This month's Waste Line article is written by guest author Nancy Barber, a member of the Brattleboro Solid Waste Committee who lives in West Brattleboro.  You can contact her at 246-0851 with questions, or you can contact the Committee at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your questions and suggestions. Enjoy!

Riding With the Hauler

I have always been concerned about the environment but never had a chance to act on that concern until I retired and moved to Brattleboro three years ago.  I joined the Solid Waste (Recycling) Committee late in 2007, when the Committee was deep into reviewing and assessing how to improve Brattleboro’s recycling record.  In the process of those discussions, we decided see for ourselves what was behind the town’s low recycling rate.

First of all, the vehicle shakes when the load is compacted, the work is dirty and sweaty, and the ride is bumpy, noisy, smelly, and tiring.  The routes are long so Dave must be quick and thorough in order to finish on time.  Dave is the first line of sorting the recycled material that is waiting at curbside. He loads cans/bottles/plastics in one loader, paper, cardboard, and boxboard in the other.  The rest of the sorting takes place at the Windham Solid Waste District where conveyer belts bring the materials past a group of workers who sort everything by hand.   Hand sorting is required because many people include items that cannot be recycled at the Materials Recycling Facility, or MRF.

I noticed that when people put paper, cans, and bottles all in one bin, it took more time for Dave to sort them than it would have if people separated their recycling into multiple containers, one containing mixed paper, one for rinsed out cans, glass bottles, and plastic with necks, and one for boxboard.  Recycling can be placed not only into the green bins, but also into any other container that you might have around the house:  A milk crate, a big plastic tub, to name a couple.  The non-recyclable containers will be left at curbside.  Paper bags and boxes are good containers and they are also recyclable.

Cardboard and “boxboard” (cereal boxes, toothpaste boxes, etc.) should be clean, dry, and flattened.  On our drive, more often than not the cardboard boxes were not flattened.  Dave tried to take them, but if they wouldn’t fit in the loader or if he couldn’t shake them out into the truck, he would have to leave them behind.  Sometimes large boxes did drop into the truck, but were so large they caused a jam.  When this happened, Dave had to climb up and over the top of the truck to un-jam the chute so he could run the compactor.  The lesson here is: Flatten all boxes.  Cut down very large boxes (like mattress boxes or TV boxes, for example); a good guide to size is 48 inches per side.

I have heard many complaints about the MRF not taking yogurt containers.  If you’re a big yogurt user, like me, you have a lot of empty containers.  Did you know that you can take yogurt containers to Green Street School on School Street, to Oak Grove School on Moreland Avenue, and to KidsPlayce on Eliot Street?  There are special requirements, though:  Size is limited to 6 or 32 ounce containers.  The tops should be wide, the bottoms narrow.  THEY DO NOT ACCEPT LIDS.  Go to terracycle.net on the web and see what else you can recycle independently; click on “Our Story” to see how organizations that sign up for the “Yogurt Brigade” (and other “brigades”) receive payment in return for the containers.

Many people in Brattleboro do recycle.  I think they are doing pretty well but with a little education might do better.  The Solid Waste Committee is charged with educating and bringing an increasing number of the non-recycling Brattleboro community into the leagues of passionate recyclers.