Calling All Recycling Volunteers!

Towards dinnertime every day this month, a steady stream of vacationers has reluctantly left Cahoon Hollow Beach for a rental home or motel room. It's great this Wellfleet beach is so popular with the muscle-flexing, beer-drinking crowd, who often come with young children. These beachgoers get a bite to eat for lunch at The Beachcomber, which doubles as a nightclub, or will have thought ahead to bring a picnic. But just take a look at the trash they leave behind ...

Distressed, I called Lydia Vivante, chair of the Wellfleet Recycling Commission, and suggested a recycling bin might be in order. After all, recycling is an option at the pier now. I told her about my B&B guest from last week, who had wandered around the village in search of a recycling bin. I was the one who finally took his empty plastic water bottle to the transfer station.

Lydia explained, with patience, that the issue was certain visitors, who do not know what to do with their household trash and deposit it in random trashcans before departure. She told me that the Recycling Commission was working on bins for Main Street, in front of the liquor store and perhaps Wellfleet Marketplace, but the problem was to find that special person who would be responsible for collection and transportation to the dump. (If you want to volunteer, or know of someone who has free time in summer, do contact Lydia.)

I attended the first fifteen minutes of the Recycling Commission meeting on Tuesday and was extremely impressed. The subject at hand was STYROFOAM and what to do with it. (Someone had left two styrofoam coolers near the bins at Cahoon Hollow and other people diligently deposited their beer cans in the cooler as they reached the parking lot.)

Tomorrow, Sunday, Lydia is organizing a sale of New Englander Rain Barrels at the special rate of $75, more than 25% off the regular price, from 11 to 1 on the Town Hall Lawn. Come support the Recycling Commission and do the water table a favor by buying a rain barrel or two.

Who do you think should be responsible for collection of recycled plastic in summer? Should the DPW add this task to their long list of responsibilities? How can we discourage tourists from leaving household trash in trashcans at the beach? Do you know why Styrofoam is bad for the environment?