Sustainable Packaging
Industry Experts discuss all the new materials and ways that packaging can be more sustainable and how we can do our parts to help recycle and reuse. Sustainable Packaging is and will continue to affect us all in our daily lives. We have lots of fun and get down to the real data of what's working to help our planet!
Sustainable Packaging
Trash Magic Host Sara Fuentes / President of Smart Waste
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trash-magic/id1557527840
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-eve-fuentes-6a620422/
The amazing Sara Fuentes has some awesome stories and is doing great things in our world to help improve waste removal.
Sara is the co-host of Trash Magic Podcast and the Co-Founder and President of Smart Waste!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/packaging-today-show/id1656906367
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Packaging Today Podcast
https://open.spotify.com/show/6dksVwqEFVDWdggd27fyFF?si=e924995740f94e19
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/
I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.
This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.
Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is my friend, Sarah Fuentes, the co-founder and president of Smart Waste and the co-host of Trash Magic podcast. How are you, Sarah?
Sara Fuentes:I'm doing wonderful today. Yeah, it's amazing day. Happy to be here. Thank you, Corey, for having me.
Cory Connors:I love, the polka dots you got going on. You got this really cool, vibe going on. Anybody, who's just listening, I'll try to describe sometimes for the listeners. And you got a really cool podcast mic in front of you, which is awesome. It looks like, R two D two almost. Pretty awesome.
Sara Fuentes:Thanks. Yeah, I appreciate that. I just have to say that one of my all time favorite things to wear is dresses. Yep. And so today you got the powerful women vibe. Yeah,
Cory Connors:definitely. you've earned it. You've done a lot in this space. I'm very glad to get to, to meet you, down at, waste Expo in New Orleans and we just hit it off immediately and so we had to get on each other's podcast right away.
Sara Fuentes:Yeah, no, new Orleans was awesome. as I mentioned to you, I'm also the Vice Chair of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. It's a nonprofit organization that supports, women and men in the Cleantech space. and we do. And it's just amazing to meet people like yourself that are creative, and that like to have fun. And that's kinda my values in life is to have fun. So right forward to this conversation.
Cory Connors:Yeah. What's the point of all this if we're not enjoying it while we're doing it? Right. Exactly. Exactly. Well said. Well, let's talk a little bit about your background. What got you into this, kind of trash related business?
Sara Fuentes:Yeah. So, I actually majored in early hood child develop child development. Wow. and I worked with special needs children. I've been hit, kicked, punched bit the whole nine yards. So some, like to say I have high tolerance for bs. but, I became a professional, observer and I learned how to observe professionally. when I became a master teacher, I then trained teachers to become teachers. And so becoming a teacher that trains other teachers, you learn how to observe and give non-bias observations and so, I, to fast forward what got me to where I'm at now, I had my son 29 and I wanted to do something that was a little bit more meaningful. Not that teaching's not meaningful, and working with special needs children isn't meaningful, but it's a really challenging career. Yeah. And. financially you're not paid, a living wage and so it's really hard to provide for yourself in Silicon Valley. yeah. Single teacher salary, right? Yeah. so I entered into the waste and recycling industry. after I had my son and, prior to that I was in a financial services and I learned how to make my money grow for me and good. the Rule 72 and the Law of Compounding Interest, which it's a whole nother podcast conversation.
Cory Connors:We'll do another one about that. Yes.
Sara Fuentes:And so I learned how to teach. I learned about money, and then I love, I'm passionate about the environment, and that goes to my culture, which is, I represent a small minority of Native American and Latino women that are in the, clean tech and sustainability space. And so my passion and love comes from, my culture of, wanting to preserve our planet, wanting to preserve, a natural way of doing things. and so hence me being into the waste of recycling industry and feeling like everything that I was, learned to do. Has brought me to this point because now when we're teaching at Smart Waste about helping businesses save money and reduce trash and having a more sustainable system, to me it's like 360. I still get to teach. I still get to help people save money, and then I get to help the environment win.
Cory Connors:Yeah, that seems like a perfect fit for you. I've always been very impressed with the Native American mindset of thinking seven to 11 generations out, how our actions will affect the future generations of our family and our world is so important. Yeah.
Sara Fuentes:So I mean, that's my story in a nutshell of how I got into the waste and recycling industry. I started off as a dispatcher.
Cory Connors:Oh, cool. How was that job? I've always been interested in that. Was
Sara Fuentes:it fun? It was cool because you learned a lot, you learned a lot of the fast demands, like Right. This problem's happening and it's literally a horrible trash problem. Yeah. Literally it means that there's trash everywhere or that something's going on and you, it's an emergency and so you learn a lot about the problems right off the top, being in dispatch and you learn also customer service on how to manage people that are angry about the trash.
Cory Connors:Oh, I hear you. Yeah. One of my best friends is a garbage hauler and, he tells me stories about people so, Coming out to the curb and saying, why didn't you get my can last week? Or what this and that. Oh
Sara Fuentes:yeah. It's like you never wanna see anyone angry about their trash. Or about their money at the bank. Yeah, those are the two things that like, that really like get people over the top,
Cory Connors:waste removal is a very intimate relationship. it's if you have to hold onto that garbage longer or that recycling longer, it affects your family. You're directly, it does so very true. Well, let's talk about, trash Magic. your podcast. What, how and why did you start it? Tell us about it. I'm excited.
Sara Fuentes:So, so my hostess with the composts, and I, we met. And this is amazing story. we met in a virtual breakout room at the beginning of Covid. Wow. we were desperate to stay connected in our community and so as I mentioned, women in clean tech and sustainability had a virtual event, and we used to do these breakout rooms and, you do this quick, Silicon Valley introduction and she said, hi, my name's Okie. Jennys fast. I'm a ken. Chemical engineer and I love trash. And literally I was like, I'm Sarah Fuentes and I'm a waste expert and I love trash too. You become best friends.
Cory Connors:It's like that stepbrothers movie. Right? Exactly
Sara Fuentes:like that. Right? I love that. And so we made friends, offline and then one day we were just hanging out, offline and talking and chit chatting and she did. The thing that, you know, we teach people at w c s was when you're in a networking event, you make a connection, you connect with them on LinkedIn and you send up a follow-up to have maybe a coffee or something like that. She did those things right to me and, We made friends and, she asked me one day, would you like to start a podcast with me? I like your voice and I think, we could be good at it. And I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I'm like a yes person. Like I'm willing to try anything twice. Yeah. And fail at it miserably. And so, or find out that it's something fun then I'm actually kind of good at or have fun doing. Yeah. And I'm willing to learn. And so, we decided to pursue this, trash Magic podcast because we wanted to teach the everyday person about the circular economy. And it sounds, circular economy. Sounds intimidating. and what does that even mean? Right? And why do you care about trash and why do you love trash so much? And so the trash magic came up from, and we rebranded ourself because our first name of our podcast was, what the hell do I do with this? Because that was like a common question that people would always ask us is, what the hell do I do with this? Which, right. But then one day we were having a meeting and, She was in a book club and she was telling me about her book club and she was telling me, a scene in the store, in the book. and while she was telling me the scene in the book, I'm taking copious notes and said that this person in the book was a homeless person and that. whenever the homeless person needed something, she would say what she needed and it was like trash, magic, and it would just appear. And so this was what she was telling me about the book. And so I wrote down the words Trash Magic while she was talking to me. And so she said, so I said all this to tell you that I was thinking that we rename the podcast. And I said To Trash magic. And she was like, yeah, perfect. I love it. And we were just redoing our logo. Yeah. and we called our graphic designer and had him change the name and so it, it was trash magic ever since. And trash magic is really this magical experience that you get around material and trash, whether it's people. It could be someone or people that are discarded even. Yeah. That are discarded a mindset. it, so this trash magic thought process is this magic that comes around trash. And Lee, you and I met because of trash magic and I agree. Yeah. And if it wasn't for us being at that networking and wanting to network with people that are in waste. Yeah. Right. Like,
Cory Connors:yeah, Terrell and Mikey and I walk in there and we immediately, I just sat next to you. Yeah. And it was just like, oh wow, this, how did this happen? And like you said, it's trash magic. It's just magic. Just, well, that's awesome. Tell us a little bit about, what you would talk about in your podcast. So who's an example other than maybe somebody like me that you would interview? Yeah, so
Sara Fuentes:we love interviewing, an everyday person that's doing something for the waste industry and also somebody that's, at a c e O level. we also talk to materials, so like if you manage a particular material and let's just use rubber as an example. and then you obviously focused on packaging and so. There's so many different types of material in the world, and us as consumers, we wanna talk about these materials, help you understand how they're made. Where they come from. And that's where Oakley comes in as a chemical engineer. Her understanding the beginning of life and how these things are made. Yeah. And what it takes to source these materials. And then, Myself as a waste expert that's been in the industry that understands what happens if we don't have a buyer and we don't have a downstream for these materials. Right. Ultimately it's gonna get landfilled and then the effects of that on the environment. Right? Right. And so we want to be able, and our platform is open not just for the industry people. We just interviewed a high school student that is doing amazing things in Washington. And so we wanna be able to spread the love, not just industry people, but people that are passionate about trash, passionate about making an impact on the economy and the circular economy. And we wanna share those stories out there, right? So I
Cory Connors:love that. We'll keep up the good work and we'll keep, we'll keep spreading the message about what can be recycled, what we should pivot to instead of this, try this material and connect with this person. I, did a tour of a mph, recently and they didn't even know that you could recycle soft plastics. Yeah. Wow. this is, this state hasn't focused on this concept of these things are actually recyclable now. It's a unique thing to think about, but it's the stuff that you and I care about. Right? Yeah.
Sara Fuentes:Yeah. I know that MF tour looked fun.
Cory Connors:Yeah. It was kind of like a wwo, just kinda, less than exciting. the people that worked there were very kind and very nice and, they did what they were doing the best that they could with what they had. Yeah. and I think this. The resources that we need to provide people that are in our industry are greater than what they have. I think so that was the lesson I
Sara Fuentes:got. I have two lessons about, infrastructure, which is infrastructure lies heavily in who we vote into, city government jobs. Yeah. So you know, that's something for us industry people to think about when our next voting comes and where we live. And what those people's perspectives are on, and that was another cool thing that we had the opportunity to meet fellow, state people and assembly people at this mixer. Yep. Once again, making connections with people like that make big, impactful decisions in our communities. Right. That's critical. And that's another thing that I wanna advocate for, which is every citizen can make an impact on their direct environment by. Voting the right person that's gonna support your value system right around the environment. And it does take a little bit of research, sometimes, but yeah.
Cory Connors:And how do we find out, that's such a great point. How do we find out what they really think? And are they just reading a list of talking points from their management or whatever? like you said, we gotta get to the bottom of this and say, okay, I do these people really care about the environment.
Sara Fuentes:Yeah. I mean, Fiona and I think, the other lady that was there, One of the things that I know to be true is that they hold similar value systems to myself, because they support some of the caregivers unions and Oh, wow. And, it's, a caregiver's union, s e I U. 2015. Yeah. And I mean, that's a really big union in California. And, being a caregiver myself, of taking care of a family member that's special needs and advocating, you see people that are part of the assembly, members that are part of these organizations or that support them. Who are the people that I rally behind,
Cory Connors:Yeah. Well, and you find out quickly how legitimate they are. and yes, you're right. It was so great to meet them. You just got this great feeling from them. That was her. Yeah. Yeah. she, they were both amazing and, really f found out some of the challenges that they have to deal with as representatives for the state. Yeah. Well, let's talk about your other business that you're, that you're in charge of or co-founder and president of, smart Waste. Let's talk about that. Can you tell us what that
Sara Fuentes:is? Sure. So, smart Waste is a startup we founded in 2020 in August. And we focused on, waste technologies, waste infrastructure, and zero waste facilitation. our core values are transparency, circularity, and people. being in the industry over a decade, I, I. Learned that a lot of people didn't necessarily trust the garbage industry. And, there was lots of, red lines and, things that maybe, weren't necessarily directly shared with the commercial sector. And, smart waste. Were also R two V three certified. And what that means is that we have an e p a standard where we recycle responsibly and we have to uphold and sh report what happens to material, in the downstream for specialized materials such as universal waste or electronic waste. That's great. And these tend to be materials that are highly coveted. very much, expensive in terms of sourcing the material. from the metals to the precious metals to the circuit boards, to the glass, to the mercury. Okay. Yeah. Wow. so think about mining and making all this type of material. So are. Focus around being R two V three and also being a zero waste facilitation company. Is that a commercial sector or public sector? Maybe they are already doing a decent job diverting material from the landfill. But they're like 65, but they know that the state's mandates is 75 in California. Or maybe they just want to be a sustainability leader and they wanna be at iso 1,401 and they want to lead by example and set the standard. Okay. Well, then they would work with the company like Smart Waste, because then we would also go in and do an internal audit to verify what's happening to their material with the vendors that they're already using. Okay. Right. And we're not there to say, Hey, don't use these guys. we're there to advocate for the vendors that are there too, and verify that they're doing the right thing. and highlight that they're doing the right thing, right? Yeah. It, nobody wants to toot their own horn because then you're like, like bragging and you're not succeeded, right? So when you work with the third party, that's actually validating what you're doing and investigating it. And from this, once again, I come from this. Observation background, remember as I started the conversation, right, right, Where I come in from a non-biased level, neutral place. Okay. Where I'm just there looking for the information and my re, my goal and my loyalty goes to our core values that I mentioned, which is transparency, circularity, and then to the people. So I'm there to be transparent to what I find. To the vendor and to the customer? Both. Yeah, because I might be doing business with the vendor at another location. Right. So once again, if I find something, I gotta, I'm going to tell the vendor whether you like it or not. Same thing with the customer. Hey, guess what? You thought you were doing a good job, but we found out that you're doing an average job, right? You're an average Joe. like,
Cory Connors:and when you say a vendor, that would be somebody that would maybe pick up a certain material from your customer,
Sara Fuentes:recycler or recycler, or a hauler. it could be a donation company, it could be, a manufacturing company that has a internal recycling program cuz there's Oh yeah. Clothes out there, well, pallets is a good one as an example cuz manufacturing. manufacturers of pallets oftentimes have a return program, right? Right. So similar to programs like that, we'll find out about these amazing types of programs and share them with our other customers because we're about the circular economy. We want to create that community, even if smart doesn't directly benefit financially. We know that our customers are saving money. Yeah, and we're bringing value to them that way by being the connector, the information gatherer, and sharing with them the policies or sharing with them best practices that maybe other companies know. But just don't have the bandwidth to go and share. Right. Because that's not their focus. Right. Right.
Cory Connors:Yeah. That's, so that's an amazing, point to all of this is we need to share what we know and, yeah. teach our lessons. yeah. very important. Aspect. Well, let's talk a little bit about some specifics. I, I've got a couple questions here. So, how can companies improve their sustainability? What's something that you look at first? What's a easy win for
Sara Fuentes:people? I think an easy win is if I was talking to like a facilities director, an easy win would just to do a. Quarterly checkup, like a quarterly audit of how they're doing and if they even have a good waste system, meaning like a good waste receptacle in their lunchroom and if they have proper signage, just because I feel like that. The day-to-day at an operation, it adds up fast at the end of the week. Yeah. And you're generating anywhere from, depending on how many people you have in your building could be, from four yards a week to 40. Oh,
Cory Connors:right. And so it's from the employees? It's from the staff.
Sara Fuentes:Yeah, it's from the staff. Depending on what type of business you have. And those types of errors of contamination build up fast. Yeah, so I would just say that how a company could be more sustainable is to first want to do an assessment of what, where they're at right there, and acknowledge the good that they're doing, cuz that's important. And then in acknowledge what areas they can do to improve and just pick one. Yeah. One thing I'm not saying 20, just one right thing that they know that they could do.
Cory Connors:Well said. Do you usually encourage them, your customer to have a few employees that are kind of in charge of this project or, help maintain the system so
Sara Fuentes:the bigger the business it is. Okay. It is almost imperative that we get in a sustainability committee, the green team, cuz some organizations already have these internal, green team waste. Champions. Okay. And so, it's imperative to get involved with them and provide them the resources that they need to do the, their initiatives, and then support those initiatives that they already have and then add in ideas that they can layer on. Because it's so much more impactful when you are a part of a team and you have that energy and that synergy to, to create that everlasting impact within that culture of that company. Cause every company has a culture and it's established by the leadership and now with these ESG goals, right. It's gonna hit these CEOs and executives pockets. Yep. When these ESG goals are gonna be tied to their bonuses. Yeah. Okay.
Cory Connors:all of a sudden you're, they're financially motivated to be correct. Aware of what waste they're creating. That's that's an exciting part of all of this. Yeah. Well said. are you seeing, I'd like to know maybe a trend in packaging or something that, that you are seeing that's, exciting to you that will be easier to deal with? So, two
Sara Fuentes:things. Okay. Yeah. I am excited to see, In packaging, and many of us may have seen it in, 20 22, 20 23 when the PS five came out. the, those of us that are privileged to have one of those things,
Cory Connors:a small amount, right? They have a limited number, right?
Sara Fuentes:they're, packaging. I observed the whole thing, right. And everything in that was, recyclable, with the exception of about three films, three small films that they had
Cory Connors:Little protective surface covers you, right? Yeah. They had
Sara Fuentes:like a couple film products in there, but everything else from the design was cardboard, O c C. Wow, great. Even the, even a percentage of the, actual unit was made for post-consumer plastics. Okay. Wow. That's impressive. And when you work with companies like that manufacturer that make initiatives to say, we want to break free from plastic and we're going to stop buying single use plastic. That initiative came from the leadership, then trickled down to the offices, then trickled down to their manufacturing, and now we see the results of that in these products that we're seeing. Okay. Very true. So to me, That was like a big thing, seeing a leader like that That touches every level of human beings from our kids to ourselves. Right. Right. So, I would say that's one thing that I like to see in manufacturing and trending with these companies that are making these conscious decisions, and seeing that their consumers are. Willing to wait and willing to support them. Yeah. and then I, another trend, that I'm seeing is I've seen a couple new innovations around pill bottles, for the older generation. and I love senior people that are mature in life, you learn a lot from them. wisdom, right? Yeah, wisdom for sure. they sometimes struggle with arthritis and getting the caps off these, pill bottles because then sometimes they're on medication. So I seen this new pill box and it's outta cardboard. And and I thought that was a really cool invention, just because it shifts a way of this way of thinking of you can only use plastic for these types of,
Cory Connors:and Right. Cuz this is how we've always done it. Right. Correct.
Sara Fuentes:Right. And it's still sanitary. It still meets all these, health and safety requirements. And so seeing that to me was really awesome because, cardboard will break down even if it's in the landfill. Somehow, if it ends up in the landfill, it's not gonna be as, detrimental as having this plastic bottle for pills. Yeah, that's, they fill only a quarter of the way.
Cory Connors:That's the worst, right? When there's almost nothing in it. It's like a week sub subscription or prescription. Yeah. Yeah. Very frustrating. Yeah. Well, this has been really great, Sarah. Thank you so much. can you tell everybody how to get in touch with you and your
Sara Fuentes:companies? sure. So, if you're interested in Smart Waste, then you want to, learn and help your business get to zero waste, or for whatever reason you got out of compliance or you want to get ISO certified, reach out to us at info smart waste usa.com. And, if you're interested in Trash magic and you maybe want to share a story or talk to us about Trash magic, and any materials that you want to share and highlight, you can reach out to us on Trash Magic Podcast. Do gmail.com. And, if you're also interested in, supporting our nonprofit organization, women in Clean Tech and Sustainability, we're an international organization, so tap in it's women in clean tech and sustainability.org. you can always find me on LinkedIn, Sarah Eve Fuentes and Smart Waste, Inc. Excellent.
Cory Connors:I'll put those in the show notes so people can click on them if they're listening. Yeah. Thank you so much, Sarah. This has been awesome. I'll have to do this again and check in on you in six months for a year.
Sara Fuentes:yeah. Let's do it. And I'll, and maybe we could do one live when I come up to Portland.
Cory Connors:Oh yeah. I love that. Well, thanks again. Thank you. Thank you, Landsberg Orora for sponsoring this podcast. And if you're listening, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. And stay tuned for more. Thank you.
