BY DAVE CHOATE

If you’re reading this in Weare, Carl Knapp would be pretty happy if you recycled this newspaper.

Knapp heads up the transfer station, and said the first six months have yielded a significant rise in recycling and a corresponding reduction in trash. He said the news has been good for environmental and financial reasons.

“I’m hoping this is a trend, and that we’ll continue to see a steady increase in recycling and fall in trash. It’s a cost savings for us and it’s good for the town,” Knapp said.

The town has a mandatory recycling policy, but Knapp asserted that he doesn’t want to overpromote the program until the point people get sick of it.

“Our goal is to say ‘Look, folks, this is to your benefit to do this.’ We try not to shove it down people’s throats too much,” he said.

He said the transfer station’s ultimate goal is to have recycling account for 40 percent of the total trash tonnage each year. Knapp has been the director for about eight years, and said the current yield is about 25 percent, up from the only 2 or 3 percent he started with.

Town Administrator Fred Ventresco said the steady increase in recycling is a positive marker for the town.

“It’s a good sign, and it gives people the encouragement to recycle more and more. The money saved goes back to funding the transfer station, which can continue to do a great job,” he said.

Knapp agreed that the savings were becoming apparent. He said the station saves $2,300 dollars in wear and tear on the trucks alone with the reduction in trash.

“It’s much less wear and tear on all our equipment when we have less trash to deal with. As the tonnage goes down, our costs go down too,” he said.

Knapp said that the town has seen 20 tons – or 40,000 pounds – of paper more than last year being recycled. He recited similar growth for cardboard and plastic, but said aluminum cans are about even with the level they were at this time last year.

The savings should be helped further by new equipment the transfer station is obtaining to help with trash and recycling. Knapp said there were plans to get new trailers that would hold more material and a new trash compactor that would allow greater compression of trash and thus less cost when the trash is sent away for incineration.

Knapp acknowledged that the transfer station typically runs in the red, but that increased recycling will be better for the town and allow the station to get closer to the black.

“My goal, before I retire, is to get to the break-even point. The best way to do it is to be patient, and then we’ll be saving ourselves money and time,” he said.