Setting a new trend

It’s not often I get to tell stories of women’s impact in the recycling industry. The truth is, there simply aren’t as many of us.

According to a July report from data and research company Zipdo, cited in this month’s cover story, only about 13 percent of recycling industry employees and 7 percent of recycling industry executives are women.

But Emterra Group, the subject of our October cover story, is bucking that trend and charting its own course.

The Canadian company has been family- and women-owned and -operated for nearly 50 years.

Emmie Leung, founder and CEO of Emterra Group, started the recycling business in the mid-1970s. She came to Canada as a nonnative English speaker, having been raised in Hong Kong, and needed a job—so, she created one for herself. Frankly, that makes Emterra’s origin story that much more incredible as only 3 percent of the recycling workforce is comprised of Asian Americans, according to that same Zipdo report.

Leung’s daughter, Paulina, followed her mother’s example and now is chief sustainability officer at Emterra Group, and with every daughter or young woman who follows that same path, the road becomes a little easier for those behind us.

“My personal experience is very different than my mother’s,” Paulina says. “When she started [in recycling] and would go to conferences, people thought she was waitstaff. People would literally hand her an empty cup or give her their jacket. I don’t experience that, and that’s great, [but] she’s borne the burden of being in this industry and seeing the transition at this point in terms of how being a female-led company differs in this industry.”

We continue to see that transition in action, too.

Since January, five of our Fresh Perspective interviewees have been women, including this month’s subject: Alex Grover, CEO of the Pennsylvania-based manufacturing company i2M.

Then, there’s our recently announced 30 Under 30 awards winners. The list, which can be found in our September issue, includes young women who are executives, traders, consultants and more. Of the 30 recipients, 10 are women. There’s certainly room for improvement, but 33 percent sounds a lot better than 13 percent.

I, for one, hope to continue telling stories of women making their mark in an industry that needs their voices and their perspectives.