Hooksett’s Solid Waste Department recently got an image makeover to reflect the town’s push for more recycling.

The head of the department, now called the Hooksett Recycling and Transfer Department, Diane Boyce, has been running a volunteer recycling program at the department’s West River Road site for 18 years.

She doesn’t deny the main difficulty of a recycling program dependent on volunteerism, with no curbside pickup.

“Some people could care less,” she said. “People are busy. It’s just too convenient sometimes to toss things out.”

But for other residents, said Boyce, recycling becomes habitual. “When people come here and see what we have, they love it,” said Boyce. “Then they constantly come back.”

The program currently removes about 8 percent of the town’s total solid waste from the waste stream. That means the town pays for 8 percent less in trash disposal costs.

In 2006, the recycling program saved about $28,000 in disposal fees. The program also generated $28,000 to $30,000 in revenue from recycled material.

Most of that revenue came from metals, said Boyce, but the department sells recyclables of all kinds, including paper, aluminum cans, books, magazines, electronics and batteries.

Profit from recycled printer cartridges – which Boyce said can approach $100 for a couple small boxes – goes to the Hooksett PTA. Used heating oil is even used to heat the recycling facility.

“We pretty much accept everything here for people to recycle,” she said.

Hooksett residents spared about 400 tons of normal household trash from the waste stream, said Boyce. That’s not counting larger recyclables.

Boyce said Hooksett’s 8 percent “diversion” rate has been fairly steady over the past few years, and said, “For a volunteer program, we don’t do too bad.”

But Boyce said she’s always hoping for more participation.

She said she hopes to open the recycling center on some Wednesday evenings when the weather warms. The department also hopes to have a recyclables trailer floating between Hooksett’s three public schools, where parents can drop off recyclables when they drop off their kids.

Boyce also tries to give annual tours of the facility to Hooksett first-graders.

“It’s funny how they’ll come back with their parents and say, ‘I told my father to come here.’”

Boyce said she often hears from residents that they’d be far more willing to recycle if the town offered curbside pickup, as it does for normal household waste.

But she said starting such a program to serve the 3,850-andcounting homes could frighten taxpayers.

“Now you’re talking more equipment, more gas and more labor,” she said. “But do I see it coming some day? I hope so.”

For now, recycling requires a trip to the recycling center which, by the way, boasts a massive toy truck collection. Scores of yellow trucks and utility vehicles, most about 1 to 2 feet long, line the walls inside the recycling facility.

It’s a collection that’s been building up for two decades. “After a while, people would come in just to give trucks to us,” said Boyce.

The recycling center is located next to the transfer station and the highway department at 210 W. River Road, between Interstate 93’s Exits 10 and 11.