Bruce Rolfe III is the third generation of Rolfe’s. He is all Waldoboro, having been born and raised, and having lived and worked here for all his 51 years. After high school, Bruce worked at some of the small convenience stores and factories on or near Route 1 such as Genthner’s, the carpet factor and the old Irving. They are no longer standing, and Bruce moved on, too. When a friend told him about a job opening at the transfer station, Bruce applied and came on as a transfer waste attendant. And in 2020 he became Waldoboro’s Solid Waste Operator to oversee the flow and organization of refuse from the town’s haulers and residents. As in the days of the landfill, men in the yard are tasked with directing people, answering questions, and returning waste to its proper place. The town closed the landfill to trash in the early 1980s, but it was still the repository for brush, construction debris, metals, and mattresses and couches. And people were all over the hill. And so was their refuse. It was crazy. So, when it closed completely in 2021, it was a game-changer. Today yard attendants now can see and respond to everything happening at the transfer station -- including Bruce stationed in the white shack at the entrance where he weighs and charges for the loads coming in.
It’s going to be hectic because it’s Tuesday, and Tuesdays are always busy, especially in the first two or three hours. And, we’re coming off the long weekend and the holidays. But it will slow down…sort of.
This is the time of year we get piles of TVs because people are going out and buying new ones for Christmas and things like that. I don’t think we’ll get Christmas trees today but definitely after the New Year. But I’ve seen people bring their trees right into July. After the holiday they’ll take them outside, but then they get froze down. And it’ll be halfway through the season and we’ll get more Christmas trees.
At 8:00 we open the gate for the commercial haulers. Then at 10, we open for everyone. There might be two people waiting, or there might be twenty. Some days it’s non-stop. Especially if it’s a Saturday. I can’t say that we have good days or bad days. It’s more like they both coincide with each other. Everything could be going really smooth, and then it’s a nightmare, hectic, with people putting stuff where it don’t belong, so you’re trying to keep an eye on them, and that can get kind of monotonous at times because you’ve got other things you’re trying to do, too, and then you have to go clean up something because somebody put it in the wrong area or something like that.
But people mean well. They’re always trying to recycle food containers, but we don’t take # 1 plastic. We only take # 2. So, we have to pick all the plastic that doesn’t belong out of the bins and toss it in the hopper. The brown glass, too. We have a sign, and people read it, but they still put the brown with the green and blue. So, my guys got to pull that stuff out of the bins as well.
And cardboard. Another one that people get mixed up about. They don’t realize that a cereal or soda box isn’t cardboard. It’s mixed paper. We spend a lot of time sorting it all.
Styrofoam is the big thing I get asked about. People are always asking where to put it. It goes in the trash. Down the hopper.
And some people don’t recycle at all. They throw everything away. But we charge for that. We count the bags when they come in. A small bag is 60 cents and a big one, $1.20. Because you can’t force people to recycle.
But I’d like to see more. I know a lot of people who are against Pay as You Throw where everybody gets charged per bag but I’m not. Because if people recycled more, it would save the town a considerable amount of money. Because the landfill where we cart the trash charges us for it.
People throw out everything, but I don’t notice it anymore. I’ve never found anything valuable. It was Will Pratt when he worked here — he started the trend of putting figurines and stuff up around the hopper. Now Mark’s doing it. And I’ll walk up and think, “Now what’s he put up there?” But people seem to enjoy it. I’ll tell you the funniest thing I saw: a woman brought her trash can down here and she opened it. And she started screaming. There was a skunk in it.
It’s all pretty laid back up here now. I’ve worked with a lot of nice guys. Seen a lot come and go. Met a lot of nice people over the years. Being up here can feel like the coldest place in winter and the hottest in summer. The people are what I like best. I still see people that have been coming in since when I started. And I’m still able to talk with them. I’ve lived my whole life in Waldoboro and there are a lot of nice people. And like I said, I’ve met a lot of them here. There’s got to be a reason I’m still here.
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