down, small things that are possibly in the boxes can fall out. 
 
Being on the job for so many years and being one of the people that the community most actively engages with when it comes to recycling, Mentor has learned a lot. 

Chris Broadbent, City of Kalamazoo's Solid Waste Coordinator, and Dale Mentor, the City's only recycling truck driver, are two of Kalamazoo's unsung recycling heroes.When asked what the biggest lesson he’s learned is, he swiftly responds “Don’t judge people,” adding, “because they're all different people from all walks of life… And it's very easy [to] make a judgment based on how they appear — you don't know.” Sometimes people get angry and “blow up at me over nothing” and it turns out they were just having a bad day. 

There's more to recycling than curbside
 
While Mentor represents one of the facets of the recycling system in Kalamazoo, another person who oversees different types of recycling is Chris Broadbent. Broadbent is the Solid Waste Coordinator for the city of Kalamazoo, overseeing the management of materials for the community. This includes a range of recycling programs from electronics to expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, curbside programs, leaf and compost programs, and bulk trash among other things. 
 
Broadbent began his position a little over a year ago in July of 2023. He characterizes his day as a blend of in-office and on-the-ground work.

Taylor ScamehornRepublic Services' transfer station on Gembit Circle“I file reports that come my way through either missed pickups, or current requests, or issues that residents or city users might be having related to the programs,” he notes. Additionally, he communicates with contractors, building “a culture of accountability.” 

In the field, Broadbent goes and checks on things that people have issues with, making sure that contractors are sent out for the correct program. He comments that recently he has been “trying to help people get their materials picked up in the construction zones.”
 
Taylor ScamehornChris Broadbent, City of Kalamazoo's Solid Waste CoordinatorOne new program sees the city work with The Recycling Partnership and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) to increase recycling volume while simultaneously decreasing contaminants. Through education and outreach, the program seeks to encourage recycling by giving single-family homes that have a bin but don’t use it an in-home kit to make it easier to get recyclables to the curb for collection. 

Additionally, more information on what can be recycled, and the schedule is also provided. The program also aids multifamily recycling efforts, so that people living in a residential property with five units or more are given the tools to recycle as well. 

Don't put recyclables in plastic bags
 
Broadbent concurs with Mentor that the introduction of the single-stream system has increased recycling rates but adds that it has also contributed to a rise in contamination. Broadbent notes that “the largest issue we're seeing is bagged materials,” or when people use a plastic bag to hold their recyclables. If Mentor spots a cart with bagged materials, he will not collect it.

He notes, “the problem is the plastic film, plastic bags clog up the machines that do the sorting.” These machines are at the Material Recovery Facility in Elkhart, Indiana, and that is where the materials get sorted, bailed, and sold. Broadbent adds that “a combination of conveyors, 2 shifts of laborers, AI cameras, eddy currents, and air pulses, sort through our city's recyclables.” The transfer station for Kalamazoo is located on Gembrit Circle, just off Cork Street and Sprinkle Road. This is where Mentor drops off his load.
 
Taylor ScamehornChris Broadbent, City of Kalamazoo's Solid Waste Coordinator, and Dale Mentor, the City's only recycling truck driver, are two of Kalamazoo's unsung recycling heroes.When questioned if the recycling of dirty or contaminated materials could ever happen in the future, Broadbent responded that dirtiness or “food is not a huge issue.” He adds, “a lot of the processing steps and chemicals will break [food residue] down,” but that it is more about “thinking about the dignity of the MRF laborers who sort the recyclables, and them not having to touch our week-old salsa or peanut butter left in the container."
 
Looking into the future, Broadbent envisions an even broader program that would see more materials recycled and repurposed. More companies are coming into existence that have found ways to use recycled material, creating a market for waste. There is a company, Atlas Molded Products, that has used recycled content for years. For example, they use recycled EPS foam (the lightweight, white packaging material) to make insulation and roofing products.

Michigan has on average only 26 years of landfill life left
 
Furthermore, Broadbent thinks it's possible “to get to a point where there's more material recycled by volume than the city, its residents, [and] its users” send to the landfill. He adds that at a recent conference with EGLE, “they mentioned that there are 26 years [on average] of landfill life left in Michigan,” bringing a sense of urgency and importance to the recycling program. 
 
Taylor ScamehornGary Lindsey, supervisor at Republic ServicesAnother element that Broadbent wishes to explore is how the city itself can generate revenue from recycled materials as they all have value on the open market. Money can come from EPS foam, circuit boards in old electronics, and compostable material to name a few.

 He notes that current contracts “are really about the convenience of having this material removed from the curb.” Broadbent foresees a not-too-distant future in which recycling can make money and create more jobs for the community. 
 
Dale Mentor and Chris Broadbent are two important figures on the wider team that manages Kalamazoo’s recycling efforts.. They make sure that our recyclables are properly managed and disposed of while continually seeking ways to improve and expand the system. Through innovative solutions and public education, they have supported and expanded recycling practices within the community. 




Three ways to assist your recycling truck driver:

1. Move parked cars and obstacles near the pickup spots.
2. Break down boxes,
3. Don't put recycling in plastic bags.

Other items that can be recycled through the city and other organizations:

1. Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam
2. Batteries
3. Old computer equipment

Ways to reduce landfill waste:

1. Reduce single-use plastics
2. Re-use items (glass jars, boxes, etc.)
3. Recycle all recycle-able materials
4. Compost