Andover Transfer Station

Many people have different ways of throwing their trash out. For example, you could put it in the garbage can outside your house and wait for the truck to come get it. You could sort your trash and take it to your dump in town. Once you have discarded your trash, people who work at the transfer station usually sort it to the different waste sections. Some do not and will just believe you properly sorted your trash. Like we saw at the Andover Transfer station, when trucks full of trash would dump their loads cans or cardboard would be being dumped as well. After your trash has been dumped into a dumpster or funnel hole, it will be incinerated to try and fit as much trash into a shipping container as possible. Then it either goes to a landfill or is burned for energy. 

The main materials that are recovered are metal, card board, paper products, glass, and plastic as well as e-waste and many other major categories of waste. Metal is recovered because most likely, it can be melted down and turned into some other thing and if the market is good, the transfer station employees can sell metal/aluminum for good prices. For example, a metal pipe could be melted into a door handle. Another thing they can recover is cardboard. Once they collect the cardboard, they make sure it is clean, dry and compacted. The transfer station said they receive $150 per ton they sell of cardboard.  The transfer station also collects glass. It is then sent to New London and crushed. They use the crushed pieces to help them  make the sidewalk. They don't recycle plastic because it is messy and there is no market or income they would receive from that. They also collect e-waste. The e-waste will be taken away and the folks dissembling the products will take any of the valuable materials from the insides, like gold. Most of the materials they recover could have value for them and could earn revenue in return. Jeff also said, "People also donate wood for people who need wood to heat their homes." Peoples yard trash will go to the burn pile. The Andover transfer station also collects tires and they shred them to make turf. They also collect "Concrete, Brick and other rubble"(Jeff). As well as mattresses and couches. 

Yes Yes and Yes! So I would definitely have food waste in my bag. The way Proctor is set up in the dining hall, I'm not sure how much food waste I aquired. At home (in the summer) we usually compost because we have a garden. The same goes for yard waste at the transfer station. I personally don't produce yard waste, but at home we do as a family. Even then we take it to our town dump and leave it to be turned into mulch. As for e-waste, my dad saves/reuses all of our old phones, iPads, computers and more. He currently is turning all of our phones into house cameras. This program or app is called Alfred Camera. 

Some of the social economic and environmental advantages and disadvantages of the Andover Transfer station are it helps people get rid of their trash. Having access to a transfer station is a good way to help the community stay clean and tidy. As well as helping the community stay clean, the transfer station will produce revenue from the collected trash. For example, the Andover Transfer Station collects cardboard and they receive $150 per ton of cardboard. This process is also very similar with aluminum or metal. The metal  market is very picky, some months the transfer station can earn more of metal than other months. As for the environment, the transfer station discards of the trash in a safe and some what clean way. This helps contain our trash so it doesn't end up in rivers or oceans. Also some trash can be very toxic so collecting it in this easy and safe way helps not contaminate our drinking water. As, for the disadvantages, transporting trash and shipping it places is very expensive. Even though the transfer station receives some revenue from selling the more "valuable" materials and selling dump stickers (passes to be able to use the transfer station), it is still very expensive to ship the compacted trash. Another downside to the transfer station is if you don't have a pass or sticker you aren't able to access the dump. Prices for shipping trash elsewhere has sky rocked in the past 10-20 years, so the price for a dump pass has also increased to keep up with the rising prices. When people dump their trash, sometimes they don't take the extra 5 minutes at home to sort it so when we watched Jeff and Carrie run the compactor, we saw people dump cans and boxes into the compactor. People being reckless with their disposal of waste, can also impact the amount the transfer station will make in revenue form selling the cardboard and metal. 

For Proctor, we (boarding students) will take our trash outside into one of the dumpsters by our dorm I believe every Sunday Morning the bins get collected and dumped in the 4 big dumpsters behind Gannet next to the maintenance parking lot. Then those dumpsters are collected by a private company named Casella at the end of every Wednesday and Saturday. Two trucks collect the dumpsters behind Gannet and behind the Dining Hall. At Proctor we are accustomed to people doing our work and chores for us. Proctors process is very different compared to the town's waste management system because instead of people disposing of your trash for you, you or your family would have to dispose of it at the transfer station your self. This is like I do at home; we as a family separate our bottles (glass), cans (metal), cardboard, other recycling and our trash. During the summer we also dispose of our yard trash as well.