rxEPA
JOBS
THROUGH
RECYCLING
R-TEAM
CALIFORNIA
RECYCLING
BUSINESS
ASSISTANCE
TEAM Bf
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste
and Emergency Response
(5306W)
EPA530-F-99-001
April 1999
www.epa.gov/jtr
JTR Grantee Series
California
Prior to its Jobs Through Recycling (JTR) grant, California signed into law the
Integrated Waste Management Act. This act requires all California counties to
divert 50 percent of their waste from landfills by 2000 and establishes minimum
recycled-content requirements for newspapers, phone books, and other items.
To implement the act, California provided recycling market development assistance at
the state and local levels through its Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ)
Program, Buy-Recycled Program, and Tire Recycling Program. The California Integrated
Waste Management Board (CIWMB) employed 55 individuals to conduct market devel-
opment studies and enforce the minimum recycled-content requirements of the act. To
significantly expand recycling market develop-
ment in the state, CIWMB established the
California Recycling Business Assistance Team
(R-Team) through an EPA JTR grant. The R-
Team's mission is to help reach the 50 percent
waste diversion goal through recruiting, develop-
ing, and expanding recycling-based businesses in
California. Under the JTR grant, the R-Team set
the following goals:
* Grant Type: Recycling
ijBusiness Assistance Center
-Office Awarded:
sgjiqiifornia Integrated
/?;;; Waste Management Board
Establish new recycling-based manufacturing
enterprises.
Expand existing recycling-based manufacturing
businesses.
Encourage traditional manufacturers to use
recovered materials in their products.
Assist businesses in achieving significant
waste reduction.
Attract out-of-state recycling businesses to
California.
PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
The JTR grant allowed CIWMB to create a "one-
stop shop" to provide assistance directly to the
public for the first time. The R-Team partnered
with two regional organizations and networked
with many state and local groups to provide a
broad range of services to both startup and
established businesses.
ject Partners:
^.University of California at Santa
^^ryzjjysiness Environmental
ISAssistance Center
s Community Environmental
^Council .
^Slfe="Tter:" '''..:: :r: ..... :-.:.;;; .-: . ;;:---;
Year Awarded: 1994. -__
j$0g,000 in ERA funding
"In" state funding
||899,600 in total funding
Materials Targeted:
I Tires
Construction & demolition debris
^Plastics
"Contact Information:
fjpan Martfeld
^California Integrated Waste
^Management Board
y3800 Cal Center Drive
HSacramento, CA 95826
916255-1000
[Fax: 916 255-2222
! Web site: www.ciwmb.ca.gov
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JOBS THROUGH RECYCLING
Business and Technical Assistance
To establish its ability to assist recycling
businesses, the R-Team developed net-
works of contacts, gathered extensive
information, and attended conferences.
Services provided included developing
business plans and assisting with per-
muting, locating sites, and odier regula-
tory issues. To help businesses evaluate
project feasibility, die R-Team analyzed
available technologies, regulatory costs,
and market potential. To assess the costs
of siting a large fiberglass manufacturing
plant, for example, the R-Team examined
the local laws requiring use of secondary
materials in production and the availabili-
ty of recyclable glass. Through presenta-
tions and workshops, the R-Team
provided business assistance to local
communities to encourage the develop-
ment of small community-based recy-
cling enterprises. To improve the quality
of business assistance, the R-Team
developed a database to track services
provided to business clients and made it
accessible to all R-Team staff.
Marketing Assistance
Market development assistance
included matching potential buyers and
suppliers, examining competition, and
encouraging recycling-based manufac-
turers to establish new operations in
California. To help buyers and suppliers
of recyclable materials locate each other,
the R-Team developed a recycled-
content product database and made it
available on the Internet for public use.
The online database can be found at
.
Financial Assistance
The R-Team networked with and edu-
cated financiers and the economic
development community to encourage
new and more creative financing
opportunities for recycling businesses.
The R-Team also assisted businesses
with writing grant proposals, assessing
financial needs, and developing busi-
ness and marketing plans to increase
the probability of gaining financial
support from lenders. In addition,
the R-Team refined its own lending
program.
Promotion and Publicity
The R-Team attended 250 conferences
and workshops to promote its services
to recycling businesses and the eco-
nomic development community.
The R-Team also promoted business
clients to government and private
organizations.
CHALLENGES OVERCOME
R-Team staff overcame several chal-
lenges while implementing the grant:
Difficulty changing organizational
structure. Before the R-Team,
CIWMB s work was regulatory and
did not include extensive business
assistance activities. To be successful
in recycling market development, the
R-Team needed to use its resources
effectively and foster teamwork
among employees. At first, employ-
ees were reluctant to add business
assistance projects to their current
workloads. Upper management sup-
port of these projects and the devel-
opment of the client-tracking
database helped the R-Team to over-
come this barrier. The database
allowed employees to share informa-
tion more easily, and prevented repe-
tition of efforts.
Limited financing opportunities.
The R-Team realized there were
limited funds, statewide, for clients
seeking financing. The R-Team
found that strict loan criteria at com-
mercial lending institutions limited
funding for recycling ventures, espe-
cially for startup businesses that
often had no collateral or were con-
sidered too risky since they focused
on new markets or experimental pro-
jects. To help overcome these barri-
ers, CIWMB developed its own loan
program. To further increase the
amount of financial assistance avail-
able to startups, the R-Team made
credit requirements less strict and
adjusted the loan program to stream-
line the application process, lower
interest rates, and eliminate applica-
tion deadlines. Because of these
adjustments, 40 percent of the busi-
nesses funded statewide were
startups.
LESSONS LEARNED
The R-Team identified the following
lessons learned, which it offers as advice
for new grantees:
Focus your efforts to maximize
leverage of your resources. Target
the recycling businesses most likely
to benefit from your assistance.
Narrow your focus to priority mate-
rials that have the greatest waste
diversion or job creation impact.
Develop a shared vision with part-
ners. Before initiating recycling mar-
ket development activities, hammer
out a shared vision with your JTR
partners on the priorities for your
business assistance work. As your
business assistance work evolves, con-
tinue to communicate with your
partners to exchange information
and raise ideas and questions.
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JTR GRANTEE SERIES: CALIFORNIA
Follow up when promoting your
program. After sending out targeted
mailings to promote your program,
follow up by calling businesses
directly. This allows businesses to ask
questions about the types of assis-
tance you provide. It also is an effec-
tive method for bringing in clients.
Conduct targeted workshops that
bring together different groups
(e.g., local governments, recyclers,
and financiers) around a single
topic. Targeted workshops on partic-
ular market development issues help
build a matket infrastructure, estab-
lish a network of service providers,
and help you become educated about
a particular industry.
Learn about local funding issues.
Work wirfi local lenders to under-
stand the loans available for
businesses using recycled feedstock.
Take care of every customer. Every
business assisted has different issues
and needs. Take the time to under-
stand the specific needs of each
business and either help them
directly or refer them to
someone who
can help.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
During the 1994 to 1997 grant period,
the R-Team strengthened existing state
recycling market development efforts
through its partnerships with many
local and state organizations.
Working together with
businesses and partners
as a team multiplied
the R-Team's ability to
develop creative solutions.
Intensive outreach efforts to the eco-
nomic development community and
recycling businesses throughout the
state also improved recycling market
development. The R-Team worked with
businesses, communities, and state and
local governments to explore ways to
maximize waste diversion and job cre-
ation. Working together with businesses
and partners as a team multiplied the
R-Team's ability to develop creative
solutions. The R-Team made significant
strides towards helping California reach
its 50 percent by 2000 waste diversion
goal.
PROGRAM FUTURE
Recycling market development appears
to have a secure future in California.
The state has retained a permanent
position exclusively devoted to providing
assistance to recycling businesses. The
R-Team's work helped California
develop a strong recycling market
development infrastructure that consists
of recycling, regulatory, and economic
development professionals. In 1996, die
R-Team received a second JTR grant to
.provide assistance to businesses locating
at closing military bases within
Recycling Market Development Zones
(RMDZ). In 1998, the R-Team received
its third JTR grant to establish regional
markets for locally generated wastes.
flSJjLjji^j-^
In-Depth Assistance:
Shori-Term Assistance and Referrals:
679 businesses assisted1
3,148 businesses assisted2
Business and Technical Assistance:
497 businesses assisted
Financial! Assistance:
Marketing Assistance:
679 businesses assisted
333 businesses assisted
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feased-Annt
EmtTf n^"- «"^-"s.'°»"a»j'.-«j"-
' Includes leveraged numbers through project partners.
2 Some businesses received more than one type of assistance.
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JOBS THROUGH RECYCLING
Resources
"Without the assistance of the R-Team, the levee project
would simply not have happened."
TIMOTHY VANDERHEIDEN
CEO, VanDuerr Industries
₯inDuerr Industries, founded in 1993, manufactures and distributes
>roducts that help businesses, public entities, and handicapped
ndividuals overcome access barriers. VanDuerr was studying the use of
:rumb rubber as a substi- jP*^- I /A K I |\ I IC D D
cute for synthetic rubber and VS\ IN * D U t K K
aluminum in its ramps and doors ^^^jjr INDUSTRIES
when it first approached the R-Team www.accessstore.com
for assistance. With R-Team assistance, VanDuerr reclaimed waste tires and manu-
factured value-added products that helped schools and government offices to com-
ply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The R-Team's work allowed
VanDuerr to double the sale of its recycled-content products in 1996 and again in
1997. expand and improve its older facility, and provide approximately $200,000
in revenue to local government and businesses.
The R-Team provided business, marketing, and product development assistance at
the rural RMDZ where VanDuerr is located. The R-Team helped VanDuerr
quickly get in contact with the right people at federal and state regulatory agencies
to determine the ADA compliance requirements for their products. The R-Team
helped VanDuerr research the feasibility of its ideas and discussed the economic,
regulator)", and environmental concerns associated with the collection, hauling,
and processing of waste tires. VanDuerr also received comprehensive assistance
from the R-Team with finding sources of materials and in marketing its products.
The R-Team facilitated the distribution of VanDuerr's recycled-content products
to many different government offices throughout California to allow those offices
to test the products before purchasing. In addition, the R-Team wrote a letter for
VanDuerr to encourage the Division of the State Architect to approve the use of
recycled-content products in California school districts, a major market for
VanDuerr's products.
After floods repeatedly devastated California in the mid 1990s, the R-Team brain-
stormed with VanDuerr to develop a new approach to stabilize levees by incorpo-
rating recycled tires into the usual soil, cement, and bentonite mixture for levee
cutoff walls. The R-Team located funds for the feasibility study that showed the
viability of the product. The recycled-content levee wall has the potential to use a
great number of waste tires: 1/4 to 1/2 million tires are needed for each mile of
levee. According to VanDuerr, without the assistance of the R-Team, the levee pro-
ject would simply not have happened.
Resource Guide for Recycling-Based
Businesses. This publication pro-
vides detailed descriptions and
contact information for govern-
ment, private, and nonprofit
sources of assistance for recycling-
based businesses. The document
lists organizations that can assist; in
'. ...... bji§ittSS5,,development, permitting
and regulatory compliance, finan-
cial assistance, technical assistance,
and recyclable materials supplies
assistance.
Military Base Closure Handbook:
A Guide to Construction and
Demolition Materials Recovery. This
: handbook helps facilitate demoli-
tion waste reuse and recycling by
policy makers, administrative staff,
and technical personnel involved
;in jMihtary base_convers|on
activities.
CIWMB Web Site '.'."."...". .'.!:"'!
. Through
CIWMB s Web site, users can
access recycling market develop-
ment publications, a recycled-
content product database, informa-
tion on CIWMB recycling market
development programs, and the
California materials exchange
(CALMAX).
...
. The
RMDZ Web site gives details on
.. the RMDZ program, including
business assistance activities, loan
criteria, contact information for
local zone administrators, business
profiles for each of the 40
RMDZs, and R-Team services.
) Printed on paper that contains at least
30 percent postconsumer fiber.
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