penne pasta, and roast broccoli &

carrots - and for dessert,

MORAGA
ROTARY
NEWSLETTER tiramisu, cookies and assorted fresh
fruit. Here is a picture of the delicious
spread:
October 26, 2021

Next Meeting:
Tuesday, November 2
12 Noon at La Finestra
Restaurant

Program: Polio Video

Greeter & Invocator:

Rich Render …and here is a picture of the La
Finestra bar. Note the many fine
Zoom connection information for next week’s beverages you may select:
meeting will be distributed early next week

Upcoming Speakers:
Nov 9 – Open
.
Nov 16 – Renata Sos, Moraga Town Council
Nov 23 - Open
Nov 30 - Kathy Suvia – District Governor

Today’s meeting was at La Finestra

Restaurant. It was another delicious
luncheon by Chef/Owner/Rotarian Jeff
Assadi who put forth a beautiful spread
of fresh garden salad (avocado, mixed
lettuce, tomatoes and red onion) with an
Italian dressing on the side; balsamic Guests today included today’s speaker
vinaigrette sliced tomato and mozzarella Charlie Landmesser – C&T Recycling
cheese; choice of salmon, lasagna, and Castro Valley Rotarian, Mary
 Caburi and Bill Eames. Honorary
Moraga Rotarian, Lillian Roodveldt
joined us from Arizona via Zoom.
President, Brian South was a bit late
today because he was on patrol with the
Moraga Police Department. With many
officers out sick Detective Lieutenant
Brian needed to fill the patrol ranks. Later
he was called away in the middle of the
meeting and Queen Debbie Roessler
took over. Here is a picture of Brian in his
patrol gear:
Brian rang the Club Bell to start the
meeting. Today’s greeter/invocator Herb
Wehmeyer provided quotes from Charlie
Chaplin. Here are a few that the
newsletter editor scribbled down:
• Nothing is permanent in this world,
not even your troubles.
• You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re
looking down.
• We think too much and feel too
little.
Herb then led us in the Pledge of
Allegiance.
~~Happy Bucks~~
Barbara Bruner had $20 Happy Bucks
for last week’s Canyon Club event. It
was a lot of fun and a great fundraiser.
Barbara said, “Let’s do more!”
Gary Irwin gave $5 HB’s because he
needed an odd light bulb and thought
he’d never find one but he went to
Lafayette Ace Hardware and a nice gal
(MarySue Erickson) took him right to
the bulb he needed. Thanks, MarySue!
Debbie Roessler had $5 HB’s for last
night’s Warriors basketball win. Go
Warriors.
Frank May pulled out $5 Happy Bucks
for the recent through rain soaking and
a visit from their granddaughter.
Alka Mulakaluri gave Happy Bucks for
her family and her daughter’s recent
EMT certification.
Our guest & speaker, Charlie
Landmesser gave $5 HB’s because he
made it safely across the San Rafael
Bridge during Sunday’s torrential rain
and high wind event. (Recycle event,
truck + wind + rain = possible trouble,
but he persevered.)
Debbie Koo who joined us by Zoom
gave $5 Happy Bucks because she
made it to Tahoe safely. Debbie is
manning a table with Dianne Wilson at
the District 5160 Winter Conference in
Squaw Valley this coming weekend.
 ~~Birthdays & Anniversaries~~
Herb Wehmeyer celebrated his 91st
birthday last weekend. Mary Caburi
prepared a delicious meal and a cake, a
chocolate cake - which Herb loves.
Alka Mulakaluri also had a birthday. Her
daughter came home. They had a
delicious meal at home and chocolate
cake. Alka says, “Yum, everyone likes
chocolate cake!”
~~Announcements~~
Rotary District 5160 – Annual
Conference is coming up! October 29-
31. Our President Brian is giving a
presentation on international giving and
Alka Mulakaluri is manning a table in
the Friendship Room on International
Giving and the Covid Epidemic in India.
As mentioned earlier, Debbie Koo and
Dianne Wilson will have a table there in
the Friendship Room - providing
information about our club’s African
projects (Sierra Leone and Congo).
Google the event and line up your
reservations now. Here is a screen shot
from the District 5160 Facebook page:
Debbie Roessler suggested a
fundraising event at Gianni’s Italian
Bistro in San Ramon. The restaurant
helps 501C3 organizations raise money.
The charitable organization must provide
7 servers for an evening and the
restaurant gives 10% of the profits plus
100% of the tips to the organization. The
restaurant has room for about 100
dinners and Debbie says the food is very
good. The date and time slot available
for our club is February 21st from 5 to
8:30 pm.
Debbie Roessler circulated a sign-up
sheet for a tour of the Blackhawk
Museum in San Ramon. Days available
for the tour are Friday, Saturday or
Sunday and Debbie suggests Friday
might be less crowded. If you didn’t have
access to the sign-up sheet, please
contact Debbie. Pick your preferred day
and indicate the number of people who
might attend with you.
Debbie & Lou Roessler donated
another car to Cars-2nd-Chance. This is
a donation for Moraga Rotary and it must
be about the third or fourth car donated
by Debbie & Lou. (Debbie says, “This
was not Lou’s corvette!”). As you will
recall, Cars-2nd-Chance recycles cars by
repairing/sprucing them up and then
selling them to folks/organizations who
need transportation. The donor’s charity
receives 50% of the profit from the sale
of the refurbished vehicle and
Concord/Clayton Sunrise Rotary Club
gets the balance.

Over the years Cars-2nd-Chance has
raised about $1.2 million for charity.
Evie Michon- Moraga Rotary’s Polio
Society Chairperson reports:
• We are still at 2 wild polio virus
cases this year.
• The new weapon in the battle
against polio is the Novel Oral
Polio Vaccine Type 2 (nOPV2) and
following a careful review of the
initial 65 million doses, the World
Health Organization has endorsed
transition to the new vaccine.
• Since the start of the polio vaccine
effort nearly 3 billion children have
received the vaccine – so
statistically, 19 million children did
not get polio.
Evie Michon also noted that the
ValtAutoClub.com, 5th Sunday of the
month, Halloween morning “Coffee
and Car Show will take place at Sisi’s
Coffee here in Moraga. If you want to
show a car, get there by 7:00 am for a
good spot. Otherwise, the show is at
9:00 am.
~~Rotary Minute~~
No Rotary Minute this week.
~~Program~~
~~Recycling in California~~
Rich Render introduced today’s speaker
– Charlie Landmesser. Charlie was
born and raised in New Jersey. He has
lived in California for the past 21 years.
He’s been in the recycling business since
1994. He started C&T Recycling in 2006
to collect e-waste. He loves the
uniqueness of Northern California and
the opportunity to pursue photography of
the Bay Area in his spare time. His dog
named Sparkie helps at collection
events. Charlie is a Rotarian in Castro
Valley.
In the summer of 2009, Rich says he was
driving along Moraga Way in Orinda and
came across an e-waste recycling event
in a church parking lot. He pulled in and
watched the action which seemed pretty
easy then. Rich talked to the event
leader, Mary who began selling him on
the concept as a fundraiser. Moraga
Rotary had its first event in September
2009 and we’ve had a total of 24 of those
events so far - which have raised
$24,763 for our club.
Charlie Landmesser is the CEO of C&T
Recycling. Please welcome Charley:
 realized other electronics needed to be
recycled too. Eventually we even
branched out to recycle/shred paper
documents (thank you to Mary of C&T
who pushed to get into shredding). C&T
partnered with International Paper in
Fremont to make confidential shredding
possible.

At one point C&T had 15 employees and

could handle 6 recycle events per
weekend. Currently there are 3
employees and do 1 event per weekend.
Initially fees were collected in cash or
check. In 2012 they began to handle
credit cards. By 2012 there were over
1,000 recycle vendors but as leaded
television screens started to disappear
the number of vendors dropped
significantly. Today there are less than
Charley said, “Moraga Rotary – thank
200 vendors in the state of California.
you for the opportunity to share the
experience of the past 12 years working
Charlie says that in their years of service
with your club. We started recycling to
they have not ever had a returned check
raise money for good works in the
and they only received 2 counterfeit $10
community and we wanted to do
bills. He believes this is because people
something good for the environment.”
who recycle want to do the right thing.
In 2006 the State of California initiated a
What happens to items brought for
bill known as SB 2050. The purpose was
recycling?
to keep lead based televisions out of the
landfills. Lead in the television screens • Paper and cardboard go to
was leeching out in landfills and getting International Paper – Fremont
into the ground water. Lead in our water • Fluorescent lamps go to an
will cause birth defects. authorized recycle/destruction
center where the mercury is
Since we started recycling and helping recovered.
non-profits, we’ve raised a little over • Batteries (AAA & AA) go to a
$900,000 for charities. With the emphasis recycler who uses them as energy.
on collecting TV’s, we were working out • Wire and plugs go to a metal
of a garage to start. As the business recycler who recovers the copper.
grew, we were working out of a storage • TV monitors, LED TV’s and
space and eventually a warehouse. computer monitors go to approved
SB 2050 recyclers. (Note, we
We started to see a drop in the weights collect names and addresses of
of TV’s/CRT’s being collected and we donors because the state wants to
 know if the materials originated in
the state of California.)
• Metal items go to a metal recycler.
• Computer printers go to a vendor
who ships them by the truckload to
a recycler in Los Angeles.
• Newer laptops go to a refurbisher
who wipes the hard drives and
older computers/laptops are taken
apart for parts and the hard drives
sent for shredding.
• Miscellaneous material, stereos,
VCR’s, toasters, microwaves go to
a metal recycler.
• Styrofoam nobody wants and goes
to landfills.
An example of a change that’s occurred
– We used to have you cut the plugs off
wires because that’s the way the metal
recyclers wanted it. That’s changed with
newer recovery methods so now we no
longer need to cut the ends off cords.
Things have changed but we’ve been
able to create value because we are local
in your community and the citizens want
to help people and are willing to pay a
recycling fee.
People ask about recovering gold in a
CPU or laptop. The main source of gold
is the motherboard, processing chip and
memory sticks in the computers. These
boards are collected and sent for gold
recovery. However, this does require a
large amount of material to be collected
to make it worthwhile to ship for smelting.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s there was more
gold in computers. But when gold went
from $400 an ounce to $1,200
manufacturers began lowering the gold
content.
For 30 years our country was shipping
electronic waste to China where most of
it was burned after being demolished.
The Chinese eventually realized this was
destroying their environment, so they’ve
been cutting back. Then with the advent
of the trade wars they have become even
more stringent on what they will accept.
Now the biggest component entering our
waste stream is plastic. The challenge of
the future is what new, inventive ways
can we come up with to reuse plastic?
We now find plastic in almost everything
from a toothbrush right on through a
Tesla.
Charlie closed by telling us he looks
forward to our next recycling event,
thanked us and invited questions
Evie Michon – Remarked on the many
piles now necessary for the sorting of
recycled materials. The last event had 17
different piles for sorting on site.
Rich Render – Asked about flat
screens? Charlie answered they have a
very small amount of mercury and must
all be taken apart. Computer monitors –
nobody wants a refurbished monitor.
Technology keeps changing. If it doesn‘t
have an HDMI port there is now use for
it. It’s frustrating. Electronic equipment
goes obsolete in about 6 months.
Debbie Roessler – Asked what is the
most unique thing you’ve gotten?
Answer – 9 knives (samurai
sword/knives). Also, in Hayward one time
they got bullets mixed with batteries.
Gary Irwin – How about solar panels?
How do you deal with them? Charlie said
he is really not up on this. Older panels
have some copper. There might be toxic
materials in the glass. Charlie said, “The
useful life of a solar panel is about 20 to For the new Rotary Year our leaders are:
25 years.” President Brian South

President Elect Igor Kipnis &

Charlie then said, “What are we going to Roger Gregory
do with electric vehicles? What will we do Secretary Jennifer Brophy
with the batteries in electric vehicles?”
Executive Secretary Evie Michon
Rich Render noted that we invited Mary
of C&T to come today but she is running Treasurer Debbie Koo
a recycle event in Pacific Grove. Program Chair Debbie Roessler

Community Tony Schoemehl

Service Chair
~~Encore Game~~ International Debbie Koo &
Service Chairs Dianne Wilson
Queen Debbie asked Charlie to write the Foundation Chair John Erickson
name of an ace/suit on a card.
Youth Services Rich Render
Then Debbie asked Rich Render to see Chair
if he could win $40 by guessing the right
Public Relations Chair Gary Irwin
suit.
Fund Raising Chair Frank May
Rich guessed the Ace of Spades.
Membership Chairs Roger Gregory &
Unfortunately, the correct answer was
Hubert Ma
the Ace of Diamonds. Sorry Rich – No
Directors at Large MarySue Erickson &
win for you. Next week the Encore prize
Linda May
goes up to $50.
Advisors to the Board Cliff Dochterman &
Future greeter/invocators: Jim Campbell
11/02 Rich Render District Governor 5160 Kathy Suvia
11/09 Jennifer Brophy President, Shekar Mahta
11/16 Frank May Rotary
11/23 Roger Gregory International
11/30 Linda May
This month’s Newsletter Editor – The Rajah (Gregory)
12/07 Angelo Costanza
12/14 Ron Mucovich
12/21 Jim Campbell
12/28 John Erickson