What I enjoy most about my job is that every day is completely different; no two days are the same.
People make reference to us for so many different things.
What’s exciting about that is I have the closest communication with the residents,
so, I have got just this wealth of knowledge that people always want to tap into to learn, to grow, and to make changes.
We get to have input on legislative bills that are being written.
My name is Colleen Sinclair; I am the Recycling Coordinator for the city of Coon Rapids.
The recycling department for our city runs on a grant and so what my job consists of is following the terms of that grant.
So, running the recycling department, the recycling drop-off center.
I go into schools and I get to educate the kids on what things they can do as school, what they can do at home.
I may be doing a seminar with the entire school on waste reduction.
We do everything from newsletters and mailings to site visits at apartment buildings and senior centers.
We talk with the community as much as we can.
Typically, I’m here 9 to 5. I do have children so the city allows me to in the summertime come in a little earlier,
school year come in a little later. Some of my days, I’m in the office doing paperwork and doing reporting.
I monitor the trash haulers very closely. I have not officially completely gone into a dumpster before, although I’ve been very close.
It’s kind of funny I do carry a hazmat suit with me.
My actual degree that I have from college is Advertising and Design
and I do use a small piece of that in this job but it wasn’t what got me this job.
The training that I have came more so from life events. My family is in politics and I was a campaign manager for many years.
That enabled me to have a skill that would easily fit into this job with planning large events.
It taught me to have not just a plan A which you’re going to follow but to have a plan B, C, D and E in your back pocket.
I have really a strong belief in what I do and I think for someone to
come in here and not be into the environment or not believe in what they’re doing...
It’s kind of like fighting your own cause the stronger you believe in what you do the easier and more fun the job is.
The biggest thing that I rely on is communication which is my computer, e-mail and internet
whether I’m doing reporting and following through with my grants or I’m researching something completely new.
We have the recycling drop-off centers so we have… it may not be things I use every day but its things that are over there.
So, we’ve got our baler and large we equipment that we use.
My job benefits the environment in so many different ways.
It could be from working with residents of children at a school; just to start recycling or to understand what recycling is.
When you work in the field and you get to see how one small change has that ripple effect.
Maybe it is putting something out of the waste stream that has never been out of the waste stream before, and being the first to do it.
That is very exciting. There’s just so many different ways that my job impacts the environment.
We’re entering a time of complete change. So, it is everything from a landfill being full and how are we going to fix that.
What is the next step going to be? Is it going to trigger us find another landfill or is it going to change our ways, change our policies?
Technology is huge piece of what we do in the recycling field because what you collect at your house,
that is the starting point of it and where it goes from there. It’s such a deep part of the job.
It’s all sorted by machines, by computers so technology is a huge part of it.
The environment is also very political. So, depending on who is in the office at the time,
if the next person who might be elected to the office isn’t a huge advocate of the environment,
or think that it is not as important we will see a slow shift in what we are able to do and how fast we are able to make change.
My advice for somebody thinking about coming into this field would be to take a chance,
find out as much as you can, don’t be afraid to ask question.
Get into as different things as you can be to learn, hands on experience, volunteering and being part of an event is a huge learning piece.
Jump in headfirst and just see what you learn, see what comes and don’t be afraid to take risks and step outside the box.