Environmental Manager
City of Buckeye, AZ Public Works
How long have you been in the industry?: 20 years.
How did you get involved? What was your first job?: I started work as a technician in a manufacturing plant in 1994 to pay for college. While there, I performed the grunt work of hazardous waste removal from industrial wastewater. I got a college degree, and moved on to work as a lab technician in TestAmerica, testing contamination levels in wastewater and groundwater. I moved on and quickly worked my way through the ranks to become an Environmental Supervisor in Florida in the Orange County Environmental Protection Department. During the 2004 hurricanes, when all normal work halted for storm debris emergency management, my interest in waste management piqued. I moved to Arizona in 2012 and became a Registered Sanitarian under the Maricopa County Environmental Services Department. I learned about landfill construction and residential sanitation laws. This body of knowledge has led to my dream job in 2015. I now work with an amazing team overseeing environmental quality in the Public Works Department of the City of Buckeye, AZ. I manage the Environmental Services Division that includes a residential contract for one of the fastest growing cities in the country.
Who/What was your biggest influence?: John Geiger, P.E., Orange County, FL. He was an Environmental Engineer, my supervisor and a great mentor. He helped me to understand and respect differing opinions and reason through problems. He was a great example of self-control in the work place.
What has been your most unique/interesting experience over the years?: I have had a colorful career. I have performed emergency response with unknown chemicals and starched collar, ivory tower legal actions, but the most interesting experiences have come from relationships with customers. Every person has a valuable opinion and is a part of the society we are protecting. Helping residents understand sanitation and its importance is the most rewarding. As I meet each new customer, I learn something new and grow.
What do you see as the biggest challenges to the industry today? The biggest challenges are public education and technology innovation. Effective and quantitative behavior change is the goal with public education. The challenge is to change population behavior on a topic where the average person has no care. With information technology changing at such a rapid pace, the hurdle becomes higher as the educator has to choose the correct platform to provide the information on from one year to the next. Newsprint, radio and TV are not used as much as social media; however, social media venues change too rapidly. Emerging technologies and global markets compound this problem even more. As material usability streams change, the new technologies must effectively use existing solid waste streams, or must wait until the stream changes.
The public education and technology innovation nexus issue is best seen in the work done by young scientist, Lucy Hughes, in her alternative plastics research.1 Lucy has found a waste flow that could solve a global problem, but a consistent material source could be hard to support. Simply put, once a solution to a solid waste material is found, the challenge remains to affect the public to adjust waste flows so that materials may be efficiently used.
What do you like most about being in the industry/your job?: I love the concept of sanitation found in being a Registered Sanitarian. I have a degree in Molecular and Microbiology with a focus on immunology, and I have become a Registered Sanitarian because it is exciting! It is the application of the scientific understanding of life! I have been able to apply this knowledge to solid waste controls in society. Proper sanitation is essential to make communities thrive. Additionally, I love the concept of sanitation law. It is a true connection between the purpose of government and the use of scientific research. The application of sanitation in all aspects of society protects our population, and it is an important leg of sustainability.
Hobbies: Reading the Bible, science journals and science fiction. Enjoying life with my wife and kids.
Last vacation: Cruise to Ensenada, Mexico
Words to live by: You will get nowhere in life without taking a risk.
—My dad, Wilhelmus C.F. van den Akker. | WA
Note
Matchar, E. (2019, November 14). This Bioplastic Made From Fish Scales Just Won the James Dyson Award. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/bioplastic-made-from-fish-scales-just-won-james-dyson-award-180973550/#qZdZKTMEDW6bTccm.99.