2020 was the year of change, adaptability, resilience, innovation, strength and much more. The year may have been completely upside down from what we could have envisioned, but the OCWR team is agile and learned day-by-day what living through a pandemic means.
“I believe every one of us at OCWR can agree that the COVID-19 outbreak is unprecedented and has affected our lives in ways we could not have anticipated – at work and at home,” said OCWR Director Tom Koutroulis.
On March 12, 2020 the director began sending emails about the Coronavirus. As more information came in, we quickly adopted what we would later refer to it as Best Management Practices (BMPs). Physical meetings, travel and in-person events disappeared from our lives as we quickly pivoted to a virtual working environment. We started seeing enhanced cleaning procedures and hand sanitizer stations everywhere, not just in our workplace, but throughout our communities as well.
Then came the news about school closures. And many of those with children suddenly took on a new job: teaching! We started to work from home while some of us continued to be out in the field performing essential tasks; protecting public health and the environment with new safety protocols in place. Life really started to change.
We were updated as quickly as possible, and together we all learned about this novel virus and the resources that were made available.
OCWR has remained stable and robust through all the adjustments that we’ve made to our daily operations. We installed plexiglass to help create protective guards. Our procurement team secured PPE and supplies for us all. Our technology services team rapidly got us set up to telecommute. We distanced ourselves as much as possible from each other as well as loved ones outside of our bubbles and much more.
At the beginning of April, we started sporting face masks with our favorite patterns and logos, as facial covering became a daily essential for whenever we leave our homes. And when increased testing resources became available, OCWR offered the convenience of free COVID-19 testing at landfill sites for employees.
Nobody knew how long all this would last. At the beginning, County department heads were asked to plan for four weeks and then eight to 12 weeks. We have been living through the coronavirus for more than a year now.
“The one bit of consistency in this changing environment is that the waste continues to be collected and taken to the proper destination. As the material is collected and makes its way to the landfill, people will take notice,” the director said.
There is hope! With all of us doing our part to slow the spread and vaccines being distributed as planned, we can see steps in place to bring us back together in person. OCWR encourages everyone to remain vigilant and to keep practicing the BMPs. We are all looking forward to the day where we can reunite our OCWR team, until then, we will see one another socially distanced at the sites or through a video a call.
