To the editor:
Kudos to Sheffield Transfer Station users as they continue to increase their volume of recycled, reused, and repurposed items. A few highlights:
- Four Apparel Impact bins collect textiles and accessories around town. Sheffield was recycling textiles, accessories, and mattresses long before the State’s November 22 ban on these items went into effect.
- The food composting program has been growing steadily as more users use the compost bins rather than put food scraps in the trash. Even those who compost at home are now bringing certain bear attractive foods—like bones, fish skin, grease, and cheese—to the transfer station while composting safe food scraps at home. It’s a great way to have a home compost but not attract bears, which may not end well for the bear.
- The electronics bin has expanded what it takes, including batteries of all kinds; the bulky rigid plastic bin is getting more donations, while the light shop recycles mercury based products, including fluorescent lights, thermometers, and CLF bulbs.
- Cardboard, paper, and the usual recyclable items of glass, containers, cans, etc. are also up in tonnage.
- Three book bins accept books too good to strip the covers off and put in the paper bin. Boxes of books have been recycled from individual homes. DVDs, CDs, and tapes find new life in the Transfer Station book bins.
- And of course, the Swap Shop is everyone’s favorite spot to leave—and find–items that still have usefulness in someone else’s home.
The results? Less stuff is going to landfills and more is finding a second or third useful life. Thank you, all users, as you continue this trend. It’s not only keeping many items out of shrinking landfills but also helps lower the impact of rising prices. You, along with our incredible attendants, make Sheffield’s Transfer Station a special place and one of the cleanest in the Commonwealth—DEP and other visitors say this all the time.
Rene Wood
Sheffield
The writer is Sheffield’s Recycling Coordinator.
