Though recycling businesses often have large numbers of people of color at lower levels of the workforce, racial disparities are wide at the upper ranks. | Resource Recycling, Inc.
Several years ago, the Georgia Recycling Coalition worked with a film crew to produce a short video called “Made in Georgia.”
Highlighting the various ways materials-recovery efforts were boosting businesses in the state, the production team recorded interviews with executives at paper manufacturer and MRF operator Pratt Industries, aluminum company Novelis, plastic end user Rehrig Pacific, and other corporate recycling players.
Once all the footage was captured, the crew had plenty of examples of big processors and manufacturers leveraging locally collected material.
But something important was missing, recalled Michelle Wiseman, a Black woman who worked for SP Recycling Southeast at the time and was president of the Georgia Recycling Coalition: “The producer said to me, ‘We have to include you in the video. There is no diversity.’”
That project showcasing top-level recycling executives in one region is, in many ways, emblematic of the sector as a whole. This is a business built around collecting material from communities and companies that span the demographic spectrum. But, typically, the leaders of recycling-oriented businesses are white.
“Our industry is not reflective of the country as a whole, and that’s a problem,” said Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, the corporate-backed nonprofit organization that works to improve municipal recycling infrastructure.
Amid the racial reckoning that has erupted in America in the months since the killing of George Floyd, diversity and inclusion has become a major talking point in many business sectors, including the world of recycling.
Last fall, for instance, The Recycling Partnership launched a program called the Recycling Inclusion Fund to try to address inequities in recycling, and part of its focus is bringing more people of color to industry leadership. “We’re eager to use The Partnership as a fulcrum to pull young, diverse people to the field,” noted Harrison, who is white.
Other industry stakeholders, including Waste Management and Republic Services, have publicly stated their intentions to engage more deeply on issues of race in the workforce.
But the push for such progress also raises critical questions: What are the steps to meaningful change on a complex issue rooted deep within the foundations of American society? And how do companies hold themselves accountable along the way?
A world of white executives
As is the case in many industries, there is little comprehensive data on the racial breakdown of decision-makers at the upper ranks of recycling. However, as some companies and organizations have recently outlined plans to address inequities, they’ve also disclosed relevant staffing statistics.
Waste Management, which is North America’s largest publicly traded hauler and processor in terms of annual revenue, noted in its 2020 sustainability report that 13% of its executive-level employees in 2019 were non-white. That compared with 45% non-white personnel across Waste Management’s 45,000-person workforce, which includes many collection truck operators, material sorters and other “front line” staffers.
Casella Waste Systems, the fifth-largest hauler in North America, in its 2020 sustainability report stated that as of Sept. 30, 2020, 5% of its management positions were held by ethnic minorities. Across the company’s non-management workforce, minorities made up 13% of staff.
“It is a known fact that the waste industry has been predominantly white and male dominated.”- Tiana Carter, Waste Management’s senior director of culture and engagement
Meanwhile, white males currently hold the top recycling executive position at each of the five largest publicly traded haulers: Brent Bell at Waste Management, Pete Keller at Republic Services, Brent Hildebrand at GFL Environmental, Dan Kurtz at Waste Connections, and Bob Cappadona at Casella.
It should also be noted that Oregon-based Resource Recycling, which has been covering the recycling sector for 40 years, has never had a person of color as editor.
“It is a known fact that the waste industry has been predominantly white and male dominated,” Tiana Carter, Waste Management’s senior director of culture and engagement, wrote in an email response to questions from Resource Recycling (Carter is Black). “There is opportunity for the industry to be more open to backgrounds outside of the waste industry in their hiring processes if they are looking to diversify their employee demographics to be representative of the customers and communities their business serves.”
In many ways, the racial reality of recycling can be quickly determined by a look at the crowd at any conference bringing sector decision-makers together.
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