Northfield resident Annie Chappell couldn’t bear the thought of throwing away her Styrofoam. Assuming others had the same aversion, she worked to ensure community members wouldn’t have to. The community group Drawdown Montague, individual volunteers from Northfield and the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District have teamed up for the second year to offer free recycling of plastic foam, commonly known as Styrofoam, at the Montague and Northfield transfer stations. Residents of these two towns can drop off their unwanted material on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon throughout April.
Drawdown Montague, a group of volunteers who advocate for environmentally friendly programs, was interested in offering plastic foam recycling to eliminate one form of plastic from the waste stream. Chappell had a similar idea in Northfield, as she has always shipped her plastic foam out to recycling centers and she realized she could help others do the same. “This is a nice collaboration we are hoping to build on,” said Susan Campbell, a member of Drawdown Montague. The two groups went to the Franklin Solid Waste Management District to put their idea into action. The district’s support includes collaborating with the volunteers from the towns to work out the logistics, ordering supplies, writing press releases, designing the flyer and other publicity, and working with town administrators, according to Amy Donovan, program director at Franklin County Solid Waste Management District.
The first collection was held in 2022, with drop-off locations at the Montague Transfer Station and Northfield’s Community Bible Church. Their efforts proved successful, with the two communities filling their storage containers and diverting 70 cubic yards of plastic foam from the landfill. This year, they rented larger containers from MiBox, getting 20-foot boxes compared to last year’s 14-foot boxes. Once collected, the plastic foam will be sent to Agawam-based Gold Circuit E-Cycling. The company can use recycled expanded polystyrene to make picture frames, baseboard or crown molding, building insulation and insulating boards known as extruded polystyrene.