You may know Oleg if you’ve been a long-time customer or partner of Triangle Ecycling. You might also recognize him if you’ve ever attended one of our computer literacy courses at Durham County Libraries. Oleg was one of the first full time employees at Triangle Ecycling. Starting in 2012, Oleg was going on pickups with our founder, Larry Herst, back when the business was located in former Elkins Chrysler auto shop. At the time, Oleg was the only employee and did just about everything at the shop.
“I did all of the testing, refurbishment, photos, and wrote the eBay listings for every product we sold,” Oleg says.
Since then, Triangle Ecycling has moved and Oleg’s job has changed, although he’s still takes on a variety of tasks at our shop. Working as part of our team, Oleg helps to coordinate sales, keeps our processing pipeline moving, and trains new staff on our procedures. He also has a significant role in our community outreach efforts. Besides teaching classes at Durham libraries, Oleg also brings our workshop to staff and clients of local nonprofits.
One of Oleg’s most important roles is that of head teacher for our internship program. Each semester, Triangle Ecycling brings in a few high school juniors and seniors from local schools to work in our shop and learn how to be computer techs. Oleg thinks of this as one of the most unique aspects of our business, and something that is both challenging and rewarding.
“Interns are right on the cusp of adulthood and they all need different kinds of guidance,” he says. “It is extremely rewarding to help an intern to grow into a fully fledged staff member with a solid skill set.”
It is clear that Oleg enjoys working at Triangle Ecycling, and he admits he loves every part of the job. From training interns, to setting up labs for nonprofits, there’s a lot of rewarding work to do at TE. But Oleg did point to a particular aspect that stands out.
“My favorite part of my job is going out into my community and educating people about the dangers of social media and teaching them how to protect themselves from the evil tendrils of Facebook.”
You can meet Oleg and the rest of our staff anytime you come into Triangle Ecycling for a computer. You can also take one of his Computer Literacy classes at Durham Public Libraries. Check their events page for upcoming classes!
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Triangle Ecycling is a nonprofit with the mission of making Durham (our home town) smarter, cleaner and more equitable. We do this by supporting education. We have a semester long computer tech internship for Durham Public High School juniors and seniors that teaches tech, teamwork and the soft skills of working in a real business that gives back to its community. We’ve had more than 100 interns come through the program. We also donate 10% of our profits to the DPS Foundation to support innovation and equity in the public schools. Finally we teach digital literacy and Internet safety through our nonprofit partners. We make Durham and our environment cleaner by recycling over 70 tons of e-waste a year – keeping much of it out of the landfill. We enhance equity by donating computers, tech support and education to any Durham nonprofit that educates kids and offer discount computers to help bridge the digital divide at our local Triangle VIP Store.