After 34 years of serving as the face of recycling efforts in the San Lorenzo Valley, Boulder Creek’s Nancy Macy is preparing to relinquish the reins of the SLV Recycling Center in July.
When Macy and the fledgling Valley Women’s Club began operating a small recycling center in downtown Boulder Creek in 1978, no one predicted how it would thrive.
The first incarnation of the recycling center had a $30,000 budget and an all-volunteer staff, opening as a weekly drop-off center behind what is now Boulder Creek Pizza and Pub.
The recycling center now spans the entire San Lorenzo Valley, employs nine full-time staffers and three part-timers and has an annual budget in the neighborhood of $1.1 million.
Macy said that for the first 11 years, her role in the center was purely as a volunteer, collecting only a small stipend. It wasn’t until the California Refund Value center opened in Felton in 1989 that wages could be considered.
“We were very involved in all aspects as volunteers,” Macy said. “Long before any money was involved.”
Macy said she was particularly proud of the jobs the center was able to offer because of the way the community embraced recycling.
“It’s provided living wages to those who might not have had the opportunity otherwise locally,” she said. “Over time, it’s been a really good place to work.”
Macy also noted the ways in which recycling has developed during her time with the recycling center, including changes in the types of recyclable materials; near-weekly, intensive government inspections; and the center’s beneficial, but closely monitored and paperwork intensive, partnership with Santa Cruz County.
“It’s a really complex business now — logs, spreadsheets,” she said. “You have to jump through a lot of hoops.”
The Valley Women’s Club is advertising the managing director position on its website, www.vwcweb.org.
Macy said that while she looked forward to traveling, spending more time with her family and “not having to work seven days a week,” she treasured her time with the center.
“I’m so, so lucky where I could have a job that I so strongly believe in,” she said. “I’m very, very grateful to be involved.”
