Harbor View student Vanis
Buckholz with his trailer full of recyclables he pulls on his bike.
(Amy Senk, Daily Pilot / September 1, 2012)
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By Amy Senk
September 1, 2012 | 8:33 p.m.
Vanis Buckholz walks into the OASIS Senior Center, waving hello and being greeted like the regular he is.
But at 10 years old, Vanis' visit is strictly business.
As
founder and president and head picker of the Re "Cycle" er recycling
business, Vanis stops at the OASIS center several times each week,
picking up plastic water bottles and loading them into a bicycle trailer
he recently received as a birthday gift.
"I just think it's
wonderful," said Celeste Jardine-Haug, director of the OASIS center.
"There's not that many young people who think about doing this. We just
love it. We think he's the most wonderful child."
Vanis was 7 years old and in second grade when he first learned about Earth Day at school. The business was born.
"They
were challenged to make a difference in their own way, any small way,"
said his father, Dave Buckholz. "He said, 'Why not just recycle?' And I
said, 'Fine, that's easy enough.' Then it went to the neighbors, then it
went to friends, then it went to businesses."
In the beginning,
Vanis would ride his scooter around his Flower Streets neighborhood,
loading recyclable litter into a plastic shopping bag he hung over his
handlebars. When he got a bike for his ninth birthday, he was able to
cruise farther from home and collect more. The trailer allows him to go
even farther, always wearing his protective safety vest as he cycles
through his collection sites.
Neighbors and friends also drop off
items in the back alley behind the Buckholz home, where Vanis keeps
about a dozen big plastic and metal bins. He sorts items — glass, cans,
plastics, metals — and at times, the items are stacked above his head.
Every
few weeks, the Buckholz family drops a truckload of recyclables at OC
Recycling in Santa Ana, where he earns between $100 and $200 a visit.
Vanis
and his family track his expenses and income carefully, taking 25% to
cover costs, such as garbage bags, containers, hand sanitizers and
bungee cords.
"I give another 25% to Project Hope," Vanis said.
Project
Hope Alliance is a nonprofit in Anaheim that helps homeless children.
His mother, Evie Buckholz, said he has donated about $1,000 to the
organization to date.
Vanis spends some of the money during family vacations or for treats, but most goes into a long-term savings.
"I'm saving for a sports car," he said.
Growing the business took a lot of courage, Vanis said.
When
he first approached businesses, such as Bandera or the Place, to ask
about collecting their recyclables, his parents waited outside while he
went in, introduced himself and made his pitch.
Other accounts
were pure luck. Bo Glover, executive director of the Newport Beach
Environmental Nature Center, spotted him and asked what he was doing.
Now the ENC is one of Vanis' clients.
"He's a very ambitious kid," Glover wrote in an email.
The business continued to grow, Vanis said.
"It just got bigger and bigger," he said.
