CENTRE COUNTY, Pa (WJAC) — For many of us, recycling is a part of our everyday lives.
One of the statewide experts in the recycling industry is from our region and she spent more than three decades overseeing emerging trends, but now she's retiring.
Joanne Shafer began working at the then Centre County Solid Waste Authority in 1990. Within a few months, she was the authority's recycling director.
“When I first started, I was it. I did everything. That included going to a classroom with a bag of trash and pulling out items and asking the kids whether it should be recycled.”
Shafer took a hands-on approach, even when it came to sorting trash as part of a project to determine future recycling priorities.
“I like to tell people that, ‘you haven’t lived until you’re at a sorting table, separating trash into fifty-five different categories.’”
New initiatives included the annual household hazardous waste collection program.
“My favorite household hazardous waste story is the guy who rode up in a bicycle, waited in line, and had one item, a mercury thermometer.”
Other times it was much more than just hazardous waste.
“We almost blew the top off of Dale Summit one year. Somebody brought in a can of an aluminum substance that was an explosive.”
A hallmark of Centre County's recycling program has been an industry lead.
“We were the first to recycle corrugated cardboard, and the first in Pennsylvania to do plastic bottle containers. We were the first with an interpretive center and the huge processing center we added.”
Now, nearly 15-thousand tons of materials are recycled at the county authority every year. Shaffer retires next week, although her expertise will keep her involved with some state programs as she remains confident in the future of recycling.
“I like to say, ‘more people recycle in Pennsylvania than vote.’ I don’t know if that’s good for recycling, or bad for voting, but recycling is such an easy thing to do.”
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