Tino Ruiz-Najera
"He’s always safe. He’s thinking with safety in mind, never willing to risk things."
Employee Spotlight
Tino started his journey at WM in the truck shop at Commercial Row in Reno, NV. Between parts and oil, he began to challenge the boundaries of possibility with the power of will. His plain hard work and natural problem-solving abilities led him to quickly become a certified operator for forklifts, balers, loaders, scissor lifts, and boom lifts. Today he is a mechanic and works on heavy and MRF equipment (Material Recovery Facility). Without him, solid waste, recycling, and organic materials would have a hard time finding their destination. After all, most of the processing requires functional and safe machines.
Throughout his tenure with WM, Tino has worked tirelessly to make sure wheels and gears aren’t only turning but doing so safely and on time. “He’s always safe. He’s thinking with safety in mind, never willing to risk things. He speaks up if something isn’t okay or if there’s a better way of doing things,” commented Kenia Velasquez, Operations Supervisor at WM’s Eco-Center MRF.
Heavy Equipment Mechanic, Tino Ruiz-Najera, at WM’s Lockwood Landfill outside Reno, NV.
An Innovative and Humble Spirit
It is a common misconception that innovation comes from the top down in an organization. As a byproduct of an inquisitive spirit, innovation has nothing to do with access, education, or formal knowledge. It follows no hierarchy; it can’t be bottled, contained, or transferred. Innovation can only be conceived by those like Tino, who wonder “why” and find no satisfaction with the limited answers for “why not.”
“His demeanor is really calm and collected. He listens to the problem, tries to think outside of the box, and comes up with a solution for it,” says Jorge Ballesteros, District Manager of Lockwood Landfill.
Tino’s exceptional problem-solving abilities shone through as he ingeniously devised a system that reduces employee exposure to hazards and significantly minimizes the time required to clean out the infeed pits, also known as conveyor pits. These cavities can reach depths of almost 10 feet and require frequent cleaning, as municipal solid waste is dumped there to begin its way through the sorting process.
At the Eco-Center MRF, where Ruiz-Najera used to work, the pit is nine feet deep, and much of the material left behind is made of glass. To keep the cavity clean, employees had to enter a trap door, shove in the material, and send it to a coworker waiting at the top level to pull the full bucket up manually. Although necessary for the MRF’s daily operation, the task was lengthy and had the potential to cause injuries.
“He thought up a system where we could put a container down into it (the pit) and lift it with a forklift instead of having workers pull out buckets of glass. It’s something that we were really proud of at the MRF. We were able to reduce overtime and limit the strain on our employee’s backs trying to clean out the pit. It was much faster. Before, it would take us days to get it done. Now, we can get it done in 20 minutes,” explains Ballesteros.
Many Possibilities Within the Same Company
Ruiz-Najera knows that communication is safety’s best asset. He seldom makes assumptions and does everything he can to bridge the gap between maintenance and operations. His abilities gained the spotlight and became the cause of a healthy dispute.
“We actually tried to steal him from the MRF, to be honest. We had a need for a heavy equipment mechanic, and heavy equipment mechanics are really hard to come by up here at the landfill. We knew he had the experience, and we felt confident that he would fit in perfectly up here. We had been trying to recruit him for a while. Eventually, he decided to make the move,” rejoiced Ballesteros, who used to be Najera’s manager before being reassigned as DM at Lockwood landfill, just up the road from the MRF.
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It’s a totally different experience. It’s nice being around all these big things.
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Tino’s hard work and expertise change every site he’s at, improving metrics, safety, and efficiency, keeping WM’s gears turning. His demeanor is that of a humble employee who knows that his work speaks for itself. As for the reassignment to working at the landfill, he comments: “It’s a totally different experience. It’s nice being around all these big things.”
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