{"id":7719,"date":"2022-05-20T13:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/blog\/leading-by-example-its-about-faith-learning-and-attitude-for-solid-waste-and-recycling-director\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T14:39:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T18:39:30","slug":"leading-by-example-its-about-faith-learning-and-attitude-for-solid-waste-and-recycling-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/blog\/leading-by-example-its-about-faith-learning-and-attitude-for-solid-waste-and-recycling-director\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Leading by Example\u2019: It\u2019s About Faith, Learning and Attitude for Solid Waste and Recycling Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s American Public Works Week, and we\u2019re celebrating public works leaders in solid waste on our blog. Check back for a new profile feature each day!<\/em><\/p>\n

From sorting on a tipping floor to directing a solid waste and recycling program, Jerry Schuber has seen every facet the industry has to offer over the last three decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say today, I’m still learning,\u201d says Schuber, the Director of Solid Waste and Recycling<\/a> for the City of Broken Arrow, OK<\/a>. \u201cThat’s the world we live in. It should be a learned experience; life is a learned experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout his life and career, Schuber has humbly and skillfully climbed the ranks with his faith, an open mind and a positive attitude. It\u2019s Schuber\u2019s readiness and resilience that we celebrate this week, as the American Public Works Association<\/a> showcases the industry and its professionals through its annual National Public Works Week, May 15-21.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been a long road to Broken Arrow, but I can say it was blessed,\u201d Schuber says. \u201cGod opened a door for me to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schuber got his start in the industry back in 1993 as a tipping-floor sorter before directing traffic and becoming a \u201cspotter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember my father told me, \u2018If you don’t get your act together, you’re gonna end up being a garbage man,\u2019\u201d Schuber says. \u201cI said, \u2018Oh okay.\u2019 But by the second year of working in trash, I was making more than he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his time as a spotter, Schuber spent time working in the scale house, served as a safety coordinator and operations manager, and became the Safety and Training Specialist for the City of Fresno, CA<\/a>. He returned to college for his bachelor\u2019s and master’s degrees, worked in code enforcement for a while before returning to solid waste as the manager, then assistant director before coming to Broken Arrow in May 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve had a long career of learning the hard way,\u201d Schuber says.<\/p>\n

But his trials and successes have helped him on his quest to learn and lead by example. He once taught a class to a group of drivers, and though everyone was courteous and kind, he was told that because he didn\u2019t drive, \u201cyou don’t know what you’re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schuber thanked the driver, told his boss the story and said he wanted to earn his license to drive crew trucks \u2014 on his own time, if needed. But his boss saw it as a wonderful opportunity for Schuber and the operation as a whole, so he spent six months driving with every driver, learning how to drive the equipment, he says.<\/p>\n

He passed his test and began driving regularly as a backup driver. \u201cI drove every piece of equipment we ever had,\u201d Schuber says, from the heavy equipment to the tractor trailers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave me credibility,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Credibility he flexes every day as a resource to his department.<\/p>\n

When he came to Broken Arrow, he was ready to leave California for a place \u201cwhere they didn’t have a program and wanted to build one,\u201d Schuber says. \u201cI was able to bring my working knowledge base here to try to help them with that, and they\u2019ve (been) very warm and receiving. So, it’s a great city, and I’ve been very happy to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he joined the team in Broken Arrow, he was immediately met with a few challenges, from stronger diversion programs which could include green waste, to completely restarting a recycling program that came to a screeching halt after the recycling facility in Tulsa burned down.<\/p>\n

Much of the community was very frustrated with the city at that point, Schuber says, with the majority of the community asking for a recycling program and others happy without it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were already dealing with those kinds of attitudes that we were going to have to work through,\u201d he says, so right away, they began to do whatever they could to get the recycling program rebuilt and running.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started working on education and outreach with the public to say, \u2018Hey, look, we’re keeping you in the loop,\u2019\u201d Schuber says. \u201c\u2018It’s very frustrating and we’re all very sorry that our vendor had a fire. We will work through this challenge and\u00a0 move forward.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Schuber says he also spoke with city management to order five new side-loader trucks before they did anything else so that \u201cwhen that (recycling) system came back online, we would be able to start recycling right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schuber says the city restarted its recycling program in March 2022, \u201cand we’ve already collected 414 tons of recycling in the first month,\u201d with about an 85% participation rate \u2014 an impressive ratio considering Oklahoma does not have any recycling mandates.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are doing this because it’s the right thing to do, and they care,\u201d Schuber says.<\/p>\n

Now, the department plans to focus on cutting down contamination. Continuously setting and working toward goals is the name of the game, Schuber says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any kind of program of this size, you can’t be thinking about today; you have to be thinking about five, 10 and 15 years from now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And as a public servant, he\u2019s ready to do whatever is asked of him. He also looks at his staff members as \u201cpeople who have the opportunity to grow in an industry where growth is possible if you’ve got the right attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, what we do is we try to express that attitude in action,\u201d Schuber says. \u201cIt\u2019s the same reason that I said \u2018let’s order the recycling trucks\u2019 first. \u201cWe made a promise to the public that we were going to have a working recycling program, (so) first, let’s honor the promise we made. (Then), we’ll work on those other things \u2026 that are big on our agenda of things to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Broken
New Recycling Trucks arrived in Broken Arrow, OK in May 2022.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By saying what they were going to do and then actually doing it, Schuber says, it tells the community \u201cthat we’re leading by example,\u201d and it tells current and future staff members that \u201cleadership is a verb; it’s an action word.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to recruiting people with great attitudes who embody servant leadership, Schuber and Broken Arrow also know that technology<\/a> on their trucks and within their operations must be embraced to modernize their job descriptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don’t have drivers, and you don’t have staff, you can’t get the work done,\u201d Schuber says. \u201cWe can have all the trucks in the world, and we can have all the equipment out in the field, and we can have all the tech in the back office to do the job, but if we don’t have people \u2026 with good attitudes, well, then, you’re not gonna get the work done.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the future, Schuber and the team will continue searching for \u201creally talented people who understand why customer service is so valuable, and then what you’re hiring is not so much a driver or a helper, but you’re hiring an attitude.\u201d Schuber says if someone has the aptitude to learn, \u201cyou can teach them anything, but you can’t fake attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for himself and his own future, \u201cwhat I want and what maybe God has for me are\u00a0 two different things,\u201d Schuber says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always leave the door open so that he can direct my path. \u2026 My goal here is to be as successful as I can for this organization \u2014 as long as they’ll let me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/b>.<\/h3>\n

Are you a solid waste leader who wants to help your organization up its game? Technology from Routeware can help.\u00a0Let\u2019s talk!<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s American Public Works Week, and we\u2019re celebrating public works leaders in solid waste on our blog. Check back for a new profile feature each day! From sorting on a tipping floor to directing a solid waste and recycling program, Jerry Schuber has seen every facet the industry has to offer over the last three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resourcetype-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/routeware.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}