Love my recycling listserv!

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How many containers can you stuff in a mini-van
with a passenger? In our case, the answer was 70.

Good things come in brackets: The mail I get from the [Recycle-MA] listserv is always worth a look. First, it's always a great place to get educated about the issues of concern to the people who make recycling happen in our state's towns and cities, whether it's nitty-gritty stuff like "where can I recycle ______ material?" or political topics like the expanded bottle bill or extended producer responsibility or waste-to-energy vs. zero waste.

For my town, the listserv just served up something that will have an immediate impact: a giant pile of free recycling containers! About a week and a half ago, I saw that listserv member Paul Degnan, of E.L. Harvey and Sons in Westboro, had posted an item about Dover Trucking having 100+ recycling bins it hoped could be reused when it switched its customers to another type of container.

Me (left) with Kelley Bassett of
Dover Trucking.

Having just been in dealings with my regional school district about its recycling efforts, I knew they could use these bins and called Dover Trucking's owner, Stephen Bassett, to see if the containers were still available. A few had been claimed, but there were plenty to go around. After working out the details last week with Stephen's wife Janice, I went to pick them up today, and got help loading up from the Bassetts' daughter Kelley. So from the Ayer-Shirley Regional School District, three cheers to Dover Trucking!

The entire experience was typical of the general atmosphere of goodwill that pervades the recycling community...everyone just wants to help everyone else. What's not to love? And it all started with the listserv, so thanks to the moderator(s), as well. Read those e-mails: you never know who might have the very thing/solution/experience you are looking for.

My dude with a bunch of dude-sized stacks of containers freshly delivered to his regional school district.