Recyclist Podcast: SWANA's Canadian Contingent w Sebastian Hultberg

Yeah.

And I'm very interested to speak with you specifically about solid waste because we were talking a little bit before we came in here and started recording.

You guys do a lot, like being the director of solid waste, you have your hands in a lot of different things going on up there.

It's not just landfills.

There's a lot of stuff going on.

Yeah, luckily I'm surrounded by really good people that I work with.

So we do operate a landfill, compost facility, a MRF, so a material recovery facility.

We also do a lot of community outreach, different programs out in the communities, as well as the education piece.

The education piece is so crucial in our industry to get the public to buy in and learn and know about our programs.

How do you approach that? The outreach piece? Yes.

There's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to outreach.

No silver bullet, of

course.

For sure.

So I think in today's world, there are so many competing messages.

So you really have to be out there and you have to be out there a lot.

You have to make sure that the information you put out is accurate and current.

And when people ask you for help, you have to have the answers ready or be able to direct the people asking to the right person.

So when it comes to trying to run a solid waste operation in Canada, it feels like a lot of American operations are almost hamstrung or they're constantly having to look at new regulations or new guidelines or whatever.

They're constantly coming through the pipeline.

Is that similar to, like, do you guys, does legislation put such a big umbrella or a shadow over operations or are things a little bit looser up in Canada?

I think, no, I think there is definitely some strong regulations in place and also coming.

And I think that's what's interesting in our industry.

You always have to look at what's coming down the pipe because you can't be reactive.

You have to be able to look ahead to be ready.