The only thing we charge for at our transfer station is just the Freon units. Things like fridges, freezers, air conditioners, and dehumidifiers are $ 12.00. Everything else is free to drop off. It's all paid for out of local property and excise taxes. It's simpler and less hassle for the people coming through that way.



I think my favorite part of the job is the metals pile. It's recycling that really works. We even get paid for it. The main yard about 60 miles away sends out a truck & trailer rig and they haul off 10 - 14 tons of mixed metal at a time. In fact .... i've got a couple of loads ready to go. I'm hoping that they show up this week cause the pile is about 14' high right now.

The single sort recycling of cardboard, plastics, and cans .... i'm not so crazy about. It costs about 4x more per ton to get rid of the trash that way. It would make more money sense to just throw that stuff into the trash compactor with the rest of the MSW. I think it would make more sense from an environmental point of view as well. I have to manage some of the trucking & logistics. I'll tell ya .... the carbon footprint of transportation of that low value recyclable stuff is huge. I don't think that anyone who has environmental concerns would ever support it if they knew what was going on behind the scenes.

In theory ... we also make money off the deposit bottles & cans. Most people here don't want to bother with cashing in their beverage containers at the store. We've got a separate building where people can sort them into plastic,glass,or aluminum barrels. The town gets the deposit value when the redemption company comes down to pick them up. The problem is that none of the redemption companies are willing to come down and pick them up anymore. The juice isn't worth the squeeze for them. It's been over a year and a half and the building is full to overflowing now. I would say that part of the recycling effort has been a complete failure.

Anyhow ... different places have different ways of doing things. Some places here in Maine charge for everything they take it. They probably make a lot of money off the trash.