De Anza College asked Jesse Sanchez, a man who De Anza allowed to collect the recycling from De Anza, to leave last week.
“De Anza has asked him to stop because of a new recycling procedure,” said Dave Allen, supervisor of the custodial department.
The previous director of College Services made a verbal agreement with Sanchez to collect the contents from the recycling bins near the campus center. Sanchez keeps the profits from the recycled items, however he is not paid a salary.
According to Allen, the new recycling procedure will involve dumping all of the recycling into a dumpster at De Anza and having a local company come to collect the recycling.
In addition to the new system, new recycling bins are being purchased to replace all of the recycling bins near the campus center. The reason is these bins had padlocks and chains put on them by Sanchez. Sanchez was given permission from Donna Jones-Dulin, director of college services to put on the padlocks and chains, so that only he could access them. Holes were also made in the bins to allow chains to go through. Sanchez was the only one who had the keys to open the recycling bins.
Depending on the quality, one recycling bin could cost anywhere between $300 to $1,000, said Joseph P. Cooke, supervisor of grounds operations.
Ron Levine, director of District Safety and Security said it is not a crime to take trash. Trash is considered abandoned property. He said if a commercial entity were to take trash they would need to seek permission from the college because the school may already have previous agreements with other companies.
Jones-Dulin said that if a private citizen tried to take cans and bottles from the bins, De Anza could not stop them.
“It’s considered garbage. We have other people besides Jesse Sanchez, many of them are homeless people who go through the recycling bins. We have chosen not to persecute them or run them down,” said Jones-Dulin.
Nitzan Beck is the enterprise news editor for La Voz. Contact her at nitzanbeck@lavozdeanza.com.