Within a year, SEK Recycling and the city intend to roll out curbside recycling pickup. At the organization’s banquet Thursday night, SEK Recycling Board President Jeremy Johnson announced what many Pittsburg citizens have been waiting to hear for decades. “We’ll be operating at a scale that we’ve not dreamed of,” Johnson told The Morning Sun. “We’ll bring in as much material in a month as previously we’ve done in an entire year.” The City of Pittsburg plans to partner with SEK Recycling to implement the recycling pickup service in conjunction with the trash service the city started earlier this month. Johnson said that Deputy City Manager Jay Byers wants to begin pickup in six months, but the more realistic goal is within a year. “It is ambitious. It scares me a little bit, but I also know that we are in a better position to prepare for that now than we ever have been in our organization’s history,” he said. Johnson said to prepare for this service, the organization has been working to streamline its operations by bringing people to evaluate its finances and procedures. He said several people have stepped up to volunteer their time and talents to help out. “It’s the help of people like this who are willing do these things that are hard that are going to allow us to do the big stuff,” Johnson said.
In addition to planning for curbside service, Johnson updated the event attendees on other milestones and projects the organization has been working on. Earlier this year, SEK Recycling, a nonprofit organization, received the single largest donation in its history. An anonymous donor gave $250,000 to the organization, which allowed them to purchase a new baler and start mapping out SEK Recycling’s role in the community for the next several years. Johnson said since the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers for the organization have dwindled, but his goal is to build the volunteer base back up by reaching out to the community more and working with the Students for Sustainability group at Pittsburg State University. “We need to be working harder, to reach out, to engage with folks who believe in the same things that we do and that want the same things that we do,” he said. “But if we don’t reach out to them, those things aren’t going to happen.”
Johnson recognized retiring board members Gene Vogler, Jan Hula and Jim Tripplett and thanked them for their dedication to the cause. Vogler had been on the board for 18 years and Tripplett was the founder of the organization. “Jim has my eternal gratitude,” Johnson said. “I will forever associate him with our center. Without him, we would not be where we are.” So far this year, SEK Recycling has kept 593 tons of materials out of landfills and is on track to end the year with taking in more than 800 tons.
Source: Morning Sun
