Vision Recycling emerged in 1993 from a substantially sized local landscape company, Del Conte’s Landscaping Inc, which has been ranked in the top 100 in the landscape industry. The founder of both companies, Tom Del Conte, now has 37 years experience as a landscape contractor and 15 years in the Organics, Composting, & Recycling Business. Tom was instrumental in the development of the Green Business requirements for Landscapers, has sat on the County Green Business Advisory Council, and has given talks to the Bay Friendly Certification classes. The roots of the organization lend itself to true recycling. In the early 90’s the company acquired equipment to convert the green waste generated by the landscape firm’s Maintenance Division into organic amendments used by the landscape Construction Division.

Vision Recycling comes from the horticulture side of the waste stream as opposed to the garbage side, utilizing sustainable solutions for its processing. Vision’s staff sees the importance of transforming the waste into valuable resources that the community can benefit from.

In 1996 Mr. Del Conte took on a partner, Roberto Aguirre. Mr. Aguirre has become a secret weapon with his steady commitment to efficiently harness the power to process the materials. Roberto Aguirre has mastered the skill sets required to maximize productivity and safety within our operations. In 1997 Vision Recycling secured a contract for the County of Santa Cruz. The company has expanded to 4 grinders, 2 large tromell screens, a host of wheel loaders & excavators, 3 Semi-Truck & Trailer units, 3 water vehicles, and a mulch coloring machine. We currently operate three other facilities on a turn-key service basis. We also provide mobile services to many other landfill operations in all parts of Northern California. In total we now process over 200,000 tons of products per year.

In 2008 the company virtually derailed a substantial movement to regionally centralize composting in Santa Cruz to a site in another County. Vision Recycling stepped in to partner with SC County and has proposed to build a “State of the Art” compost facility and to fund the capital through RMDZ funding as it has in the past, with repayment from commercial sales, as it should be.

The Business Model since 2003 has been rather simple. Our Vision has been to endeavor to partner with local agencies who wish to have a top quality organics recycling operation within their own community. The synergies of this business model are staggeringly obvious. The Vision Recycling Local Model supports Local Commerce, reduces trucking emissions and traffic, promotes “buying local”, creates community pride for using home grown organics on a large scale, ultimately reduces product price from both ends of the recycle circle, and generates enough aggregate revenue locally to support outreach and perpetual motion of the recycling circle. By moving the feed stock out of the area, the product sales portion of the recycle circle dwindles and there are not enough sources of revenue from the circle to provide local funding to adequately promote a bona fide program.

In 2009, Vision hired Andrew Tuckman who is in charge of Marketing, Sales, Public Relations, Business Development and community outreach for all of Monterey Bay. Andrew has been featured on local radio programs, has been the MC at Earth Day Santa Cruz 2010, partnered with non-profits in the community, managed several of the landfill sites and has sold material to numerous markets in the area. The company also hired back a past employee this summer in 2010 named Tamotsu Yamamoto commonly called “Mots” to act as the General Manager running the operations from Fremont.

From the humble beginnings in 1993 of filling Landscape needs of converting green waste to a soil amendment, to creating retail centers on landfills in 2000, to partnering with community agencies to manage the recycling circle for the suburban Gardner’s and Landscapers, Our firm has maintained a solid business platform and innovative Visions!