Dive Transient:
- Gov. Gavin Newsom final week appointed Zoe Heller, a longtime round financial system and 0 waste specialist, as the brand new director of CalRecycle.
- Pending state Senate affirmation, Heller will fill the function beforehand held by Rachel Machi Wagoner. Wagoner was appointed in December 2020 and left the place earlier this 12 months. Wagoner has since began a legislative and regulatory consulting enterprise, RMW Methods.
- Heller is CalRecycle’s deputy director of the round financial system division. Business teams say her trade information and stakeholder engagement expertise will assist her oversee a division identified for endeavor complicated, multi-year initiatives.
Dive Perception:
Heller will step right into a demanding function. CalRecycle is working to implement quite a few high-profile insurance policies: SB 1383, the state’s main natural waste diversion regulation; SB 343, a recyclability claims regulation; SB 54, the state’s EPR for packaging regulation; and a number of updates to the bottle invoice, amongst different initiatives.
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“Coming from inside CalRecycle, Zoe has the expertise and information of the complicated problems with the numerous packages and obligations dealing with the director,” stated Jeff Donlevy, basic supervisor at Ming’s Recycling and a member of CalRecycle’s Statewide Fee on Recycling Markets and Curbside Recycling, in an e-mail. “Zoe is understood and revered by the important thing stakeholders of the packages, particularly [the] beverage container program.” Donlevy credited Heller’s work rolling out grant funding to bolster the state’s container deposit system infrastructure and operations.
Scott Smithline, who served as CalRecycle’s director from 2015 to 2019, additionally applauded Heller’s appointment. “There has by no means been extra consequential work in entrance of CalRecycle. Zoe has the expertise, abilities and temperament to guide the [department] by it,” he stated in a put up on LinkedIn, in response to Californians In opposition to Waste’s assist for her appointment.
Heller has been CalRecycle’s round financial system division director since 2023 however has served in a number of different roles there from 2017 to 2022. She has labored as deputy director of coverage improvement and as deputy director of the Supplies Administration and Native Help division.
Heller labored on the EPA from 2006 to 2017, the place she was a supervisor of the zero waste part, served as particular assistant to regional administrator, and labored as an environmental safety specialist. Previous to that, she was a analysis and coverage analyst on the Chicago nonprofit Heart for Neighborhood Expertise.
Rachel Oster, co-founder of the Recycle Proper Coalition, stated Heller was already identified for her round financial system work beneath EPA, and has since change into “ a revered coverage voice” at CalRecycle whereas implementing aggressive coverage mandates for supply discount, reuse and recycling. “Since these insurance policies are actually impacting nearly each California resident and enterprise, Zoe has constructed a powerful connection and relationship with the number of stakeholders on the desk,” she stated.
CalRecycle is formally generally known as the Division of Sources Recycling and Restoration. It manages allowing, compliance, recycling grant funding, market improvement, schooling and catastrophe particles administration, amongst different duties. Heller will oversee a employees of greater than 1,000 folks, which may increase additional beneath the governor’s proposed FY25 funds.
This story first appeared within the Waste Dive: Recycling e-newsletter. Join the weekly emails right here.