Focused on an essential task
Focused on an essential task
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When Damany Head moved to southeast Michigan in the early 2000s, he had no intention of starting a business in the recycling industry. He moved to the area to take a job as a site engineer to advance his career in mechanical engineering.
But around that time, Head and his wife, Shanell Weatherspoon, began having conversations about recycling and the impact that could have on the future of the environment and ultimately their children. For the next decade, Head says he used his spare time to learn more about the recycling industry and how it affects manufacturing and the environment. He also considered starting a recycling business.
“We wanted to find a way where we could build a small business that was sustainable and served a purpose in the community,” Head says.
He saw an opportunity to recycle heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment and appliances from contractors in the area. “At any given job, you see 5 to 15 pounds of recyclable material that was just going to landfill,” he says.
So, in 2008, Head and Weatherspoon launched Essential Recycling in Pontiac, Michigan, to haul and recycle materials for contractors and other customers in the surrounding area. The company recycles HVAC equipment and appliances, as well as wood pallets, plastic pallets and old corrugated containers.
In addition to serving the Pontiac community by providing recycling services, Head says the company has been dedicated to making an impact on the next generation of the workforce.
“It’s a passion that I have to see young people excel in anything and everything they do,” Head says.
Over the years, the company has focused on helping provide internships and job opportunities to students in the area, as well as teaching students in K-12 schools around the area about recycling.
Recruitment champions
Head and Weatherspoon have experience in recruiting and helping students.
Outside of his work experience, Head says he has served in many volunteer roles to help with youth development, such as through his local church and the area’s chamber of commerce. Prior to working at Essential Recycling, Weatherspoon spent nearly 20 years of her career working in human resources at General Motors.
“I spent considerable time in leadership development and recruiting,” Weatherspoon says, adding that she has experience working with internship programs that helped students living in underprivileged areas. “We took those learnings early on in our business and started mentoring people, particularly African American males, that came looking to us for jobs, coaching and mentoring.”
Over the years, Head and Weatherspoon have worked with students in underprivileged areas to teach them how to develop marketable skills and how to talk to prospective employers. Weatherspoon says their work has helped students to land technician roles and other internships.
“There was one individual … I think at the time he was pursuing an associate degree,” Weatherspoon says. “He had some aspirations to be an engineer. Our biggest thing is to support you in your future aspirations, we want to make sure that you are able to make money that you need to live and to be able to go to school. So, we helped him, coached him and helped him get a tech job at an automotive company. He did that for a number of years, and then he went back to get his electrical engineering degree. Now, he’s a supervisor at that same company, and his future is very bright. I don’t know that he would have gotten that opportunity if we hadn’t vouched for him.”
Head adds that the recycling industry has an aging workforce, making it important for recycling businesses to try to recruit the next generation of the workforce.
“When I look at people in the material recovery facilities and scrap yards, almost all of the workers are older than me,” he says. “So, workforce development in our industry is critically important … we need to strengthen workforce development pipelines.”
He says Essential Recycling has focused on doing just that by teaching students that the industry offers essential, well-paying jobs.
Weatherspoon attributes Essential Recycling’s success with internships and recruitment to making those tasks a priority.
“If we want to continue to grow our business, we need good talent,” she says. “It starts with creating a spark in a young person who says, ‘I’m interested in recycling. I’m interested in preserving the environment.’ So, we carve out time to make it happen. That’s been our mantra since the beginning. We carve out the time to impact future generations.”
Head says companies wanting to focus more on recruiting and working with students need to find someone to “champion” that goal.
“You have to find the person who’s willing to champion the next generation at your company,” he says. “There’s bound to be someone in the organization who will be a champion for that. That person needs to be given the resources to make things happen. It doesn’t have to be [human resources]. It can be someone who exudes passion about making other people succeed.”
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Source: Recycling Today
Focused on an essential task
<![CDATA[When Damany Head moved to southeast Michigan in the early 2000s, he had no intention of starting a business in the recycling industry. He moved to the area to take a job as a site engineer to advance his career in mechanical engineering.But around that time, Head and his wife, Shanell Weatherspoon, began having conversations about recycling and the impact that could have on the future of the environment and ultimately their children. For the next decade, Head says he used his spare time to learn more about the recycling industry and how it affects manufacturing and the environment. He also considered starting a recycling business.“We wanted to find a way where we could build a small business that was sustainable and served a purpose in the community,” Head says.He saw an opportunity to recycle heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment and appliances from contractors in the area. “At any given job, you see 5 to 15 pounds of recyclable material that was just going to landfill,” he says.So, in 2008, Head and Weatherspoon launched Essential Recycling in Pontiac, Michigan, to haul and recycle materials for contractors and other customers in the surrounding area. The company recycles HVAC equipment…