California county promotes recycling businesses

San Benito County, located in central California southeast of the San Francisco Bay region, is working in coordination with government and private agencies to promote the Central Coast Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ).

The San Benito County Integrated Waste Management agency and the wider government of the county have partnered with the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) to create an outreach video promoting the RMDZ.

The effort involves cultivating local, sustainability-focused businesses that prevent, reduce, reuse or recycle waste materials through manufacturing or another value-added process.

The project’s backers say Central Coast RMDZ can offer loans via a California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) program for manufacturers engaged in sustainable business practices.

“Through the RMDZ program, San Benito County is engaging and encouraging regenerative, inventive business practices,” the CPSC says.

The groups involved say, in addition to landfill diversion, recycling can create new business opportunities, including those that allow manufacturers to find new ways to recycle, engage with other businesses, and support their communities.

In the video, representatives from Watsonville, California-based Graniterock Marketing and Aromas, California-based Fireclay Tile describe a project funded by the Central Coast RMDZ involving the production of recycled-content tiles created using excess materials from Graniterock’s quarry.

“Both businesses have their own sustainable business operations, but the funding provided allowed for additional creative [recycling] practices,” the CPSC says.

“The programs that we have been exposed to have been awesome to us, not only with actual value but also with the contacts [established],” adds David Galaviz of Fireclay Tiles.

“I think if in the future they continue doing this, any company is going to benefit from that network. There’s more than the actual monetary value here. There’s more of this sense of community that is really going to help others.”

The Central Coast RMDZ covers an area of some 8,000 square miles and includes not just San Benito County, but also Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties, including the incorporated cities in all four counties.

The video made in cooperation with San Benito County can be found here.