HAVERHILL — If you've dropped off your recyclable bottles, milk jugs or cans at the city's Highway Department yard any recent Saturday, you've probably bumped into Colin LePage.
Or maybe Brent Baeslack caught your ear.
If not, John McCutcheon might have approached you.
These three advocates for a curbside recycling program in Haverhill have set up shop, so to speak, inside the DPW yard off Primrose Street, where residents deposit their recyclable items.
The men have been handing out stickers that can be placed on recycling containers, and they've been collecting signatures from residents who want the kind of recycling program that would avoid having to drive to the Highway Department yard to dispose of bottles and cans.
LePage, a member of the recycling committees for Team Haverhill and Mayor James Fiorentini, said his group has collected more than 600 signatures over the last three Saturdays from residents who support a curbside program.
"And we counted more than 920 vehicles, including some who returned the same day or the following week," LePage said.
Haverhill has curbside recycling of paper goods only. It is the only community in this part of the Merrimack Valley that does not have curbside recycling of other items — bottles, cans and plastic. That leaves residents who want to recycle those items having to take them to the Highway Garage.
Some residents have been calling on the city to expand curbside recycling to include the other items, but Fiorentini said it depends on whether Haverhill can find a company it can afford to have pick up the items, and whether enough residents are willing to participate.
The men collecting the signatures hope to show city leaders enough residents would participate.
Baeslack, co-chairman of the Haverhill Environmental League, said statistics from state and federal environmental officials show a minimum of 60 percent of normal trash has the potential to be recycled.
"If we're only doing 10 percent, we have a long way to go," Baeslack said of Haverhill's level of recycling. "There's a huge opportunity for improvement."
Baeslack said the benefits of curbside recycling include not having to take the time to drive to a recycling center and burn gas on the trip.
"Through our efforts with Team Haverhill and the Recycling Committee, we believe that extending the convenience of curbside recycling would result in increased participation, and that the materials collected would offset the increased cost of this kind of program," Baeslack said. "And then you have the savings of not including these items in the total tonnage of trash sent to Covanta. Trash collection costs money."
The city pays the Covanta plant, at the edge of the Ward Hill Business Park, to accept trash from homes and businesses. Local proponents of full curbside recycling said the city would save on the cost of dumping trash at the Covanta plant, as well as make money by selling its recyclable materials.
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Push for curbside recycling
Signatures collected: More than 600 in support
Cars counted carrying recyclable items: More than 920 (including many repeat customers the same day or following week)
Literature given out: Stickers to place on containers that can hold bottles and cans
Also literature on: The city's recycling schedule
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