Mike Peabody interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-19.
Mike Peabody manages the Additional Recyclables Collection Center (ARCC) for the Central Vermont Waste Management District. The ARCC is one of the few "hard-to-recycle" centers in the country. Peabody collects and finds processors for items such as toothbrushes, VHS tapes, potato chip bags, and household paint. He previously worked as an attendant at a district transfer station. He talks about changes in the industry…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Occupational Folklife Project - Peabody, Mike
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Mia Roethlein interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-06-13.
Rothlein describes her career path, from studying environmental conservation in college, to her position as an environmental analyst for the Department of Environmental Conservation's Solid Waste Division. She describes working as a janitor; at a humane society; and running the drop-off station, the household hazardous waste program, and the innovative early compost program for a Waste Management District. In her current position, she helps…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Roethlein, Mia - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Paul Tomasi interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-08-30.
Paul Tomasi discusses his career in waste management, beginning as a supervisor for solid waste in Antarctica. He is the Executive Director of the geographically largest solid waste district in the Vermont, composed of 49 rural communities. He describes his philosophy of not dictating to member communities, but helping them implement their desired systems, and the districts subsequent focus on recycling and hazardous waste.…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Tomasi, Paul - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Cassandra Hemenway interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-11.
Cassandra Hemenway describes coming to solid waste education from an environmentalist and homesteading background. With professional training in journalism and freelance writing, and while raising her children on a single income she became very good at practicing reduce, reuse, recycle. She describes educational campaigns on the new organics law; working with schools; and setting up community compost sites. She describes her job as: "get[ting]…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Hemenway, Cassandra - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Patrick Palmer interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-08-29.
Patrick Palmer, a horse trainer, describes how he got into trash pick-up when he entered a bid over 20 years ago to pick up municipal trash with his draft horses and won the bid. He owns or co-owns two hauling businesses that use draft horses to collect trash, compost, and recyclables. He describes working with the horses, the generations of young people he has…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Palmer, Patrick - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Nick Hammond interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-16.
The father of a young family, Nick Hammond is also a builder (his principle occupation), farmer, and horse logger. He describes how trash hauling is just one part of his livelihood --a way to keep his horses working and doing something he enjoys and believes in, although it is not his main business. He describes what the job entails; trends in trash and recyclables;…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Hammond, Nick - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Alick Lord interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-21.
Alick Lord is eighteen at the time of this interview and has been at Grow Compost doing general labor since he was fifteen. His primary duties are repairing and washing 80 to 200 forty-eight gallon totes that are used to collect food waste from businesses. He also cares for the company's flock of chickens and is learning to repair the company's machinery. Lord describes…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Lord, Alick - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Jeff Miller interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-19.
Jeff Miller drives a truck for a compost company collecting totes of food waste from restaurants and grocery stores, which he then brings to a compost facility. His day starts when he gets up at 2:00 a.m., and he often works 11-hour days, averaging two to three hundred miles a day in the truck. Miller describes what driving the route is like, as well…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Miller, Jeff - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Rhonda Mace interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-09.
Rhonda Mace describes how she went from being a "bug-ologist," who was planning to teach science to high-schoolers, to her current job teaching youth from kindergarten to college about how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. An entertaining and engaging speaker, Mace describes the challenges and opportunities of working with school systems. She talks about the "ah-ha" moments when youth connect their behaviors with the…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Mace, Rhonda - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Amy McVey interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-28.
McVey describes her positions as Drop-Off Center Operator and Facilities Assistant at the largest solid waste district--in terms of population and quantity of material handled--in Vermont. Previously, she worked as a wildlands firefighter. She describes being drawn to the work at the drop-off center because of its physical and outdoor nature, and her interest in recycling. She discusses the practicalities of recycling and compromises…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Occupational Folklife Project - McVey, Amy
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Sean Fahey interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-23.
Sean Fahey has been working as a de-manufacturer at Good Point Recycling, an electronics recycling facility, for the past eight years. He describes the types of electronics he takes apart, such as hard drives, batteries, and smoke detectors, and how he removes the valuable and re-usable components, such as copper and gold. He describes the tools and safety issues involved in de-manufacturing, and the…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Fahey, Sean - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Crystal Johnston interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-23.
Crystal Johnston describes working as a truck driver, client service representative, and ebay seller for Good Point Recycling, an electronics recycling company. She drives a large box truck, collecting pallets of electronics to be recycled from over 90 sites throughout Vermont. Johnston describes what it is like being a woman in the industry and how people respond to her moving a 300-pound television by…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Johnston, Crystal - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Robin Ingenthron interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-23.
Ingenthron describes growing up in the Ozarks, recycling in college, working on cathode ray disposal and regulation for Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and founding an electronics recycling business. Good Point has facilities in two states and trades recycled materials nationally and internationally, focusing on fair trade recycling. He discusses how his work is informed by his time in the Peace Corp in Cameroon,…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Occupational Folklife Project - Ingenthron, Robin
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Jessica Saturley-Hall interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-18.
Jessica Saturley-Hall has a background in product management and development in the food industry. An entrepreneur and a gardener, she founded Upper Valley Compost to meet the need for a residential compost pick-up service in New Hampshire. She describes her innovative bucket-exchange collection model; the opportunities and challenges of being a small-business owner; and the different business considerations between hauling and making compost. She…
Contributor:
Saturley-Hall, Jessica - Nickerson, Virginia - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Gary Winnie interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-19.
Gary Winnie talks about managing a municipal hazardous waste (HW) facility for over 27 years and offers a valuable historical perspective. (It was one of the few full-time HW facilities in the country in the 1990s.) He describes training himself on the job; historical difference in types and quantities of HW; and the impact of changes in regulations and technologies. He describes a typical…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Occupational Folklife Project - Winnie, Gary
Date:2018-01-01
Audio Recording
Trevor Mance interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-01-04.
Working in solid waste for 23 years, Trevor Mance describes starting at the town recycling center as a teenager and then buying a trash route, which he ran while attending college. He talks about how he built his three businesses: trash, recycling, and composting in a rural part of Vermont, which had few industries and employers, and is proud that his businesses now employ…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Mance, Trevor - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2019-01-01
Audio Recording
Richard Smith interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-01-04.
Richard Smith describes how he came to work with trash through facilities management and being on the sustainability committee at Bennington College. He tells how he started at T.A.M. as a truck dispatcher and became Plant Manager when they bought the site for the MRF. He tells the remarkable story of how they built the MRF themselves from scratch with used parts; describes what…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Occupational Folklife Project - Smith, Richard P.
Date:2019-01-01
Audio Recording
Marie Frey and Richard Hudak interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-04-05.
Richard Hudak and Marie Frey, married co-owners of Hudak Farm and compost facility, describe the compost operation they run on their farm for the regional solid waste district. They talk about how they got into farming; how the compost business began; how it is a natural enterprise for a farm; their dedication to stewarding nutrients and natural resources; keeping materials out of the landfill;…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Frey, Marie - Occupational Folklife Project - Hudak, Richard
Date:2019-01-01
Audio Recording
Dan Goosen interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-04-19.
Dan Goosen has worked with compost his entire career, and for the last 11 years has managed Green Mountain Compost, the largest food waste compost facility in Vermont. He describes a typical work day, which might include creating a recipe for unusual feedstocks, such as trailer load of cookie dough; running computer models; overseeing plant growth trials; and repairing heavy machinery. He discusses challenges,…
Contributor:
Goossen, Dan - Nickerson, Virginia - Goosen, Dan - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2019-01-01
Audio Recording
David C. Orr interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-07-12.
David Orr describes his experiences working over 20 years in the trash collecting business. He started out at six-years-old helping with his father's part-time trash route. Later, he and his brothers had their own trash and recycling collection business. They had 300 customers and three trucks until they sold it to Triple T Trucking, the company that Mr. Orr and one brother still work…
Contributor:
Orr, David C. - Nickerson, Virginia - Occupational Folklife Project
Date:2019-01-01
Audio Recording
Shirley Warden interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-06-21.
Shirley Warden says that her passion is recycling. Seventy-nine years old at the time of this interview, Ms. Warden was one of the early coordinators for Barnet Green Up --a day in May when every community in Vermont picks up trash from roadsides, streams, and public places. She currently operates the trash compactor at the transfer station. In this interview, she describes starting an…
Contributor:
Nickerson, Virginia - Warden, Shirley - Occupational Folklife Project
Audio RecordingMike Peabody interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-19. Mike Peabody manages the Additional Recyclables Collection Center (ARCC) for the Central Vermont Waste Management District. The ARCC is one of the few "hard-to-recycle" centers in the country. Peabody collects and finds processors for items such as toothbrushes, VHS tapes, potato chip bags, and household paint. He previously worked as an attendant at a district transfer station. He talks about changes in the industry…
Audio RecordingMia Roethlein interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-06-13. Rothlein describes her career path, from studying environmental conservation in college, to her position as an environmental analyst for the Department of Environmental Conservation's Solid Waste Division. She describes working as a janitor; at a humane society; and running the drop-off station, the household hazardous waste program, and the innovative early compost program for a Waste Management District. In her current position, she helps…
Audio RecordingPaul Tomasi interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-08-30. Paul Tomasi discusses his career in waste management, beginning as a supervisor for solid waste in Antarctica. He is the Executive Director of the geographically largest solid waste district in the Vermont, composed of 49 rural communities. He describes his philosophy of not dictating to member communities, but helping them implement their desired systems, and the districts subsequent focus on recycling and hazardous waste.…
Audio RecordingCassandra Hemenway interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-11. Cassandra Hemenway describes coming to solid waste education from an environmentalist and homesteading background. With professional training in journalism and freelance writing, and while raising her children on a single income she became very good at practicing reduce, reuse, recycle. She describes educational campaigns on the new organics law; working with schools; and setting up community compost sites. She describes her job as: "get[ting]…
Audio RecordingPatrick Palmer interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-08-29. Patrick Palmer, a horse trainer, describes how he got into trash pick-up when he entered a bid over 20 years ago to pick up municipal trash with his draft horses and won the bid. He owns or co-owns two hauling businesses that use draft horses to collect trash, compost, and recyclables. He describes working with the horses, the generations of young people he has…
Audio RecordingNick Hammond interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-16. The father of a young family, Nick Hammond is also a builder (his principle occupation), farmer, and horse logger. He describes how trash hauling is just one part of his livelihood --a way to keep his horses working and doing something he enjoys and believes in, although it is not his main business. He describes what the job entails; trends in trash and recyclables;…
Audio RecordingAlick Lord interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-21. Alick Lord is eighteen at the time of this interview and has been at Grow Compost doing general labor since he was fifteen. His primary duties are repairing and washing 80 to 200 forty-eight gallon totes that are used to collect food waste from businesses. He also cares for the company's flock of chickens and is learning to repair the company's machinery. Lord describes…
Audio RecordingJeff Miller interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-19. Jeff Miller drives a truck for a compost company collecting totes of food waste from restaurants and grocery stores, which he then brings to a compost facility. His day starts when he gets up at 2:00 a.m., and he often works 11-hour days, averaging two to three hundred miles a day in the truck. Miller describes what driving the route is like, as well…
Audio RecordingRhonda Mace interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-09. Rhonda Mace describes how she went from being a "bug-ologist," who was planning to teach science to high-schoolers, to her current job teaching youth from kindergarten to college about how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. An entertaining and engaging speaker, Mace describes the challenges and opportunities of working with school systems. She talks about the "ah-ha" moments when youth connect their behaviors with the…
Audio RecordingAmy McVey interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-28. McVey describes her positions as Drop-Off Center Operator and Facilities Assistant at the largest solid waste district--in terms of population and quantity of material handled--in Vermont. Previously, she worked as a wildlands firefighter. She describes being drawn to the work at the drop-off center because of its physical and outdoor nature, and her interest in recycling. She discusses the practicalities of recycling and compromises…
Audio RecordingSean Fahey interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-23. Sean Fahey has been working as a de-manufacturer at Good Point Recycling, an electronics recycling facility, for the past eight years. He describes the types of electronics he takes apart, such as hard drives, batteries, and smoke detectors, and how he removes the valuable and re-usable components, such as copper and gold. He describes the tools and safety issues involved in de-manufacturing, and the…
Audio RecordingCrystal Johnston interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-23. Crystal Johnston describes working as a truck driver, client service representative, and ebay seller for Good Point Recycling, an electronics recycling company. She drives a large box truck, collecting pallets of electronics to be recycled from over 90 sites throughout Vermont. Johnston describes what it is like being a woman in the industry and how people respond to her moving a 300-pound television by…
Audio RecordingRobin Ingenthron interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-23. Ingenthron describes growing up in the Ozarks, recycling in college, working on cathode ray disposal and regulation for Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and founding an electronics recycling business. Good Point has facilities in two states and trades recycled materials nationally and internationally, focusing on fair trade recycling. He discusses how his work is informed by his time in the Peace Corp in Cameroon,…
Audio RecordingJessica Saturley-Hall interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-09-18. Jessica Saturley-Hall has a background in product management and development in the food industry. An entrepreneur and a gardener, she founded Upper Valley Compost to meet the need for a residential compost pick-up service in New Hampshire. She describes her innovative bucket-exchange collection model; the opportunities and challenges of being a small-business owner; and the different business considerations between hauling and making compost. She…
Audio RecordingGary Winnie interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2018-10-19. Gary Winnie talks about managing a municipal hazardous waste (HW) facility for over 27 years and offers a valuable historical perspective. (It was one of the few full-time HW facilities in the country in the 1990s.) He describes training himself on the job; historical difference in types and quantities of HW; and the impact of changes in regulations and technologies. He describes a typical…
Audio RecordingTrevor Mance interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-01-04. Working in solid waste for 23 years, Trevor Mance describes starting at the town recycling center as a teenager and then buying a trash route, which he ran while attending college. He talks about how he built his three businesses: trash, recycling, and composting in a rural part of Vermont, which had few industries and employers, and is proud that his businesses now employ…
Audio RecordingRichard Smith interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-01-04. Richard Smith describes how he came to work with trash through facilities management and being on the sustainability committee at Bennington College. He tells how he started at T.A.M. as a truck dispatcher and became Plant Manager when they bought the site for the MRF. He tells the remarkable story of how they built the MRF themselves from scratch with used parts; describes what…
Audio RecordingMarie Frey and Richard Hudak interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-04-05. Richard Hudak and Marie Frey, married co-owners of Hudak Farm and compost facility, describe the compost operation they run on their farm for the regional solid waste district. They talk about how they got into farming; how the compost business began; how it is a natural enterprise for a farm; their dedication to stewarding nutrients and natural resources; keeping materials out of the landfill;…
Audio RecordingDan Goosen interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-04-19. Dan Goosen has worked with compost his entire career, and for the last 11 years has managed Green Mountain Compost, the largest food waste compost facility in Vermont. He describes a typical work day, which might include creating a recipe for unusual feedstocks, such as trailer load of cookie dough; running computer models; overseeing plant growth trials; and repairing heavy machinery. He discusses challenges,…
Audio RecordingDavid C. Orr interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-07-12. David Orr describes his experiences working over 20 years in the trash collecting business. He started out at six-years-old helping with his father's part-time trash route. Later, he and his brothers had their own trash and recycling collection business. They had 300 customers and three trucks until they sold it to Triple T Trucking, the company that Mr. Orr and one brother still work…
Audio RecordingShirley Warden interview conducted by Virginia Nickerson, 2019-06-21. Shirley Warden says that her passion is recycling. Seventy-nine years old at the time of this interview, Ms. Warden was one of the early coordinators for Barnet Green Up --a day in May when every community in Vermont picks up trash from roadsides, streams, and public places. She currently operates the trash compactor at the transfer station. In this interview, she describes starting an…