Editor’s note: Profits from the sale of raw recyclables may be down, but optimism is up at Sunflower Diversified. The non-profit is looking for ways to fill a gap in funding that resulted from recent Chinese tariffs on these items. One solution, increasing the amount of items accepted, will translate into more opportunity for Sunflower clients. Last week, the Tribune stopped in at Sunflower Diversified's Recycling Center on West 10th Street, and visited with staff and clients there about the important environmental work they do there. This is the second story in a three-part series.

Sunflower works directly with adults with disabilities to help them to learn the skills to find employment in the community. That includes working at Sunflower Diversified's Recycling Center located on West 10th Street in Great Bend. 

Staff member Diane Ramos has been working with Sunflower for the past 34 years, and manages the center, assisting clients as they build customer service skills, exercise their work ethic, and meet their personal life employment goals. 

“Most people don’t realize all that goes on, and what our clients are capable of doing,” she said. Friday, she was joined by Danielle Wylot, a five-year Sunflower staffer. Wylot worked side-by-side Sunflower clients Tina Jackson, Tate Scheuerman and Audrey Koester, who were busy sorting and loading items dropped off there into pallet-sized Gaylord boxes lining one side of the work area. 

Scheuerman and Koester quietly broke down and flattened cardboard pizza and shipping boxes, piling them into a box that soon would be emptied into the hopper of a large baler and crushed into a cube.

Meanwhile, Jackson was busy unwrapping a full cart of pamphlets, dumping them into a box. The shrink wrap was tight, so she carefully used a utility knife to break open each package. She works shifts during the day and in the evening.

“I like working here, it keeps me busy,” Jackson said. “All weekend it’s busy.” 

Wylot said Jackson is a hard worker who often takes advantage of opportunities to work weekends in addition to her Monday through Friday schedule.

They work at a steady, energetic pace, putting every item in its proper place. There are optimistic comments and light-hearted banter, interrupted periodically when a customer pulls up. 

Then, all three stop what they are doing, greet the customer at his car carry the offered recycling into the warehouse, sorting it as they make their way down the row of boxes. 

Scheuerman is proud of the fact he remembers the names of many of the customers who stop there. He offers to demonstrate how the glass crusher works. He helps operate the machine when the appropriate staff member is present. 

A Gaylord (a large cardboard box) filled with broken bottles of all colors sits next to the machine. Bottles are fed into the machine that pulverizes them into tiny grains, their edges smoothed and harmless.

Ground and crushed glass have many current uses, and the list is growing. These grains of glass, easier to transport because they are lighter than sand, are mixed with sand and used in county and city roads. They can also be used as an abrasive for sandblasting, and to filter water. 

Sunflower began accepting glass just a few years ago in hopes that more people will consider recycling glass, Wylot said. 

Soon, a crew of one staff member and two clients stops in for a break. They drive around the service area each day picking up recyclables from commercial customers, which they drop off at the main plant located west of Great Bend near the Great Bend Municipal Airport, Wylot explained. 

At Sunflower, crews works throughout the day, Monday through Friday, stopping for a break at 3:30 p.m. and helping to load vans at 4 p.m. A staff member uses a forklift to load bales of crushed plastic and boxes onto the truck, and Scheuerman uses a pallet jack to move the bales back into place within the truck. 

When all is loaded, it’s transported to Sunflower’s main facility. 

There, the contents are fed onto a conveyor belt, which dumps them into a hopper that empties into an even larger baler where they are crushed and baled, loaded onto semitrailers and bound for larger recycling companies states away.  

Back at Sunflower, when the loading is done, there is the 4-5:30 p.m. shift, which some ambitious Sunflower clients work, Wylot said. Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon are another popular opportunity to get more hours.

In high school, Wylot worked a little bit with the types of people she works with today. 

“To step into this environment and see them working, earning paychecks and doing the things that you never thought it was possible for them to do, and then accomplishing goals and going on set new ones, it’s really a rewarding job,” she said. “It blows my mind to see our clients accomplish so much, compared to people in society who don’t have the same kind of challenges, who do not. It blows my mind how capable the people we serve are.”

Through their employment, Sunflower clients like Jackson, Scheuerman and Koester have achieved a level of independence that includes living in their own homes. Scheuerman is proud of his three-bedroom house where he enjoys having friends over to visit. 

“I don’t have any wild parties though,” he said. “Some people ask me if I do.” 

“We don’t want them to have any less than what they want and need,” Wylot said. “They’re just like the rest of us. We shouldn’t hold them back.”

Wylot is excited about the efforts to increase awareness and up the amount of drop-offs from the community. 

“A lot of people really don’t know this is a place where they can bring their recycling,” she said. “People don’t know that if you have a business, you can call us up and we can add you to our route and come to your business to pick-up.”

Some businesses have vending machines on site, for example. Sunflower’s clients and staff can pick up pop bottles and cans on the route too. 

On Saturday, Nov. 17, this article was changed to reflect the following: Correction:   we referred to the Sunflower Recycling Center as the First Step Recycling Center.  Debbie McCormick at Sunflower Diversified informed us that it hasn’t gone by that name for a few years now.  Also, we were informed that the last name of a client featured in the story, Tate Scheureman, was misspelled. Thank you to McCormick for bringing this to our attention, and our apologies for any confusion the mistake may have caused.