Interview with Kate Krebs, executive director of the National Recycling Coalition
Kate Krebs is nothing short of a recycling pioneer. As executive director of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC), Kate works with government, industry and consumers to promote responsible recycling, reuse, waste prevention and composting. Fortune’s Marc Gunther summed it up well in a recent blog post when he said, “it’s impressive to see what Kate Krebs has done with NRC since she came to Washington (from her home off the grid in the wilds of Northern California) back in 2001.”
We caught up with Kate last week to chat about her background, experience at NRC and tireless commitment to a cleaner and “greener” planet.
Q. Your organization is recognized as the leader in all things recycling. Tell us the National Recycling Coalition story.
NRC was formed in 1978 when the environmental movement was sweeping across the country - local advocates felt the issues of waste and consumption needed a broader platform than the local and state level approaches in place at the time.
Our work has focused on policy development, stakeholder engagement and direct actions to demonstrate innovations and best practices. Today, the Coalition is a diverse community united by a common purpose - enhancing our nation’s environmental, energy and economic future through sustainable resource management practices. The Coalition’s efforts are the culmination of 30 years of field-tested learnings, constant trend watching and monitoring the most current legislative efforts and regulatory discussions. So, we serve as the nation’s central reservoir for knowledge and best practices in the area of waste prevention, reuse and recycling.Our members include local recycling coordinators, state and federal regulators, environmental educators and advocates, corporate environmental leaders, waste management professionals and engaged citizens. Together, we strategically advance recycling in the United States.
Q. How long have you been with NRC? What did you do before?
I moved from California to Washington D.C. to work with NRC in October 2000. I began as the deputy director with a focus on building the Coalition’s internal stakeholder engagement and reorganizing the operations. In September 2001, I was asked by the board to become the Interim executive director and in January of 2002 was appointed executive director.
Prior to working with NRC, I lived and worked on the North Coast of California, leading a community-based recycling organization - the Arcata Community Recycling Center (ACRC). I served as their executive director for eighteen years and focused on bringing best business practices to an organization with grassroots beginnings.
During this time, I also led an effort to research the development of locally-based manufacturing enterprises that would use recycled materials as feedstock. Based on that research, I founded Fire and Light Originals, a for-profit manufacturing enterprise that uses recycled glass as feedstock for high-end glass tableware. This work led to my appointment to the board of Arcata Economic Development Corporation, a community-based enterprise development organization.
I also served for more than a decade as president of Californians Against Waste, a Sacramento-based activist organization with a focus on legislative solutions to waste issues.
Q. Can you tell us more about the history of recycling. When did it become “the thing to do”?
Recycling was a movement before it was a business. I was drawn to recycling like many of my colleagues as a way to demonstrate my awareness of the precious natural resources we use as we live on this planet.
This current wave of recycling began as an outcome of Earth Day activities in the early 1970’s when passion for the environment was reaching a generation now called Baby Boomers. Those of us who became advocates learned from our grandparents their ways of reducing, reusing and recycling which they practiced in World War I and II efforts. Many of the supporters I worked with were 30 and 40 years older than I was at the time. Their generation learned early how to be mindful of what we use, why we use it and what we do with it when we are finished with it.
The 70’s social change movement embraced recycling as a singular means to demonstrate environmental commitments. At the time, there was little technology or research available on how to collect, how to process and what to do with recyclable materials once they were processed. The early policy focus was to create demand for products and packaging manufactured with recycled content materials as feedstock. Creating demand helped develop the framework for financial commitments to infrastructure development.
As Americans across the country began to embrace this concept of recycling, the energy crisis hit which mobilized the manufacturing base to take a deeper look at recycling. Significant energy savings are realized when cans, bottles, paper, plastic are manufactured with recycled feedstock.
As the business of recycling was developing, advocates like myself focused on both local action and development of collection and processing infrastructure but also on policy development with a focus on creating demand. With this infrastructure and policy work, we’ve paved the way for our efforts today: a re-engagement with consumers on the importance of recycling.
Q. What are the challenges you face convincing businesses and consumers to recycle?
Today, there is little challenge to recycling from the business community. It makes too much economic sense to ignore it. Significant savings from diverting materials from wasting to recycling is taking place at small retail businesses and large manufacturing enterprises alike. The challenge to the business community is no longer the demand for recycled materials, the demand today far exceeds the supply.
The challenges today are what they’ve always been: connecting the importance of recycling at the individual, local and global levels. First, we have to re-engage consumers with recycling. Simultaneously we must encourage local governments to ensure convenient, effective and efficient collection and processing. Lastly, we must help everyone understand the environmental benefits of recycling in the context of climate change initiatives being discussed and developed around the globe.
Q. Have you observed any trends with regards to who recycles and who doesn’t?
We recently completed some in-depth consumer research to find out why Americans are not recycling at the levels they could and should. We found some great information - and have approached the findings by profiling three distinct groups - those who “always” recycle, those who “sometimes” recycle and those who “never” recycle.
We determined that for practical purposes our target would be the “sometime” recyclers for they represent the greatest opportunity to increase engagement.
We looked in particular at the “always” recyclers so we could learn as much as we could about why their behaviors included a mindfulness about what they consume, why they consume it and what they will do with it after they are done with it. We believe that recycling is a “laddered” behavior - that a person will take incremental steps to becoming an “always” recycler.
We wanted to understand what was needed to walk someone up the ladder from “sometimes” recycling a bottle or can or paper to making it a habit. We found that “always” recyclers believed they were doing good by recycling, that they have a strong belief in the recycling system, that they knew their actions had positive effects, that they were a role model not just in recycling but in their broader lifestyle choices - and the optimism that they had for making the world a better place was a core value.
So - we believe to move the estimated 105 million Americans that are “sometimes” recyclers we must communicate to them that their actions matter, we must communicate that the system of recycling is strong and vibrant and has a strong positive effect on the environment, that their actions will demonstrate to their families, their peers, their neighbors that they are a role model and are doing good.
It’s crucial that we never shame or guilt-trip these folks into action. We need to speak to everyone in terms of making the world a better place, so our tag line is “We Have the Best Planet in the Universe - Let’s Keep it That Way.”
Q. How many people recycle every year?
In America, the recycling rate hovers just over 30 percent. This means that of all the stuff we generate each year, only 30 percent of it is recycled. This is dismal. This is unacceptable and is really truly a waste of precious resources. This happens not because there is not an option to recycle - there are trucks running up and down streets across America looking for materials to recycle - households are simply not setting out bins or full bins.
Clearly this is an incredible opportunity for all of us to do something that has demonstrable, positive results for our planet. Actions in this area can make a difference. Thousands of tons of paper, cans, bottles, magazines, catalogs, boxes are being wasted. When thrown away in either a landfill or a combustor these precious resources generate greenhouse gases which heat up our planet and pose a significant environmental threat.
Recycling is such a simple habit - I compare it to using a seat belt in cars and flossing teeth - once you adopt in within your lifestyle it’s a habit that becomes second nature.
Q. What steps do you personally take to recycle in your home?
I read labels, looking not only at ingredients that are in the product but also at the package the product is in.
I live on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. and we have a new recycling system that I love - every home is given two large carts, one for recycling one for waste. The cart has wheels, a lid and is easy to roll into the alley for pickup. I have a very small trash can in my kitchen and a larger recycling bin, which I fill and then dump into the cart.
In my home office, I have a recycling bin and no trash bin as everything I generate there is recyclable.
I spend time talking with my neighbors about what is recyclable and what is not - and celebrate every week as the recycling truck rolls down the alley and every single house has placed their recycling bin out for collection. I love recycling day in Washington - seeing the blue bins set out and full is a weekly joy!
Q. In ten years, what will you look back and say you achieved?
I believe that waste is a design flaw. So I hope that the work we’re doing today with corporate America to design for recycling, to incorporate environmental ethics as a core value and cement thoughtfulness about what we consume, why we consume it and what we do with it when we are done becomes a well-established principal.
If in ten years we can see those systems and ethics in place and U.S. consumers then do their part to get those valuable resources back into the recycling stream then I would say we’ve achieved a great deal.
