CarbonLITE names 7-year-old honorary employee

CarbonLITE names 7-year-old honorary employee
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Los Angeles-based CarbonLITE, which processes 2 billion polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles annually at its bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Riverside, California, has “hired” 7-year-old Ryan Hickman as an honorary employee, complete with his own employee badge, shirt and hard hat.

Hickman runs Ryan’s Recycling Co., which is based in Orange County, California, which to date has recycled approximately 232,000 bottles and cans, earning about $15,000. He lives in San Juan Capistrano, California, and also sells his company T-shirts online and donates all of the profits to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, Laguna Beach, California, which has amounted to nearly $4,700 as of late June 2017.

Hickman received an orientation tour of the 220,000-square-foot facility, which claims to be the nation’s largest manufacturer of postconsumer food-contact-grade PET resin.

“Ryan is an exceptional young man committed to making a difference in protecting our planet—and, who knows, maybe he will be the CEO of CarbonLITE one day,” CarbonLITE Chairman and CEO Leon Farahnik says.

He adds that recycling is the only responsible option for plastic bottles and containers.

CarbonLITE notes that for every pound of recycled PET flake used, energy consumption is reduced by 84 percent and greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 71 percent, according to industry data; recycling 1 ton of PET containers saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space; and since its Riverside, California, plant opened in 2012, CarbonLITE has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 75,000 tons and avoided using 370,000 cubic yards of landfill space.

According to http://ryansrecycling.com, in 2012 at the age of 3, Hickman joined his dad on a trip to the local recycling center to cash in a few small bags of cans and bottles. The day after going to the recycling center, Hickman told his parents that he wanted to give plastic bags to all the neighbors and ask them to save their recyclables for him. Today, he has customers all over Orange County and spends time every week sorting cans and bottles from his customers to take to the recycle center.

Hickman has been featured on hundreds of websites, radio stations and television programs, including CNN, CNBC, PBS, FOX News, Huffington Post, Voice of America, Al Jazeera, USA Today, “Good Morning America” and ABC “World News,” and has received awards from The Daughters of the American Revolution and the San Juan Capistrano City Council and mayor, according to his website.

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Source: Recycling Today
CarbonLITE names 7-year-old honorary employee
<![CDATA[Los Angeles-based CarbonLITE, which processes 2 billion polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles annually at its bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Riverside, California, has “hired” 7-year-old Ryan Hickman as an honorary employee, complete with his own employee badge, shirt and hard hat. Hickman runs Ryan’s Recycling Co., which is based in Orange County, California, which to date has recycled approximately 232,000 bottles and cans, earning about $15,000. He lives in San Juan Capistrano, California, and also sells his company T-shirts online and donates all of the profits to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, Laguna Beach, California, which has amounted to nearly $4,700 as of late June 2017. Hickman received an orientation tour of the 220,000-square-foot facility, which claims to be the nation’s largest manufacturer of postconsumer food-contact-grade PET resin. Hickman is pictured with CarbonLITE’s Vice President of Operations Jeffrey Walsh. “Ryan is an exceptional young man committed to making a difference in protecting our planet—and, who knows, maybe he will be the CEO of CarbonLITE one day,” CarbonLITE Chairman and CEO Leon Farahnik says.  He adds that recycling is the only responsible option for plastic bottles and containers. CarbonLITE notes that for every pound of recycled PET flake used, energy consumption is reduced…