Q&A with Matt Libby, Supply Chain Manager at Cycla

When did your journey to clothing recycling begin?

I’ve been in the recycling industry for a long time. I’ve had experience recycling all kinds of goods, from telephone equipment, paper, books and cardboard to electronics, household goods, shoes and clothing. I LOVE it! 

What brought you to Cycla?

The fact that customers depend on Cycla’s integrity is something I was drawn to early on. The industry, Cycla and my reputation are built on trust and integrity. 

Can you share a memorable story about your time at Cycla? 

I’ve held several positions over the years. Years ago, I led a loading team at our warehouse in Boston.

The job required a lot of coordination to ensure we worked efficiently, kept the area clean and safe and provided the buyer with as much weight as possible with the highest quality of credential clothing material. 

Over the years, I’ve seen nearly everything in the collection bins, from small toys to playground sets. I’ve also encountered high-priced and highly valued items like purses, sneakers, designer clothes and jewelry. These items are essential to give our customers the best yield, but keeping them can be tempting. A good floor manager has to keep an eye on the loading process to ensure high-value items don’t disappear. Many management styles can accomplish this, but I prefer to lead by example. 

As we load the items, we have to look for things that don’t belong. It’s common for us to come across shoe boxes. One day, as we were loading a container, I saw a nice shoe box. I opened it to see what was inside because you never know! One of the workers noticed it was a Louis Vuitton shoe box. Inside the box was a new, unworn pair of classic black Louis Vuitton shoes. The velvet bag and replacement heal pads were also in the box, but that wasn’t all. The shoes were the same size my wife wears! 

Remember that temptation I mentioned earlier? Imagine how happy my wife would be if I came home with a new pair of Louis Vuitton shoes that we didn’t spend $700 to buy.

Leading by example, I did what I was supposed to do. I closed the box, put it back in one of the bags, and walked it into the trailer for everyone to see. 

A couple of weeks later, I called the customer to check in, wondering if they would bring it up, but they didn’t. Instead, they said, “It was a typical, high-quality load.”  I’m glad the customer was happy and thought the load was “typical” because it tells me that we deliver high-value items regularly, and the staff follows my lead by doing their work with integrity.