By Judy Goddess 

Cool and foggy are two terms most likely to be used in describing the Sunset District, but for two Recology drivers, “paradise” is a more apt phrase. Gentle hills, wide streets and kind people – that is what it looks like from the driver’s seat. 

On May 5, Rigoberto “Rigo” Lopez, who delivers and picks up dumpsters in the Sunset, was honored as the National Waste and Recycling Association’s Driver of the Year. The award is based on three criteria: Years of service, difficulty of the route/driving assignment and safety record. It is a major honor in a trade that boasts more than 63,000 garbage collectors. 

Winning first place and the $1,000 check was a surprise to Lopez.

“I knew I was nominated, but I didn’t think I’d get it,” he said. 

Lopez is not the first or only Recology driver to be honored, but he is the first in a long time to capture the top prize. This year, the company nominated eight drivers for the award, and six received honorable mentions. 

“Recology swept the awards,” announced Robert Reed, the public relations manager at Recology. 

Lopez, who recently celebrated his 62nd birthday, has been with Recology for 40 years. 

“My dad brought me in. He asked me if I wanted a summer job. It was the time when who you knew was important,” Lopez said. He has been with the company ever since. 

The refuse business has changed since Lopez first donned the Recology uniform, Reed explained. Forty years ago, Recology was using two- and three-man trucks. One man drove while the other(s) collected the garbage. 

“Today, 98% of our trucks are one-man trucks – the driver, with the help of a hydraulic lift that attaches the consumers’ bins to the truck – does it all,” Reed said. “When the truck is full, the driver drives it to the Tunnel Road Transfer Station where it is sorted and sent on its way.”

Recyclables are driven to Recycle Central on SF Pier 96 and trash goes to the Hay Road Landfill east of Vacaville. Compostables are sent to Recology Blossom Valley Organics, an outdoor compost facility east of Livermore, and the finished compost is then sent to local farms and wineries. The City by the Bay has a lot to be proud of. 

“San Francisco was the first large U.S. city to collect food scraps together with sticks and leaves separately from other refuse (in 1996), the first to enact a plastic bag ban (in 2007) and first to pass a mandatory recycling and composting law (in 2009),” Reed said. These initiatives brought the City from a 27% trash diversion rate in 1990 to about an 80% diversion rate by the early 2010s.

In 2018, San Francisco stopped keeping diversion figures and, along with other major California cities, adopted a metrics system that focuses on disposal, recovery and generation reduction. In the 2023 state-released figures, San Francisco sent 520,000 tons to landfill.” We need to do better, said Joseph Piasecki, the public affairs and policy coordinator for the Sf Environment Department. “Taking the time to be mindful at the blue and green bins helps prevent contamination, helps recover more, and will help send less to landfill,” Piasecki said.

 “It’s a lot of mental and physical burnout,” Lopez explained. “You get tired steering that truck. And it’s even worse when it’s raining.” He compares inching the truck into a tight space to that of “an Austin Powers’ film,” a couple of inches at a time.

“It’s getting more dangerous out there,” Lopez continued. “We see more people crossing the street while on their cell wearing earphones. The corner of 19th and Holloway is the most dangerous hot spot on the west side. The other day, a girl was Facetiming while crossing the road. We are an accident waiting to happen.”  

Fortunately, Lopez has managed to avoid all those accidents.

“A lot of what we do is figuring out where to be when. You want to get to busy neighborhoods before the crowds,” he said.  

Lopez’s day starts at 2 a.m. At 7 a.m., he takes lunch and a break. 

“Seven to eight is rush hour, people going to work, taking their kids to school. I want to be off the road,” he explained. Once traffic subsides, it is back to work. 

Lopez’s route, which drivers refer to as their “area,” includes the Zoo, Stonestown and the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant (the sewage treatment plant). He is familiar with many of his customers and often finds time to talk with the staff at the Zoo.

“We’re doing our part to make the City a beautiful place for residents and tourists,” Reed said.

Lopez is not the only westside garbage collector who was recently honored. Fifty-four-year-old Manuel “Mani” Vela, a 35-year employee with Recology, won an honorable mention for his driving, service and mentorship of new guys.  

Vela’s area is on the far west side, from the Great Highway to 41st Avenue, Ulloa to Lawton streets. 

“The job is challenging, but my customers make it great,” Vela said. “Many are retired and look forward to my visit. They come out to say ‘hello,’ offer me water in the summer. Construction, road maintenance and the closing of the Upper Great Highway make driving more difficult. I’m always trying to figure out how to get around roadblocks and heavy traffic.”

He collects approximately seven tons of recyclables a day, meaning several trips back and forth to the Transfer Station.

Vela drives the only decorated truck in the fleet. The artwork, which reinforces the lesson of “reduce, reuse, and recycle,” was created by SF artist Sirron Norris, a past participant in the Recology Artist-in-Residence Program.

On some workdays, Vela and staff from Zero Waste visit elementary school classrooms where they encourage students to separate their garbage and teach that lesson to their parents. 

“The kids love it. They’re eager to learn something they can teach their parents,” Vela said. 

Vela did not know anyone at Recology when he got the job. 

“I was in the Conservation Corps, and I was placed in Recology, on the sorting line.” Several years as a back-up driver followed before he was  assigned to the Sunset area. Part of what won Vela an honorary award is his mentorship of the new guys. 

“We learned from the old guys and now we’re training the new drivers,” he said. 

It has not been easy with this new group: Few aspire to be garbage collectors. 

“Out of 10 who started, only two are left,” Vela added.

Garbage collecting is a hard job, Reed said. 

More and more, “a lot of what these guys do is drive,” Reed continued. “They’re triple-checking their mirrors all the time. Their heads are at a 360-degree angle. Bikes, cars, pedestrians, scooters, ebikes, trucks – all competing for the same space. Collectors must pay attention all the time. They must be very deliberate.” 

That is why Recology is pleased that so many of their drivers have been honored. 

“All of our nominees deserved to be honored,” Reed said. “Theirs is a hard – and important – job.”