For Al Gulitus, Market Area Manager in Hanover, PA, resource management is more than a profession, it’s a purpose built on practicality, leadership, and service. After years in industries with intangible outcomes, he found lasting fulfillment in the waste and recycling sector, where the work is essential and the results are tangible. At Casella, Al leads a single-stream MRF with a sharp focus on team development, operational safety, and community engagement. As the 2025 Community Engagement Champion of the Quarter for Q2, his dedication continues to shape a safer workplace, a stronger team, and a more connected community.
I spent several years in other unrelated businesses that really had intangible products, and what we do is quite the opposite. Once I found the waste and recycling industry, I knew I would not look back. Our business, although complex, is so practical, and there will be an ongoing need for our services. I didn’t always understand the importance of what we do.
My role involves managing a leadership team at a single-stream MRF. Coaching, training, and developing the team members is a big part of my day, and it is beyond rewarding to watch people improve their talents.
We work for a great company that takes care of people, our most important asset. Also, our work is so vital in the mission of environmental sustainability that it is hard not to be motivated to come every day and do the best we can. Knowing that we make a difference, whether it be in the communities we serve, the people we employ, coach, and train, or in our efforts to preserve environmental resources, is extremely fulfilling.
Operational safety is priority number one. Each day starts with a 15-minute safety brief. We discuss a wide variety of topics, both pertinent to time spent at work and outside of work. From lockout tagout to the simple task of resetting a breaker at home, we can’t educate people enough about safety. We also do our best to identify all near misses to continuously evaluate areas for improvement in safety. We also encourage engagement from all team members, both in and out of the safety meetings, which I believe translates to buy-in on the safety culture.
Seeing people who are in need and being able to help them is a great experience. Whether it be to hand out some food to a family who really needs it, send a Christmas card to a soldier who is away from their family, or look at a completed project our team worked on together and see how it made a difference, it makes you want to do it again.
It means so much, but I feel that the credit should be awarded to the team that I worked with on all the projects. I appreciate the recognition, and it feels good to know it doesn’t go unnoticed, but I want to give credit where credit is due.
Jump in with both feet for as much time as you can spare. Like all things in life, we must have a balance, but if you find the time to put a project together that improves someone’s life, you will not regret it. Talk to people in the community around you and find organic opportunities to work with people on the common goal of being of service to others.
Casella Waste Systems, Inc., headquartered in Rutland, Vermont, is one of the largest recyclers and most experienced fully integrated resource management companies in the Eastern United States. Founded in 1975 as a single truck collection service, Casella has grown its operations to provide solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to more than one million residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers and provides professional resource management services to over 10,000 customer locations in more than 40 states.
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