One man’s trash is another man’s…recycling!

If Cook has a secret weapon, it’s our people. Every day we hear stories of how one employee’s passion led to a positive change in the world, and we couldn’t be more proud of that. On Earth Day, we want to recognize one of our own and his efforts to change the world right from his desk at CMI (Cook Medical Inc., on Acuff Road in Bloomington, which houses customer service teams, HBS, Cook Travel, and rep training teams).

Paul Fil is the training manager for Peripheral Intervention, and he’s also very interested in the environment. Over the past 15 months or so, he has started and grown a recycling program for the second floor and the cafeteria at CMI.

“I just love the planet. I want people to take care of it,” he said. “The Earth is so dirty and fragile as it is. I have a daughter now, and the earth just needs to be clean.”

Paul became the PI training manager in late 2013, and the amount of product they used and discarded in training bothered him.

“We reuse products as many times as possible, but we still go through a lot,” said Paul. “And it’s just a shame to see perfectly good pieces of platinum tip going into the trash can.”

Rally to action

There was not a lot he could do about recycling the products themselves due to the materials they are made of, but the product packaging and other materials used around the office could be recycled. So, Paul decided to start a recycling program at CMI. He gathered his team of people who work on the second floor and rallied them to start recycling paper, aluminum, cardboard, and plastic.

His team rose to the challenge, and the labeled recycling bins filled up quickly. Twice a week, Paul would carry five large bins down to the lobby, ensure that the contents were sorted correctly, and send it all via interoffice to Chuck Sater at Park 48, who would take care of the rest of the process.

“Chuck deserves all the credit,” said Paul. “He’s amazing. He just gets things done.”

Chuck, an environmental health and safety engineer at Park 48, shares Paul’s passion for making sustainable choices. “It’s up to us, because others will inherit our messes or successes, and we need to decide what we leave them.”

The next step

Once that program was running successfully, Paul set his eyes on a new goal: the CMI cafeteria. Recycling in a cafeteria is slightly more involved (read: grimy) than handling office waste, but Paul wasn’t going to let that stop him. He got the cafeteria staff on board to recycle, and he spent hours digging through waste containers to sort the materials. The cafeteria staff now ensures that all recyclable materials go into the recycling bins.

Eventually, Chuck and Paul worked together to get Shred Unlimited, the local company that Cook uses for office paper shredding, to handle the pickup and disposal of all the recycling from the second floor of CMI and the CMI cafeteria.

Not done yet

Paul isn’t digging through trash cans anymore, but he does have more goals in mind for increasing recycling at Cook. (Yes, multiple goals.) Those include expanding the recycling program to all of CMI and Park 48, and to figure out a good way to recycle the products they use in training.

“Cook is such an innovative, family-oriented, caring organization,” he said. “Recycling just seems to fit into that kind of mold.”

If you’re interested in starting a recycling program in your department, Paul has tips for you. One, get your department on board. Two, make sure you have an area that can house recycling containers. And three, get the right people involved, starting with Chuck Sater.

Our track record

According to reports from Shred Unlimited, CMI and P48 have recycled the following amounts of materials in 2014:

• 243 tons of cardboard
• 5,520 pounds of razorblades
• 44,640 pounds of plastic
• 188,734 pounds of shredded paper

Our hats are off to you, Paul, and everyone else who helps keep Cook green! Happy Earth Day!