Recycling offers disabled workers pride, purpose and place

Inside the plain-looking building in Bethany he and dozens of other workers are busily sorting and shredding at U.S. Shred.

Businesses using this service don’t just get a quality service that allows them to comply with government regulations, save space, and aid the environment — they also

help people with disabilities be productive and earn a decent paycheck.

Johnny has been the paper shredder and bale-handler at U.S. Shred for eight years.

“We recycle paper,” he says. “They bring it in, the other workers sort it, and I shred it up and bundle it.”

The paper bales weigh about a thousand pounds. The bales are shipped to pulp mills in Quincy, IL, and Muskogee, OK. It will eventually be turned into toilet paper and paper towels.

Johnny worked his way up doing odds-and-ends in other buildings at the Bethany recycling plant.

“We depend on Johnny for a lot of things,” says Susan Trump, manager. “All the workers here do a very important job.”

A growing business

Established in 2008, U.S. Shred is a division of Unified Services, a sheltered workshop that has been serving Northwest Missouri since 1975. In 2009, Unified Services became one of the work facilities across the country that was awarded document destruction contracts with the federal government by SourceAmerica.

This secure document destruction part of the shredding business started as a nationwide project. All the federal government sites in Missouri were already assigned, so Bethany took a government contract in Mason City, IA. The small office sat at the top of a post office and had only four employees. But it was a start, and the business eventually grew to take on sites located in Des Moines, Sioux City and Cedar Rapids, IA, and Lincoln and Omaha, NE.

U.S. Shred also has secure documents coming in from local businesses, hospitals, banks, medical facilities, insurance offices, accounting firms and other private business. Graceland University is among their clientele.

The business is certified by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) (which is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval), covering quality control and regulatory compliance.

A separate building north of the main workshop was completed in 2010 to hold the document destruction plant. Privacy is the name of the game, and the building has 14 security cameras and a high-tech alarm system.

Other workers at U.S. Shred work with magazines, newspaper, and old books. Unified Services currently employs over 55 people with disabilities from Harrison, Daviess, Mercer, and Gentry counties.  There are currently 17 staff positions as well. Employees include five from the Daviess County towns of Gallatin, Pattonsburg, Jamesport, and Coffey.

Unified Services has other lines of businesses that include janitorial work and the Nifty Thrifty store. Visit http://unifiedservicesbethany.com/ for more information or call Susan Trump at 660-425-6300.

Susan Trump has been the manager since 1977. That’s 42 years … and she’s never thought about leaving.

“I fell in love with these people when I first came here to work,” she says. “They’re here doing a productive job, making friends, getting a paycheck, and they’re involved with something bigger than they are.”

Working together, like family

Steven Odom of Jamesport has been working at Clinco Sheltered Industries at Cameron for 13.5 years. His job is to sort plastic, newspaper, aluminum and steel cans. There are seven other line workers that he oversees.

“I weigh in, direct people on where they need to be and keep everybody working,” he says. “The plastic line is my baby.”

Asked if he enjoys the job, Steven shrugs: “Some days I like my job a lot, some days I don’t.”

Steven works from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. He comes in a little early with four other workers who get things set up for the day.

“They’ve worked together for so long, they’re like family,” says Debbi LeDuc, manager. Debbi has been with Clinco for 13.5 years and has been manager since last April. There are 20 people on staff.

The recycling goes into tubs or cages where they are then taken to a baler to be compacted into nearly four foot bales. The bales weigh about a thousand pounds. About 40 bales will go on a truck. Cardboard and paper goes to a mill and gets processed. A single dedicated worker handles glass. Styrofoam is also done a little differently. A densifier heats it so it can be compacted.

Clinco a recycling leader

Clinco Industries is a sheltered workshop that provides over 50 job positions to employees with disabilities. Clinco has become the area’s leading recycling processor collecting and sorting recyclables for sale to companies which use recycled products in manufacturing.

In addition to the recycling businesses, Clinco Industries takes care of rest areas on I-29  and I-35. That custodial work is 365 days a year. They also perform a number of other services, such as window washing, labeling, packaging and custodial work.

Workers price and stock the Dollar Barn, which offers a variety of merchandise. Besides the thrift store, there is a garage sale the first Friday of the month; it is a half price sale.

The onsite recycling shed is open 24/7 for drop offs. For a list of acceptable materials, visit https://www.cameronmo.com/178/Recycling-Collection or call Debbi LeDuc at 816-632-3966.

About 70 work at Clinco all together, from Clinton, DeKalb and Buchanan County, with two employees from Daviess County. They go through 25-30 tubs of recycling a day. Last year, they processed over two million pounds of recyclable materials.

Johnny Cosgrove is pictured outside U.S. Shred in Bethany. Johnny rides the OATS bus to work at Unified Services from Pattonsburg. He has a sister Linda Burton who has two daughters, Carrie and Sara.

Steven Odom rides with his father to his job at the prison in Cameron and then grabs a bus to Clinco Sheltered Industries. Steven’s parents are Rodney and Linda Odom of Jamesport.

“For the disabled, the work gives them a sense of pride and purpose and a place to go,” Debbi says.