Patrick Mathews is retiring after 17 years of service with Salinas Valley Recycles.

So many people help their communities run and function in critical ways, often working quietly behind the scenes—without them, those communities would look very different.

Patrick Mathews is one of those people. On Dec. 19, 2025, after 17 years of service with Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority, also known as Salinas Valley Recycles, or SVR, he announced his retirement from the regional public agency.

Mathews served as general manager and chief administrative officer for the agency responsible for managing the Salinas Valley’s solid waste, recycling, organic diversion programs and landfill operations. It may be a dirty job to some, but to SVR, “waste is never just ‘garbage.’”

“Patrick probably knows more about everybody in this room than they know about themselves,” Supervisor Chris Lopez said at a Monterey County Board of Supervisors meeting on Dec. 9, where the board adopted a resolution honoring Mathews’ career.

“I say this because this man has studied resource streams for years. The work of dealing with the thing we get to put in a bin and have disappear is difficult, but there’s been a lot of evolution and advancement, and people like Patrick are at the forefront of that," Lopez said.

Mathews has had a long and distinguished career in government service. Prior to SVR, he worked in recycling and solid waste as a services manager for Santa Cruz County Public Works.

He served as a key point person connecting the public with policies and programs keeping communities running, even through emergencies and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He oversaw the relocation of the Sun Street Transfer Station in Salinas—a topic of debate for more than a decade. The facility, originally located in the center of the city, was moved to the outskirts and converted into a recycling center at Madison Lane.

Mathews has been praised for maintaining smooth and well-operated landfills and waste management centers, strengthening agency finances and advancing environmental performance.

“Budgets got cleaned up, deficits went out with yesterday’s scraps, and instead of piling on debt, SVR started paying its own way,” according to a tribute posted on SVR’s website.

At the state level, Mathews also helped implement Senate Bill 1383, legislation mandating a 75 percent reduction in landfilled organic waste and the recovery of at least 20 percent of edible food for human consumption. The mandate was a heavy lift, but Mathews helped deliver results that translated into real food for people in need.

In 2022, SVR announced its Edible Food Recovery Grant Program, creating an annual funding opportunity awarding up to $100,000 to nonprofits, businesses or public entities that collect and distribute food within the county.

Mathews also worked closely with farmers, to understand how to best convert organic waste as part of SB 1383 into quality compost that could be used on farms.

“Farmers are very specific about what they want and don’t want,” Mathews said in a May 2023 Weekly story about the challenges and promise of SB 1383. “[Farmers] are stewards of the land. That soil is all they’ve got, and they are very concerned about putting things in there they’re not used to.”

The Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority board is actively seeking a new General Manage/CAO, and has not yet announced a successor.

“His life and dedicating himself to improving our environment and the world that we live in is something we cannot thank you enough,” said Lopez. “You’re leaving us such an incredible legacy to follow.”