Andover Transfer Station

Reflection Questions

1. Where does all your trash go? What happens to it next? From the Andover Transfer Station, our trash then goes to the incinerator in Boscawen, NH. After the incinerator, the trash will then have to go to a special landfill for the ashes. The recyclable materials at the Andover Transfer Station are sold to other companies for a profit. When the price is right, they sell the recyclable goods at the transfer station.

2. Find out what materials are recovered and why? At the Andover Transfer Station, Cardboard, paper, aluminum, metals, glass, tires, and e-waste are recovered. to recycle tires and e-waste, you have to pay a small fee to get rid of them. The rest of the recyclable categories are free to recycle. The biggest category of trash that is not recycled is plastic at the Andover Transfer Station. This is because of the amount of work it takes, the labor, it is a health hazard, and it is expensive. At the transfer station, it is not worth recycling plastic because they would have to pay too much money. 

3. Be sure to think outside your"bag" - what about food waste? Yard waste? E-Waste? Other stuff? At the Andover Transfer Station, food waste is not collected or composted. It is thrown in the hopper and taken to the garbage incinerator. Yard waste is collected. If it is clean wood, then it can be thrown in the burn pile, and if it is grass clippings or leaves, then there is a pile where you can dump that. E-waste has to be collected for a small fee. It is then stored in a storage container and then later sold to another company. 

4. What are the social, economic, and environmental advantages and disadvantages of the Andover Transfer Station? The Andover Transfer Station is a very easy and affordable place to throw away trash and recycle. The transfer station collects recyclable materials and sells them by the ton for profit. With the transfer station's trash being collected by truck each week, there are no landfills or environmental hazards. It is a relatively clean place. The Andover Transfer Station does not recycle plastics, which makes it harder for local residents to recycle. With the transfer station only charging a one-time payment of 10$ for a dump sticker, they are losing out on a lot of potential profit. With the transfer station sitting on bare land, there are possibilities that the surrounding land may be exposed to toxic products from the transfer station. 

5. How and why is the town waste management service/system different from Proctors? The town of Andover's waste management service is different than Proctors. Proctor's waste management system is on a lot smaller scale. Proctor is also able to recycle plastic unlike the town of Andover, this is because Proctor pays more for this service and isn't looking to make a profit. The town of Andover makes money off of the trash that people bring to the dump, only the recyclable materials such as paper, cardboard, steel, aluminum, or glass. Proctor pays people to get rid of its trash and recycling and that company chooses how to sell Proctor's waste.    

We arrived bright and early at the Andover Transfer station, it was not too busy yet. We first arrived and found our trash bags in the back of the van. We were then split into two big groups dividing the class in half. We made our way through the transfer station and stopped at all recycling bins or compactors. We made our way through the mixed paper bin compactor, cardboard compactor, aluminum bin, glass bin, metal bin, and finally the trash compactor. As I went to throw my paper towel roll tube in the cardboard compactor, Alan informed me, "This is paperboard, it is not cardboard because cardboard has ridges and grooves in between the paper". I did not know there was a difference between the two. 

After we had disposed of all our trash, we went inside the small building to warm up and the transfer station worker, Jeff Sweet talked about the transfer station and where the trash goes afterward. Jeff was very informative and shared many details like the fees you need to pay if you want to dispose of certain items. Most importantly to me, Jeff talked about why the ATS doesn't recycle plastics. There were many reasons but a few big reasons were, "Plastics were a health hazard to the workers." Some plastics were not cleaned and rinsed off as the ATS instructed the people of Andover to do. And, "It was too expensive to dispose of the recycled plastic". Jeff made it clear that it did not financially make sense at the ATS to recycle plastic as they would be losing money as transporting it was expensive and there was no market for plastics like aluminum or cardboard.