What Is Your Role?

Everything has a purpose, a role.

Together with my team, before the COVID-19 pandemic, I had the opportunity to visit several suppliers who fulfill their purpose every single day: collecting, processing, baling, and delivering corrugated cardboard scrap to Trombini.

I was impressed by the equipment I saw in many facilities — gigantic presses, trucks displaying the company’s logo, bobcats, large-scale production… I was also impressed by the smaller facilities, where entire families worked together, with smaller presses and waste pickers arriving with just a few kilos of corrugated cardboard to sell… all part of their daily routine.

I am always fascinated listening carefully to the stories shared by the owners of these businesses and learning what it means to be a cardboard waste picker. Yes, a waste picker — because, with few exceptions, most of them started exactly this way: using a bicycle, a handcart, a small pickup truck, a Kombi van, or a small truck… Many times, fathers, mothers, and children worked together collecting cardboard because it was the family’s only source of income. I become curious hearing about the expansion plans of these recycling businesses, how they aim to increase volumes and grow their operations… And I feel happy knowing they want to continue counting on Trombini as a partner. That matters.

I miss that. I miss face-to-face contact, hearing new stories, looking at the bales and saying: “Congratulations, your scrap quality is excellent!” or “We need to improve the quality.” I miss seeing the spark in the eyes of all our partners, who fight every day to generate income and jobs and who are fundamental players in the recycling process. I miss saying, while looking someone in the eye, “Thank you for the partnership.”

I had the opportunity to learn that allowing yourself to listen and to put yourself in someone else’s place, making yourself available to collaborate, is what defines a true partnership: the partnership between a customer and a supplier.

Some people say that your role is simply to recycle. I see our role as building partnerships — truly collaborating.

Trombini recycles more than 24,000 tons of corrugated cardboard scrap every month.

If you are already one of our corrugated cardboard scrap suppliers, thank you very much for being part of this story. If you are not yet a supplier and are interested in becoming part of it, we invite you to learn more about Trombini and the way we work.

Testimonial by Regis Carlos Moterle – Raw Material Acquisition Department