Recycler MarBorg wins green award
Graduation festivities at UC Santa Barbara resulted in lots of trash and recycling.
MarBorg trucks were on the streets of Isla Vista Sunday and Monday, taking the mess to facilities throughout the county. The trucks run on compressed natural gas, a hawk keeps seagulls away from the recycling facilities, and some of the locations even have solar panels.
For environmentally friendly innovations like those, Santa Barbara-based MarBorg Industries was recognized June 16 by the national environmental certification agency Green Seal for its sustainability efforts.
Former Santa Barbara Mayor Hal Conklin, who is also a member of Green Seal’s board, said MarBorg is an environmental leader.
“The reason we are doing this today is to show the rest of the industry that if MarBorg can do it, the rest of the industry can do it,” Conklin said.
Perrin Pellegrin, an environmental consultant who worked with Marborg, told a small audience during a tour of the company’s facilities that the company quickly and happily implemented her suggestions, something many companies don’t do. Despite projecting a green image, many recycling companies do not in fact operate in an environmentally friendly way, Pellegrin said.
Falconer Gary Bauer and his hawk Gillian are used in the Santa Barbara recycling facility to keep seagulls away and keep the operation running smoothly. The hawk is more environmentally friendly than other methods like poison. The seagulls are frightened but not harmed.
MarBorg’s Kathy Borgatello Koeper led many of the environmentally changes to the company, such as the installation of a public display that tracks the environmental impact of the building and the Platinum LEED certification of MarBorg’s three office locations.
MarBorg was rewarded specifically for its use of cleaning products that are Green Seal certified, which means they met strict environmental impact guidelines. Borgatello Koeper said the company worked to decrease the environmental impact both in its office spaces and its working facilities.
“We are committed to resource efficiency” Bogatello Koeper said. “By using Green Seal products, we are able to reduce the impact to the environment.”
