Owners of West Coast Rubber Recycling Cameron Wright, left, and Gary Kerr, are turning old tires into a usable rubber for many different projects that include playgrounds, parking blocks and artificial sports fields.
With several cities and small towns "going green" across the nation while doing business in an eco-friendly fashion, San Benito County is looking to throw its hat in the ring and set its own pace for he future of businesses helping the environment.
Given its special location a short ride from Highway 101, Hollister has a lot to offer in ways of doing business that are less harmful to the environment.
A powerhouse and innovator in the area for providing environmentally conscious services to surrounding businesses is Blue Line Power, a Hollister-based company that designs, installs and promotes commercial-scale, clean-energy services.
"We're hoping that Hollister would stand up and be a model city in the clean-technology arena," said Ed Bliss of Blue Line Power. "Clean technology has been growing at a fast pace. It has grown 40 percent in the past five years and 80 percent in the past year.
"It is the only technology that will pull our economy up (as) a viable source of employment."
The company specializes in providing services such as commercial and residential solar-electric design and installation as well as the production of biofuels from San Benito County's rich agriculture for solar-powered and commercial vehicles.
"It is the future of the United States," Bliss said. "It would keep half a trillion dollars in the country and $12 million dollars in the local economy."
Rubber made
And while Bliss and his clean energy have set the tone for conservation in Hollister, West Coast Rubber Recycling will be focused on saving the future from waste in landfills.
The 9-year-old company has made its name in San Benito County from recycling rubber tires into usable materials like playground and horse-arena covering, ground mulch for agriculture and doormats, plus other materials.
"Our company is based on diverting tires from the waste stream," said co-owner Cameron Wright. "We take tires from landfills and turn them into usable products. The thing about tires is that they don't decompose, but we can make another product out of them.
The rubber savers relocated to Hollister in 2006 to be a part of San Benito County's recycling market development zone, an area of California that offers low-interest loans and grants to recycling companies, an opportunity that owners Wright and Gary Kerr wouldn't have received at their previous location in Gilroy, which is not in the state's RMD zone.
"We have and will continue to sell our rubber to school districts, horse arenas and residences," Wright said. "Green building materials are not limitless. The more we can do to use recycled products, the better off we'll be. Right now we are looking for new ways of recycling tires into products of different size and grade of rubber and to increase our customer base."
Farmers 'have to adapt'
And of course, you can't talk about San Benito County and the environment without talking about agriculture, one of the best-known characteristics of the area.
With state and county regulations limiting the amount of chemical spray and yard waste, farmers in the county have turned to alternative methods of cultivating.
"We're trying to do as much as we can," said George Bonacich, partner of Bonacich Orchards and president of the San Benito County Farm Bureau. "We're cultivating in the orchards, going to permanent sod instead of using cultivating mow. That way you don't get dirt in the earth's atmosphere."
Bonacich also said that farmers have been tying plastic bags over their row crops to contain weeds when the plants grow through holes in the plastic and hold the invasive plants down to eliminate the practice of using chemical spray to kill them.
"We also have to register spray materials for specific crops and use chemicals that are more environmentally safe," said the orchard enthusiast of more than 30 years. "By 2010, we won't be able to burn orchard trimmings unless they have a special permit that will be hard to get. We will have to grind them. Some like me are doing that right now."
Farmers around the county have been picking up the organic growing trend to help the cause, and Bonacich admits the "green" farming methods could put some smaller farmers out of business.
"More growers are moving to organic," Bonacich said. "Farms are getting bigger and smaller farmers will go away. The special equipment involved in all this is very expensive. A yard-waste grinder can cost $50,000 to $200,000. Profits have gone away because we have to adapt."
In addition to expensive farming equipment, state law will demand that companies who own diesel trucks that weigh over 14,000 pounds in gross vehicle weight spend $5,000 to $100,000 for a smog-control device in their engines.
City pushes green building
And it's not just private industry getting in on the environmental practices. According to Hollister Mayor Doug Emerson, the city council will be contracting out to developers that use "green" building materials when the city's building moratorium is lifted next year.
"We will rate the developer's proposal on a point scale that will reflect our goals for green building," Emerson said. "We had a draft come forward at (a recent) meeting from the planning department that rates builders' proposals with points. And we look at the points that they earn, and that is how we make our decision. Green building materials are a priority."
Some of the materials that the council will be looking for are developers who will build homes with solar panels and energy, clean-energy water heaters, windows that use heat and sustainable lumber.
Emerson said that the city has a duty to create a healthy environment and will move forward to do business in more energy-efficient ways.
"When you build a community, you have to take all the issues of the environment into consideration and reflect your goals."
Jeremy Barousse Got a question or a comment? Send us an email.
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