Thomas Coates joined CARE as the California Program Director in July 2022. Here he talks about his background and vision for the organization and carpet recycling in the state.
How has your past work experience prepared you for the CARE CA Program Director job?
As a native of southern California, I understand the state’s eco-consciousness when it comes to avoiding waste and disposal. As a leader in local government, I have worked with businesses, community leaders, and our partners at CalRecycle to implement sustainability programs that meet the State’s recycling mandates while benefiting all vested parties. As an entrepreneur, I have worked to find market-based solutions through balanced risk taking and innovate application of available technologies. As a manager, I have experience leading diverse and multi-disciplinary groups that were tasked-oriented and collaborative. I have found that using the collective knowledge of a team helps me to make the best decisions.
What do you see as CARE’s current major challenge?
The main challenge before us is collecting more discarded carpet material. While we have done an excellent job of building the infrastructure to process and develop materials desired in the marketplace, we must now be laser-focused on increasing points of collection, particularly in the southern part of the state.
What are the larger trends in recycling, waste and sustainability that you think will impact CARE’s work moving forward?
As California’s momentum around recycling policies continues to grow, I think there will be a call for more post-consumer content in new material, so in turn we will need to capture more discarded carpet to meet the demand.
As climate concerns continue to dominate environmental discussions, I believe landfill operators will look to operations such as ours to aid in reducing material going into their system in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Lastly, I would offer that with improvements in recycling equipment technologies, recyclers will be able to capture more of the most voluminous fibers in carpet, which in turn could allow for an expansion in the number of products that could benefit from using reclaimed carpet fibers.
What are CARE’s organizational strengths?
We focus on being a skilled and creative service provider to our partners and stakeholders.
Executive Director Bob Peoples has assembled a dynamic team that is highly skilled, technically competent and success oriented. I am blessed to work with talented and skilled professionals who are dedicated to bringing to life our vision of success.
How about your free time?
In my spare time I can be found courtside at my son Evan’s high school basketball games or cooking up new vegan recipes in the kitchen with my daughter, Maya.