Middleboro volunteer groups team up to collect waste culprit in Styrofoam
A Styrofoam box that once held crayfish is collected by volunteers during a Styrofoam recycling event at the Middleboro Department of Public Works on Saturday, Jan. 10. Photos by Sam Tucker
From left: Middleboro resident Deanna Kennedy drops off Styrofoam to volunteers Sandy Smiley and John Gregory.
By the end of the four-hour collection, over 40 residents participated and a dumpster was filled more than half-way with Styrofoam waste.
Members of the Middleboro Department of Public Works and volunteers unload Styrofoam from residents. The volunteer groups hope to work with the department again in bringing an annual collection day to Middleboro.
A Styrofoam box that once held crayfish is collected by volunteers during a Styrofoam recycling event at the Middleboro Department of Public Works on Saturday, Jan. 10. Photos by Sam Tucker
From left: Middleboro resident Deanna Kennedy drops off Styrofoam to volunteers Sandy Smiley and John Gregory.
By the end of the four-hour collection, over 40 residents participated and a dumpster was filled more than half-way with Styrofoam waste.
Members of the Middleboro Department of Public Works and volunteers unload Styrofoam from residents. The volunteer groups hope to work with the department again in bringing an annual collection day to Middleboro.
MIDDLEBORO — While bags of Styrofoam filled a dumpster at an event Saturday, they weren’t headed to a landfill.
Sustainable Middleboro, a energy efficiency and sustainably nonprofit, collaborated with the town’s public works department and a Middleboro church’s environmental group to collect and recycle residents’ Styrofoam waste.
More than 40 area residents dropped off trash bags filled with Styrofoam at the Middleboro Department of Public Works on Saturday, Jan.10. The collection aimed to stop Styrofoam — which usually ends up in curbside trash bins — from entering the environment and landfills by recycling it into longer-use products.
By the end of the four-hour collection, a large dumpster was more than half full of Styrofoam.
“I'm amazed at how much we've gotten,” volunteer organizer Sandy Smiley said. “There's a need, and if we can keep any of this out of the landfill, or rivers or anywhere else that people just toss it — that's great.”
Organizers said the collected Styrofoam will be shipped to Insulation Technologies Inc. in Bridgewater — a polyester foam manufacturer that accepts recyclable materials from the public — to be sent out to other recycling companies.
By the end of the process, the materials could be converted into surfboards, helmets, park benches, insulation, road beds, construction materials and more.
Smiley, the coordinator of First Unitarian Universalist Society’s Green Sanctuary Team, said Sustainable Middleboro’s roots trace back to a workshop the church’s group hosted years ago.
She said there’s a lot of overlap between the two volunteer groups, and the Saturday collection was their first major collaboration in recent years.
“You really have to tackle [projects] from a lot of directions, and with a lot of collaboration, to have an impact,” Smiley said.
While Sustainable Middleboro focuses on the energy aspect of sustainability, she said the Green Sanctuary Team — a recently revamped longtime group of volunteers at the church — targets ways to improve recycling in Middleboro.
Alan Melchior, the treasurer of Sustainable Middleboro and longtime Middleboro resident, said it’s easy to recruit volunteers and forge partnerships in Middleboro for conservation and sustainability causes.
“This is a town that cares about its environment,” Melchior said. “I don’t think most people would call themselves ‘tree huggers,’ but they love the fact that we're in a community with lots of undeveloped land and with natural resources that we can enjoy.”
The mound of Styrofoam-filled trash bags grew as residents made drop-offs throughout the morning.
“I thought it was a good idea, and if you get more people to do this, maybe it'll be a regular thing,” said Deanna Kennedy, a Middleboro resident who participated in the collection.
Kennedy said most of her Styrofoam came from holiday gifts and packaging — a consistent source of Styrofoam waste the collection targeted.
The collection day came together with the help of Department of Public Works Director Chris Peck, and organizers said they hope to work with the department to incorporate the collection into the town’s annual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day each fall.
Both Sustainable Middleboro and the Green Sanctuary Team are looking for more community partners in their sustainability pursuits.
“We're all interested in kind of educating the community and trying to make things happen that will make Middleboro a better place to live,” Melchior said.
Smiley said the Green Sanctuary Team’s strategy is to help people “reset their mindset,” when it comes to the convenience — and environmental costs — of single-use packaging materials like Styrofoam.
“It's that education that the green sanctuary program is trying to develop and expand,” Smiley said.
Dody Adkins-Perry, Sustainable Middleboro’s secretary and founding volunteer, said at age 81 she’s not slowing down her environmental advocacy work any time soon.
“The environment is not cleaning itself up, and the climate problems are not slowing down. That’s why I’m here today,” she said at the collection.
Find more information on upcoming workshops, sustainability related events and more on Sustainable Middleboro’s Facebook page.
