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.

 

Volunteer gig paves the way to dream job

Most people who have known me for more than five minutes know that I lean green, and that I am a cheerful recycling pest. A few weeks ago, I got a chance to go to MassRecycle's R3 Recycling & Organics Conference & Trade Show, where I hoped to broaden my circle of fellow recycling geeks and maybe even find a lead or two toward a new green career. I was also looking for good info to bring back to share with my own town's recycling committee.

The first conference session I sat in on was about free ways to promote town and municipal recycling programs. One of the speakers was Gretchen Carey, who became the Town of Bedford's Recycling Coordinator about six months ago. She was on hand to speak about "Getting to Know Your Allies" in the media, something she learned firsthand during a multi-year stint as a founding member of her hometown Burlington's Recycling Committee.

Something about her volunteer-gets-dream-green-job bio prompted me to hoist my hand in the air at the end of her presentation to say that I'd like to talk to her further. She graciously said "sure thing," so I e-mailed her after the conference and we agreed to have lunch so I could probe her about how she managed to pull it off.

In one e-mail, she said, "I am one of those rare and lucky people who found a way to get paid for doing what I love. (No, getting there was not easy, but it did happen- due to networking!)"

Carey's route to her present job began about five years ago, when the stay-at-home-mom and former genetic scientist attempted to answer her then-8-year-old daughter's questions about climate change. 

"She asked me, 'What are we going to do?' And when I didn't answer right away, she said, 'No, really. This is a big problem. What are we going to do?' And I looked at her intense little face and said, 'You're right. Can I get back to you on that?' " It wasn't long after that that Carey got involved with Burlington's newly-forming Recycling Committee.

During her time there, Carey helped the committee spread the word about ways to max out Burlington's recycling by writing articles, marching in parades and staffing a booth on election day, among other efforts. Maybe most significantly, she learned to use public-access cable to communicate with the town, via instructional videos about recycling dos and don'ts, and also "worked my way through the entire Burlington School System," getting kids, parents, teachers and custodial staff bought into recycling as a way of life. 

"I believe in training children," she adds. "If you can train them early, recycling is a no-brainer to them." 

As Burlington's committee chair, she got to know people from Department of Environmental Protection and the local recycling cooperative. It was one of these contacts that alerted Carey to the opening that led to her becoming Bedford's Recycling Coordinator. She works two full days a week, staying in touch with various businesses and institutions in town to see that they have what they need to get their recycling done. She also spends a significant amount of time training town employees.

"Really, it's about getting the message out. That's the job," she says. 

Getting people on board often is about "the why," she says. "I say, 'I'm here because I believe in recycling. I like nature. I like hiking and kayaking. If I can recycle this can instead of someone strip mining the next mountain....I like the view, and I want to keep it that way, so it's worth it to me.' "

And, she adds, "If they (the people she seeks to persuade) have kids, they usually get it. I tell them, 'I have a 14-year-old daughter, and the place (Earth) is a mess. I owe it to her to try and clean it up.' "