In a time before recycling was a fact of life and part of a business model, Steve Apotheker was leading a cause, a crusade.
It was a mere 20 years ago that recycling was still somewhat of a novelty, particularly for consumers used to burying their waste forever. Recycling advocates beat the drums of environmental stewardship, but Americans were more concerned about quickly-filling landfills and barges of trash looking for a place to go.
Metro solid waste planner Steve Apotheker was remembered for his vision for recycling and his witty sense of humor. That was about when Apotheker became part of the fabric of recycling in Oregon, working on the grassroots level to get waste reused.
Apotheker, a Metro solid waste planner who was described as the captain of the agency's thinking about trash and recycling, died this week from symptoms of multiple system atrophy. He was 58.
"Steve had the big picture," said Paul Sullivan, a recycler who worked with Apotheker in Illinois in the 1980s. "You're going to bury it, burn it or you're going to have to recycle it – and recycling is the best of those three things."
Community origins
Apotheker started on a small scale, working in Champaign, Ill., at the nonprofit Community Recycling Center after earning his masters in physics.
He wasn't just about re-processing waste into something else, Sullivan said. He was about getting the word out about the center, and the commitment.
"In the early 80s, in order to make his point to the city about where we were, he rented a pair of oxen and one of those medieval wagons for the Fourth of July parade," Sullivan said. "He was trying to raise awareness and trying to get the city to support recycling."
So he picked up recyclables along the parade route and put them in the wagon.
"It wasn't a service," said Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder, who was working in recycling in the 1980s. "It was this crazy thing that was done not by government, but by community members. You went out and smashed cardboard and broke up glass, and it was almost all volunteers."
Eric Lombardi, the executive director of Eco-Cycle, a recycler in Boulder, Colo., called Apotheker one of the bedrocks of recycling. "He was able to communicate this deep sense of truth," Lombardi said.
Lombardi points to the context of the time: For most Americans, trash went into a truck and was hauled away, never to be seen again. It wasn't until 1987, when the Mobro 4000 barge, and its 3,100 tons of trash, couldn't find a dump to call home that Americans started thinking about trash differently.
Apotheker was already there.
People "started pushing the agenda of zero waste, that it's not just about recycling, it's about upstream product design – so much more than just putting it in your bin," Lombardi said. "That's what Steve was about in the 80s."
His reputation extended beyond the Midwest. Jerry Powell, executive editor of Resource Recycling magazine, called Apotheker the guru of recycling.
"I quickly figured out… you couldn't design a recycling program that didn't pass Steve Apotheker's muster," said Powell, who hired Apotheker as a technical writer for the magazine in 1989. There, he was researcher, editor and writer, encouraging the development of recycling programs nationwide.
"Some people were cautious about 'Why should I do it? Would it move forward?'" Powell said. "Much of Steve's work helped to convince people it was worthy of doing. It wasn't some sort of environmental fad, but something that was necessary."
Contributions at Metro
Apotheker joined Metro in 1998, seeking to have a direct impact on recycling in the Portland region, said Meg Lynch, a Metro waste reduction manager who worked with Apotheker for two decades, at Metro and at the magazine. Most of his early work at Metro, Lynch said, was analyzing the agency's solid waste management plan.
Apotheker was recognized for his contributions to recycling, including receiving an award from the Association of Oregon Recyclers in 2007. But he was hardly a number cruncher. Many of the sustainability initiatives internally at Metro, such as the Metro Meeting Mugs outside of the Council Chamber and the recycling and compost bins that are ubiquitous around the building, resulted from recommendations from the Green Team, an employee initiative Apotheker founded.
At the time, Lynch said, many Metro employees were burned out on trying to get management to promote recycling.
"He just never stopped working," she said. "He worked with management, worked with other employees, worked to actually get the Green Team recognized by upper management – he presented things in such a reasonable way that you went towards 'yes.'"
Matt Korot, Metro's recycling director, said he heard someone refer to Apotheker as the environmental conscience of the agency.
"His mind thought big, and he wanted to take us down the steps to get there in a properly planned and analytical way," Korot said. "He brought an intellectual rigor and that mission-driven element, which was a pretty cool combination."
In 2007, he was recognized by the Association of Oregon Recyclers – 17 years after he'd been named Recycler of the Year by the National Recycling Coalition.
Soldiering through
Apotheker was diagnosed with MSA six years ago, a few years after symptoms of the disorder started to manifest. He kept physically active, and continued to come to work at Metro, eventually using a walker to get around, until about a month ago.
"It was the purpose of the work, what we were trying to achieve… and I think being a part of, and around this team and its members and the people in this building as a whole was really important to him," Korot said. "Metro and the work here was just a big and important part of his life."
At the Metro Council's work session Tuesday, Metro natural areas director Jim Desmond said the agency's national leadership in resource management can be traced to Apotheker's advocacy.
"It's not an exaggeration to call him the father of recycling in the region, and really the state," Desmond told the council. "If anyone ever questions the power of one public servant to make a huge difference in the world, you don't need to look further than Steve Apotheker."
Apotheker is survived by his wife, Diane Meisenhelter, and daughter Jesse Meisenhelter. A memorial service is planned for 5:30 p.m. June 30 in the Metro Council Chamber.