Letter from the Editor: There's a story in that

There are plenty of good stories in recycling. Most of us probably walk past a few of them every day without giving them much thought. The trick is recognizing the stories that are there and learning how to tell them.

I recently had the opportunity to host a workshop as part of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries' Next Gen Committee on building your professional presence in the recycling industry. One of the exercises was about finding the story behind something you've done at work.

Installing a new sorter is news inside a facility, but outside of the facility, the more interesting part is what changed because of the installation. Did you recover more material? Did you solve a problem that had been costing the facility time or money? A 12 percent reduction in contamination is a great result, but the number becomes much more interesting when you can explain what that 12 percent allowed you to do.

This is something I see from the editor's side all the time. Some of the best stories start with a very ordinary conversation with someone who doesn't think they have anything particularly interesting to say. They'll mention a problem they've been working on, a change they've made at their facility, or something they're seeing in the market, almost as an aside. To them, it's just their job, but there's almost always an article in there.

There's an incredible amount of knowledge in this industry, but a lot of it never travels very far beyond the people who already have it. That's one reason I wanted to talk about personal visibility with the Next Gen group in the first place. Building a professional presence doesn't mean you have to suddenly start posting inspirational LinkedIn essays five times a week. It can mean joining a committee and contributing to the conversation, speaking on a panel, sharing something useful online, or introducing two people who should know each other.

If we want people to see recycling differently, we have to give them the language and the stories to do it. It starts small with you, individually, learning to tell your story. That builds your personal brand. Your personal brand builds trust in your company, and your company's credibility builds trust in the industry. When enough people can explain clearly why this work matters, that gets more funding, more support, and more buy-in from people who have never set foot inside a facility, but might be making decisions that impact your operations.

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This article originally appeared in the September/October 2026 issue of Recycling Product News.