05/07/2026
Well, this is it, folks. I am REALLY retiring. A week from today, actually. Indulge me, if you would, while I take a trip down memory lane this week. We have come a long way since my first day in September 1999.
I always give credit to original recycling coordinator Kris Anderson. Kris, along with the county and solid waste authority, put in place a system of recycling drop-offs, tire recycling, used oil recycling, and refrigerated white goods recycling.
We built upon this framework, carrying out an illegal dump survey, forming a PA Cleanways (Now Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful) chapter in 2000, adding an annual household hazardous waste collection in 2002, an ongoing electronics collection in 2004, and lamps, batteries, oil-based paints and pesticides in 2006.
Had the county administrative fee on trash not been struck down by the PA Supreme Court in 2005 I might not be sitting here writing this. But that hit immediately wiped-out half of our budget. We were losing money every month, and the county commissioners were firm in that we needed to make things work or the programs we put in place would end.
We were determined that would not happen.
What we did next a radical departure, but one that was absolutely necessary.
We opened a community recycling center.
Let me tell you, every day was a learning experience.
Actually, it still is.
There are also plenty of side stories between 1999 and today.
You might remember when we rented roll off containers for plastics recycling round about 2008 and early 2009. The economy had tanked and the individual taking the plastics from the ongoing Girl Scout collection couldn't find a market for it. So, on the third Saturday of the month, when we collected electronics at the Stackpole complex, we also began accepting plastic bottles. We had scaffolding to reach the top of the containers and volunteers, yes, volunteers, took care of everyone who dropped off plastic. We borrowed a traffic counter and some months had over 700 cars through in four hours.
In 2007, we began a year-long process of getting approval for the state's first-ever unwanted/unused medicine collection. The first collection was held in 2008 and continued for nearly eight years until the funding that helped us operate the program dried up.
We opened the recycling center in an old locker room/shower room at Stackpole in October 2010. That first full year we recycled a whopping 139 tons. All of that tonnage was fed into a very old vertical baler. If you're not certain what a vertical baler is, they are the two green machines in the drive through. One we use for cardboard and the other, film plastic. Except the one at Stackpole had to be close to 50 years old. We finally purchased a new machine not long before we moved the operation to Washington Street.
There are many times I wonder how we managed, and why we just didn't throw in the towel. The work was hard, and our little space certainly wasn't set up to efficiently operate. Not by a long shot. But we kept doing. And the public kept showing up with their recycling. And we attracted more volunteers. And this is why we are here now. Because of community.
