What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the word “trash.” I know that I’m thinking “Bad boy Scruffy” when I see he’s overturned the trash basket for the 100th time and drug the little pieces of paper all over the floor.
We keep our “gooey” trash in a can with a lid or behind closed doors or somewhere that the critters can’t get into it, but the “paper” trash is sometimes left beside a recliner (to catch dad’s chocolate candy wrappers) or next to a washer (have you ever wondered why your towels don’t just disappear after a while, when you’ve cleaned so much lint out of your dryer you could knit ten towels?). Scruffy gets bored, trash is interesting, end of story.
So that’s the first thing you think – keep the trash somewhere that your dog, or cat, can’t have a field day in it.
What’s the next thing you think of when I say “trash”? Come on, dig deep, you can do it, here it comes, you remember now – the Houlton Humane Society recycling program! Woohoo, you get a gold star!
This has been going on for a while, as far as recycling used ink cartridges, but this past year we found out that there is money in other trash. Real money, cash money, lots and lots of money, like close to $300 in the past month for the Houlton Humane Society to use toward our shelter operations, and it all came from trash!
We are so grateful to the businesses and individuals who save their trash for us. I do bi-weekly pick-ups at one business, others drop their bags of trash off at my office, some drop them off at the electronics department at Walmart and even others drop off at the shelter. These items are separated, boxed, and shipped, and then the checks start coming in.
One lady, God bless her heart, went through all of the trash in her entire apartment complex, and washed every single piece of plastic, and brought in bags of it, and I almost didn’t have the heart to tell her that it’s not “any” plastic, but I finally gave her a list, just to save her all the effort of washing every piece. The last thing we want is for someone to think we don’t appreciate their efforts, we do, you have no idea how much, but the only things that we are paid for are the following:
Beauty containers – basically every product that can be purchased in the beauty department at Walmart – glass, plastic, metal, etc, including make up, hair products, shampoo & conditioner, hand, body and face soap containers, tooth care, lotions, perfumes and more. These containers do not need to be rinsed clean.
Dairy tubs – plastic tubs and any foil or plastic lids and seals – butter, pudding, yogurt, cream cheese, cottage cheese, ice cream, margarine, sour cream, dips. Please rinse these out so they don’t smell.
Cell phones and any cords or cables and ink jet or LaserJet ink cartridges.
Keep in mind that we do not take milk cartons, laundry detergent bottles, or other number two plastic unless it appears on the list above. Sometimes those are mixed in with the other items and rest assured, they are recycled, but the shelter does not receive any cash for items not appearing on the list.
The amount of work it takes for Cara Maples and her family to organize, box, and ship these items is tremendous. We can help them out by making sure we nest our containers whenever possible, and clean the dairy containers.
We are grateful for your support. This is a lot of money that is generated by this program and the program is growing rapidly. Not everybody reads Pet Talk so if you don’t mind sharing this information with your boss, your neighbor, your family, and getting everybody to save us these items, you can drop them off monthly, or weekly, at the Varney Agency, 9 Katahdin Lane, or call me at 532-2345 when you have a car full and I’ll come pick them up. Drop them at the shelter if you’d like, and visit with the critters and the staff, they love having company!
Your effort on our behalf is all that keeps us going. Animal welfare is not a tennis match with two people keeping one ball in the air, it’s an entire NFL football team with a game plan, a great quarterback (thank you Heather Miller) and an awesome team – you can sit on the sidelines and watch, or you can carry the ball over the goal line. Your trash is our touchdown! Yay team!
Cathy Davis is a longtime volunteer for the Houlton Humane Society. She can be reached at houltonanimalshelter@gmail.com or 532-2345.
