welcome to bets on the future where we highlight the various career paths and the electrifying Metals World from the vehicle you ride in to the bridge holding it up metals are everywhere why not in your career too I’m Jennifer Betts a Metals industry veteran with almost 20 years experience here to highlight these incredible career paths As Told by the women who are living them today we have a true lead by example leader joining us please give a warm welcome to Christine savedra of SA Recycling the largest network of metal recycling facilities in North America Christine brings a wealth of knowledge operations experience and volunteerism to the table with a background in operation she has achieved remarkable success over the past two decades of work within the recycled materials industry she’s built an incredible team and received multiple awards for her volunteer efforts in her community get ready for an inspiring conversation about Metal Recycling and how these types of operations help their local communities I want to thank Christine Saavedra the community outreach manager at SA Recycling for joining us today the intent of this is to Showcase and highlight all the variety of

career opportunities and different career paths that are available in the metals industry and so I just want to give a huge shout out to Christine for joining us today and I will let her introduce herself a little bit further hi everyone so uh my name is Christine sabedra I uh started in the metal recycling industry almost 22 years ago I was hired when it was Adam Steele in Anaheim and I worked in operations uh for many years in different roles and uh positions and I’m still in operations but I also do the community outreach for the LA area that’s fantastic I want to know a little bit more about your background because I always find it so interesting how people find the metals industry did you have a friend was it a career fair like how did you find this this business so I was looking for a new job I’m combing through the newspaper they’re used I I think it’s still around I’m not sure it’s called Lao pinion and it’s a Spanish language newspaper um local to LA and I saw an ad and I called and they said you know we

have a couple of things open why don’t you come and interview so I I went down to Anaheim and I was interviewed I was met there by Christy Rossi if you remember Chrissy Rossi when she rests in face she’s an awesome person and Mary Beth Mary Beth McFadden who’s the director of our Commercial Art Ferris and so I went out there and they said you know the position was filled but we do have other like we said we have other positions and we think he might fit and so I said okay and I interviewed with the manager there and he needed an assistant and I said uh you know I’m I’m good okay I went from working um like in the hotel industry you know we wear skirts and heels and everyone is in their nice clothes too I had to come into work I didn’t even really own jeans I had to go out and buy more jeans um you know steel toe boots and there was a time I want to say like my first two weeks I would leave for lunch and I would say maybe I shouldn’t maybe I’ll just

not come back and I’ll just I’ll just call and it was uh his name was Carl Clark he worked for Adam Steele for so many years um and he passed away a few well it’s gonna be maybe going on maybe going on 10 years 9 or 10 years now and um I said maybe I just won’t come back and I’ll call him and I’ll say you know what I’m really sorry this is not the field for me and you know you know they say uh my mama didn’t raise it on Twitter right so I said you know let me just let me just push through you know I’m already here you know so I I went back every single day in my seal took boots and uh and little by little they well can you help us with this yes can you do this yes whatever needed to be done that’s what I did and I got to learn more about the recycling industry and I started working with the guys that ran the shredder crew and you know doing like uh helping them to uh streamline The Ordering of their parts and to

Warehouse their parts so that you know they had that kind of stock and I remember um Mike Adams who’s one of the owners he has his officer and so patient because sometimes I wouldn’t understand like I don’t know what this is you know and he would totally take the time and be like this is you know this is how the shredder works and this is this and this is how we need to change things out and um and everybody there was like that um George Adams had his office there and when people talk about essay being you know open the door is open like literally his door was open you could walk in and be like um hey George I have a question and um you would see him there early every every day you know and um George senior uh but may he also rest in peace he he was there every single day early working like um and these were the owners of the company and they’re working their butts off and so you get a sense of I need to make sure that I’m working my butt off because these this

is the example that I’m given you know and um it was really just a good learning environment I think in Anaheim and I was there for maybe about five or six years I don’t remember how long I was there maybe longer until I transferred out to one of the other locations that’s fantastic it’s it really drives home the point of how you don’t have to have any Metals experience what you’re describing with the owners and the people that you worked with in the beginning being open to share their experiences to help educate you in terms of even what a shredder is which we can get to that in a minute because I find it fascinating it just really drives from the point that you don’t have to have experience in this industry but what’s unique about other Industries is that you can take the skills that you learned I’m sure in hospitality you probably have plenty of um I would say skills in terms of dealing with difficult people um and how to deal with them professionally and it it 100 translates between the two absolutely and customer service you know I I tell

people sometimes because uh even before the hotel I worked retail I think my first job was El Pollo Loco you know and um you know you just have to be nice to people that’s your job you’re getting paid and so sometimes I’ll even be in the car and I look over and I smile and I’m like I’m not at work uh the person looks over and smiles or waves and I’m like oh man and yeah or um if I’m at the the place that I will tell you like if I’m at Target and somebody asked me do you know where the bread is I will go straight down uh past three aisles and you’re gonna see this and then you’re gonna make a left and go because at Target I do know where everything is um I know enough not to wear red there anymore but I I know enough to direct you or um I would always you know here we oh we need this run to Home Depot now I always take off my safety vest before I get in there because then it would be like um excuse me and I

don’t know where most of the stuff is at uh at Home Depot so I can’t help them there but um yeah you you can’t I don’t think once you trained yourself to to react to customers a certain way you you don’t ever turn that off and I always get that do you work here no I don’t but let me help you what do you mean it just it just stays with you I think it it absolutely does it’s it’s probably something that’s incredibly that’s been incredibly useful in your career I mean you’re obviously staying at the same company for you said 20 years at this point it’ll be in October 22 years yeah which is unheard of these days which is so fantastic and it really shows to yourself to the company to the policies there to the culture that’s there I mean your first five six years you had Direct access to the owners I mean essay isn’t exactly a small company if you want to put it in perspective of the rest of the recycling world so it’s it’s really incredible that you had that access and it shows you know a

reason to stay and um a lot of people that are here are uh have been here longer than me so uh they’ll still be like oh I’ve been here 30 years all right you know and and um again it just tells to the company right there’s a lot of people that have been here for a long time I wish I could say like oh we have I’m just that great that’s why I’ve been here that long there’s a lot of there’s a lot of good people in this company yeah and um there’s a lot of friends that I’ve made along the way I know that um I was reading yesterday uh was a Gallup poll or something about having friends at work or why having a best friend at work is so important and I think that’s that’s one of the things too like if you have a you cannot find a mentor you can get a work Buddy somebody that you can bounce ideas off of um because challenges will come uh there’s always going to be something uh difficult or something that you might not understand but when you feel comfortable enough

to be able to reach out to somebody else or say hey look at this is have you seen this before this is happening in my location oh yeah yeah this is oh and this is what we do and so then um I I I just going back to that article right because I was just reading it um yesterday and it’s uh it’s something that I think that’s why people also see for so long because I do find that camaraderie yeah and and that doesn’t seem to be as common these days I mean we’re seeing well we’re recording this during a time when there have been a lot of layoffs in some other Industries so to be able to see as they were cycling in particular grow over the years it highlights how the metals industry particularly the recycling side is going to be one of those recession-proof Industries right where it’s always something that’s going to be needed something that’s going to always have a place in our society locally and globally how many yards in perspective does essay have at this point I believe it’s 134. I want to say oh yeah

uh and you wouldn’t happen to know how many states y’all are um at this point you would be surprised but I you know there’s one thing about me is that I remember numbers very well numbers and faces I never remember where I leave my keys that’s why I have to leave them in the exact same spot every day or in the morning forget it uh me and my kids will be like where did I leave the keys and so um I believe it’s 13 states yeah that’s that’s incredible a lot of people see the metals recycling industry as the blue bin at the end of your driveway and it is so much more than that um and I bet you have front row seat to that as community outreach manager do you want to share a little bit about what you’re working on in terms of helping educate and connecting with the community yeah definitely um I start with my own Community First right so with my student my my students they’re not my students my kids and their friends and you know um I volunteer a lot I volunteer heavily in my city

um to the point where people are always asking me do you work for the school district do you work at the school no I’m just anytime I have time off here I am you know and in the evenings when there’s meetings I’m always a first parent there um and I’m always preaching about recycling because uh some people don’t understand how many things uh can be recycled you know John Sacco has that repurposed series I’ve shared it um the israe docu-series that came out um it featured Brandi Harlow and George Adams um I I want to say it was like the sixth series or the third series um but um that was a great series oh jobs and future Tech and I and you know my my son he’s in a program it’s called Project Lead the Way and he wants to be an engineer when he you know gets out of school or whatever so I’m always uh going back to all the things that recycling does and all the things that we get out of recycling and trying to put it into perspective to people that might not be around recycling a

lot I was at a quarterly breakfast the other day we volunteer a lot with the chambers and um I tell people what are you where they say what do you recycle and I say we take everything from the fridge to the bridge so just remember if it falls anywhere in between there you can call me and we can recycle it for you that means if it’s laying around your house a stove or refrigerator an old bicycle um if you have a company that is uh knocking down a bridge if you have a knocking down a building you have rebar it’s a byproduct of your industrial uh production all this stuff we will gladly take it we will repurpose it it will come back to you as steel and it’ll be used in new things because and and then I I like to I I want to say I love that repurpose series because it kind of explains what I’ve been trying to explain to people like you see the your door like that just didn’t come out of nowhere all of the your toaster oven your stove everything comes out of recycling and um

and that’s what that’s what I try to do when I go out into the public and you know networking events and stuff like that and just let people know it’s it’s not just bottles and cans because that’s what people will say oh you take bottle and actually no actually I don’t recycle bottles and cans uh don’t bring them to me because I won’t be able to help you but um but we do do uh everything else from the fridge to the bridge will take it and you have some of the most incredible I would say automobile shredders in the country uh it they’re definitely size wise up there particularly one down in Long Beach because we’re both in the LA area and so I’ve I’ve had the pleasure of touring that facility before and it is impressive and most people yeah they don’t they don’t understand how you know when they’re done with their fridge they’re washer dryer even their car what happens to it after it’s done and in reality they’re probably driving their a piece of their old car or their old cars in their new washer and dryer or you know

I I like to use metal cups when I’m drinking at the home home office and trying to translate that for the general public is absolutely key because they’re they’re not going to connect the two in terms of what the recycling world does or that it’s even an industry or career track for people yes and it it’s uh one it’s like once you’ve been in this industry that’s it it’s part of you at so I ran for city council uh what is it now like six years ago or something like that and um I went out to get um I went out to get um what is it called the endorsement of um of um a group that uh their you know recycling their conservationists their this is what they do and and uh they interviewed me and you know I thought nothing of it everybody there’s a bunch of incumbents why would they even look twice at me and they called me back uh you know a couple days later and they just said well I we just want to let you know that we were all blown away by your interview and I

was like me right my interview like what did I say and they’re like well you know you were talking about this and that and you know how your teacher kids to use recyclable bags and how you you know all this stuff you do and I was like doesn’t everybody do that and they said no and that’s when they that’s that’s kind of when it hit me like wow no so you’re saying that not everybody does this stuff uh and I told them you know I’ve been working for a recycling company for so long that’s it’s part of who we are we take care of the earth you know so to know that it’s not nor not that it’s not normal but it’s kind of a foreign concept to some people and they were just so happy that um you know somebody like me would step up for this kind of a position yeah so that’s fantastic we need more of that yeah yeah absolutely what are some of the bigger challenges you’ve faced in your career in the metals industry I think the biggest challenges um I think you know I look at challenges

as uh opportunity potentials so no matter how hard or challenging it may seem I always think okay um let’s and I I teach my kids this they’ve I’m sure they’re sick of hearing hearing it but um at their middle school they teach it to them a lot and it’s called growth mindset you know so if you have a setback if you have a challenge if you have a difficult situation if you failed at what you were trying to accomplish or didn’t work out you know you take a step back and you say okay how am I going to solve this right because even people that may be um in your career and in anyone’s career not just Metals I’m just talking in general maybe have tried to deter you or um maybe might have I’ll put it in a nice way constructive criticism about you so you should even take that and say well let let me look because uh a weakness or a challenge could always just be an opportunity in Disguise for you to make yourself better for you to learn for you to grow and so um I don’t think I’ve

had um any other challenges that maybe other people don’t face every single day it speaks to the Recycling Industries start to be honest it it’s exactly how recycling particularly in the industrialized countries got started is there was essentially a byproduct coming out of these manufacturing facilities whether it was Rags from Fabrics or metal or paper something along those lines there was more or less trash and individuals saw an opportunity instead of saying this is a problem and we have to clean it up they looked at it as this is an opportunity and some of those family-owned businesses that got started up you know at the turn of the century around the 1900s still exist today or they’ve been acquired by other companies some by SA Recycling as well but they’re still operating today it’s it’s that mindset that growth mindset of seeing the opportunity out of a challenge is really going to help Drive anyone in any career definitely let’s see here what are some other ones um oh um what advice do you have for young professionals who are just starting their careers in the metals industry what advice do I have

um I would say find a mentor uh like we were talking about get someone on your side that you can trust you can bounce ideas off of and work through challenges uh find a work Buddy um that also wants to work right um I have a friend that sometimes uh you know Thursdays are known as I don’t know if you want to edit this but Thursdays are known as Thirsty Thursdays right yep because people go out drinking but we would call them Thirsty Thursdays but really what that was is that we would both stay late and work that was our Thirsty Thursdays and it usually came with pizza or tacos uh but that was it and um so you know find somebody that you um you maybe find a trade about them that you wish you had or you could learn from and um don’t be shy you know a closed mouth never gets fed uh it’s very hard um one of the hardest things to do maybe is ask for help but you have to and you have to be able to speak up you have to be able to advocate for yourself

and advocate for others um because nobody is going to do it for you so um that’s just like what you’re doing here and I’m so happy that you’re doing it because uh you don’t know how many people you’re advocating for that don’t don’t have a voice or maybe are too shy to speak up or um I’ve never had that issue I’m sure I did maybe when I was a kid but um uh yeah I guess the advice I would say is to find a mentor or get somebody that you can uh you know a work best friend I like yeah I like the work best friends yeah yeah I’m I’m flashing back to the beginning of my career and uh during that stage of life and it was fantastic having those individuals in your corner going through the same things a lot of them started off around the same time that I did we knew nothing right but we banded together learned and I still keep in touch with them after all these years it’s fantastic to watch them and their careers grow over the years I think that the great thing too is

like you say we knew nothing but you knew nothing together and you grew together so you formed that sort of a bond and um at the end of the day I think it can only help because it helps with inclusivity bringing people together making them feel like they’re part of the team not just saying they’re part of the team right in the recycling world to put it in perspective of of the whole supply chain recycled materials that come out of companies like essay recycling recycled Metals essentially go into the production of other metals so like aluminum smelter would go into a steel mill and then eventually would go to a service center to be processed down and ultimately your car door at you know on your vehicle in your career I bet you’ve seen some really interesting and cool things do you have a top one a top three that you would want to share in terms of some interesting things you’ve seen either come into the yard or the processes you’ve seen throughout the years wow um all right let me see I’m trying to think of cool stuff that I have seen

throughout the years we had one customer that built himself a replica of uh where the astronauts train and it looked like a maybe the size of a 20-foot container a little bit shorter where they where they train in zero gravity but obviously he didn’t have the zero gravity and this and he reproduced it to look like that from the inside it was all metal and I I remember I remember the first time I met him I I told him you know I can scrap that and he said oh no no no never and then yeah so he ended up scrapping that but um sometimes we get stuff uh that has to be you know certified destruction and you’ll get brand new things and everybody’s Hearts breaking just watching these uh brand new like eight we just had brand new ATVs in here the other day and I was like sorry pal don’t even look at them don’t look at them when they come in because it’s it’s all has to be somebody’s gonna be here they’re gonna videotape this and so we we get that I can’t think of anything anything uh as

far as uh that we recycled you know we do have tours and stuff and I’ve had the pleasure of touring like the Boys and Girls Club at our Carson facility and the Boys and Girls Club Metro out of our La facility and when you show these kids what is actually getting recycled it’s bigger than the bin like they think recycling bottles and cans oh miss bottles and cans yes but what else I think you take them outside and you show them and their faces just light up and it’s it’s so cool it’s just a it’s a cool thing and I think that is uh it makes recycling even a stove fund just to see those little kids faces you know oh absolutely there was a scene in John Sacco’s the repurposed series which if you’re unfamiliar with it who’s ever listening or watching go check it out on YouTube it’s fantastic the first series talks about steel and it has four or five episodes that goes through the whole process but it was I sat down and watched it with my husband and um he has never seen an auto Shredder before and in

real life right most people haven’t if they’re unless they’re in this industry and he was fascinated by it they picked up a car they picked up a bus at one point and they’re loading it into the shredder and he’s like they’re not they’re not cutting it they’re not they’re not doing something else to it I’m like sometimes they don’t have to and they can just put the whole thing in there now I’m skipping a lot of steps and yes yes no definitely missing a lot of steps here but generally speaking you could see that it was still a car right going in there and he was fascinated by it and I think most people would be fascinated by what we can do especially in the recycling industry right yes it’s fascinating it really is it really isn’t it it’s it’s crazy that um every single time I could tell you I I go to a lot of Chamber of Commerce meetings a lot I mean two three times a week easy um I talk to you know different schools like and when I tell them what we do um you would think that by

now I would have had a chunk good chunk of the population right but it’s still people that are surprised oh you you take that yes yes yes I said and I’ll tell you again from the fridge to the bridge yes your bed rails totally fall in there your old soul totally Falls in line there we’ll take it so um I know there’s a lot of work to be done in spreading the good news of recycling and all of the benefits of recycling but I I think we’re we’re we’re going in the right direction absolutely you’re one of the more active people uh in real life and on LinkedIn and other social media sites so if you uh haven’t followed her already absolutely follow Christine because you are I feel like every other day you’re posting at you know this community event you’re at the Chamber of Commerce you’re you’re networking somewhere else and you are that individual the recycling industry needs to be able to go out there and be the voice and educate and let people know that the United States does a pretty decent job in in terms of recycling and our

manufacturing our Metals industry relies on the recycling industry a lot of what we produce here is not from ore it’s from recycled metals and so it’s great to meet someone that Champions that is educated about it knows the right people to call to to help protect that that industry and help help it grow as well thank you I appreciate that I that that’s a huge compliment I feel like um I see other people doing so much more you know and again like there’s so much we could do but we can only take one day at a time one problem at a time and um slowly but surely the word about Recycling and recycled materials is getting out absolutely and that’s why we’re doing this we want to help educate and just bring awareness to other career tracks that if you want to get into the recycling industry how do you get into it you can start reaching out to companies like SA going on to LinkedIn using those keywords trying to find those organizations lastly I want to take a look ahead what goals or projects do you have in mind for your future

work in the metals industry we talked about a little bit about what you have been working on what you’ve been doing is there a next chapter is there the next project what’s what’s coming down the pipeline you know I wish that I could say but I I don’t know I um I hope to continue in the capacity that I’m and I hope that we can continue to keep spreading the word about recycled materials uh this industry does so much good so much good so much good for the environment um wholeheartedly I believe that and I I am here to help you know uh hear the network here to um like you said connect people that’s that’s the number one thing I do um if I can’t help you but I think I know someone that can I will be there to connect you um and I love operations so I I you know I can’t be too far from here um I really haven’t put much thought I mean you think about it but uh the thing about Recycling and this industry is just that um it it changes you know it’s extremely Dynamic

um you have or you can’t have at times challenges and hurdles coming at you in every direction um you have to be able to Pivot and I think that’s one of the things that has helped me so far is that uh we’re working on this project would you like to help us out yes and you have to Pivot right you have to change and adapt to whatever is coming and I think that um like we’re saying opportunities for improvement opportunities for advancement those are all going to come in good time in due time but you just have to be there you have to be present and be ready for when they do come that’s really exciting and again the the growth mindset that optimistic viewpoint on on yourself the industry just a little bit of society as a whole is is really refreshing and wonderful to hear it gets annoying after a while never never too much of a good thing I don’t think that’s yeah I don’t think that’s the thing well I just want to say again thank you so much for for hopping on here and and bringing your expertise your

knowledge what you work on where you know how you got into this industry it’s just been really wonderful to connect with you speak with you and and learn a little bit more about what you’re working on at essay recycling thank you I appreciate it