By Martin Langeveld

On my walk a couple of weeks ago I met up with Andre, one of the trash and recycling workers with Triple T, on his rounds. He was struggling with a huge piece of cardboard that had been left roadside, with more big pieces also at the curb.

If you look through these pictures you can see Andre’s problem. Triple T used to use a rear-loading truck that could easily handle oversized cardboard — it all fit into the big hopper back there. But now, they use a side-loading truck. Recycling goes in one side; trash in the other. All the recycling has to go through a small hopper that is maybe two feet by two feet.

So if you leave cardboard any bigger than that, Andre and the other Triple T workers have to try to fold it up to make it small enough for the recycling box on the truck. If this slows them down on their route, eventually our recycling costs will go up.

SO: Long story short — do the guys a favor and fold or cut your cardboard down to around 20 inches by 20 inches. You’ll be helping out Andre and his fellow workers, and saving the town money in the long run.

All the cardboard, paper, bottles and cans have to go into this hopper which is about 2 feet square.

But people have been leaving giant pieces of cardboard that don’t fit the hopper.

Do the guys a favor and fold or cut up your cardboard to around 20″ by 20″ or smaller so it will fit!