Mission Statement
CDR's mission is to divert natural resources from landfills by generating, managing, and delivering recycling and reuse information to the public while developing our staff of service-learning university students into environmental professionals. Our vision is to maximize the benefits of resources through sustainable product design, waste prevention, and recycling that reduces environmental impacts while creating green jobs.
WHAT WE DO
The Center for the Development of Recycling (CDR) is a university-based, non-profit,
environmental research and service organization. Established in 1989, CDR is committed
to
maintaining and distributing recycling information through its call center,
RecycleStuff.org
website, chat line, and social media sites while developing its staff of
service-learning
students into environmental professionals.
CDR operates RecycleStuff.Org as the official recycling website for the counties of
Santa Clara and San Mateo and is the Recycling
and Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) call center for Santa Clara County. CDR students
provide staffing to the call center and chat
line on Monday - Friday from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, and to the Santa Clara County Household
Hazardous Waste facility on Wednesday -
Saturday.
Located in the Department of Environmental Studies at San Jose State University (SJSU),
faculty-managed service-learning students
enroll in EnvS 193 to earn academic credit for their work on CDR projects for government
agencies, consultants, and non-profit
organizations.
CDR’s projects and students are managed by an Environmental Studies faculty member who
is the CDR Director and CDR-experienced staff in the roles of CDR Administrative, HHW,
Social Media, San Mateo County, and Project Managers.
OUR IMPACT
CDR’s services divert tons of materials from landfill disposal to recycling and reuse
service
providers who in turn create jobs that fuel the circular economy and help cities meet
state-mandated waste reduction requirements. CDR saves tax dollars by serving its community
with an annual operating budget that's less than the cost of a single government employee.
Nearly every city in the region and many recycling companies have benefited by hiring CDR
students as interns and staff, saving cities the time and cost to train employees with the
skills and knowledge needed in this emerging field.
Our service-learning student staff has populated RecycleStuff.org with 1,900 recycling and
reuse service providers, 900 materials,
and processed 4 million information requests from 2.6 million people in 48 cities across 2
counties. Since our start in 1989, nearly
1000 service-learning students have provided the community with 150,000 hours of no-cost
service.
OUR STAFF
CDR Director
Bruce Olszewski
bruce.olszewski@sjsu.edu
Bruce Olszewski (Ol-chef-ski) earned San Jose State University’s (SJSU) first MS in Environmental Studies, twice led the Environmental Studies Program including co-leading it to Department status, was the first Environmental Specialist with the City of San Jose, designed the city’s first city-wide water conservation program, founded the Center for the Development of Recycling (CDR), the Santa Clara County Recycling/Reuse Hotline and Household Hazardous Waste appointment center, the website RecycleStuff.org for the counties of Santa Clara and San Mateo, and created courses in service learning, Sustainable Materials Management, Globalization and the Environment, and was recognized as a “Hidden Treasure of SJSU” (1997 SJSU Tower Awards).
Outreach Manager
Sierra Nguyen
sjsu.cdrsocialmedia@gmail.com
Sierra is an undergraduate student at SJSU with a major in Environmental Studies and a minor in Global Studies. She is passionate about getting useful information to people through content creation and digital marketing. Sierra is currently managing the CDR's digital presence across multiple social media platforms. Through the ads and posts, local residents have a chance to learn what is and is not recyclable, get their recycling questions answered, and learn more about what the CDR has to offer. Learning new things through reading books, taking courses, and having conversations with people is what gets Sierra up in the morning.
FOR STUDENTS - INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Interested in an internship opportunity that earns academic credit?
CDR’s faculty-managed service-learning staff of university students develop knowledge and career skills as they provide recycling information services to the public. Students collect the data used to populate our website, RecycleStuff.org and respond to 1000’s of annual information requests. Our student-staff transfer the skills learned at CDR to internship providers and employers.
Students enroll in Environmental Studies 193 and earn one unit of academic credit for every 45 hours of work. The course is repeatable up to 6 units and students may work flexible hours to accommodate their school schedule.
Hundreds of CDR staff have used their CDR experience to build their resumes with practical experience that in combination with their college courses and degrees earn them internships and careers in the vast field of sustainable materials management.
FOR CITIES & COMMUNITIES - MAKE RECYCLESTUFF YOUR RECYCLING WEBSITE!
RecycleStuff.org can be the recycling and reuse website for your community too. Simply put, RecycleStuff.org has more materials, more details, more history, more staff, and more depth of experience. Profit isn't our motivation, reducing waste is. We can put hundreds of recycling and material donation sources and key pieces of information at the fingertips of your community. We have the staff resources to voice-verify and confirm the accuracy of every listing on RecycleStuff.org. And we have a people-to-people call center that helps everyone with those what-goes-where questions. No one else has this depth of resources.
Interested in helping your communities reduce waste?
There's a myriad of options when it comes to getting rid of stuff, and that causes a lot of confusion. People live in one community, work in another, move from place to place, and find that services are different in every community. Variations include independent recycling companies, charities accepting donated materials, debris box services, household hazardous waste collection programs, commercial waste and recycling services, landfills, composting facilities, food rescue and redistribution services, material drop-off and buy-back companies, and local government-provided curbside recycling, large-item pick-up, and waste management services. Our website helps people know what goes where and who takes what.
Interested in taking sustainability deeper? It starts with people. Your collaboration or support with the CDR goes further since it supports the development of faculty-managed college students into sustainable materials management professionals of today and tomorrow. We're glad to discuss the possibilities of having RecycleStuff.org be your go-to site. Give us a call at (408) 924-5453 or send us an email at info.recyclestuff@gmail.com to discuss the possibilities.
CDR BROCHURE
Check out our downloadable brochure to learn more about what we do, how we do it, and the internship opportunities that we provide to students!
CONTACT US
Phone: (408) 924-5453
Phone (toll-free): 1-800-533-8414
Spanish/Vietnamese Phone: (408) 924-5359
Research Line: (408) 924-5596
Fax: (408) 924-5426
Email: info.recyclestuff@gmail.com
Address:
San Jose State University
The Center for Development of Recycling
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192-0204
LIST A COMPANY OR CHARITY
We're happy to add your company to our extensive database of nearly 1900, and growing, listings of recycling, reuse, debris box, and waste management companies. Know of a charity that accepts the donation of goods? Let us know, and we'll list them. Did you find an error on our site? (Sorry about that!) Let us know and we'll correct it.
Send us an email (preferred) to info.recyclestuff@gmail.com, or give us a call at (408) 924-5453, and we'll get to it right away.