The town of Oyster Bay's recycling program: "We do a lot of different things here"

Long Island's Town of Oyster Bay (TOB) and its citizens take pride in its robust recycling program. As Superintendent of Environmental Control, Eric D. Swenson, Esq. notes, "We do a lot of different things here." Separate Oyster Bay's Recyclables Today (S.O.R.T) manages the entire recycling program. The Recycling and Sanitation Division delivers recyclables from homes to the Old Bethpage Solid Waste complex. The 40,000 sq.ft. building is a transfer station, where plastics get sorted, shredded and purified; crushed glass becomes new road material; melted metals are reused and a hydro pulper turns paper to pulp for new paper. Even yard waste is turned to compost. By late morning, the sorting ends and vendors fill their trucks with sellable materials. The Dept. of Environmental Resources conducts environmental impact reviews, and a shellfish management program to maintain the tasty crustaceans. TOB oversees marine pump-outs and boats they operate. In 2004, S.O.R.T. joined the GeesePeace program to manage the massive geese populations. Buying 3 border collies to herd geese, TOB invited dog agility trainer Katherine Dattoma to advise them. Dattoma recognized TOB's good intentions, but they did not know how to handle the dogs, which she deemed to be abused. This brought on some criticism from animal rights groups. But in the end, Dattoma was impressed by this "rare instance of a municipality being influenced to change their ways." She feels the dogs are now well taken care of. S.O.R.T workers exude a sense of pride in their work. Swenson did not rise to be Superintendent by chance. He explains, "When I was a kid my families' vacations were going camping. So I guess I first got into the environment just from being out in the woods all the time." In 1970, the first Earth Day led Swenson's high school to commit a whole day for conservationists to teach students about sustainability. Swenson now knew his career path. He joined the school's recycling program and became a field worker for an ecological company. "From there," he explains, "I got a job in the environmental field in the town and worked my way up to Superintendent, and I've been here ever since." For all of Swenson's well-deserved pride, Long Islander's should share the feeling. S.O.R.T. came into being when citizens and local organizations launched letter writing campaigns to push recycling. People filled weekly meetings to sort out the endless details, and a small pilot program grew to cover the entire town within 3 years. Soon, Farmingdale, Massapequa Park, and more than 1,100 businesses all requested TOB to service them as well. Success led to S.O.R.T.'s ongoing expansion of the materials it services. Swenson explains, "When you're going through it, it seems like a slow process. But when you look back and you see how fast the last 20 years came, you can say 'look at all that's happened in the last 20 years.'" He also muses about the Recycling Ranger Program. "We've been going to schools and deputizing the kids to get their parents to recycle... now we're at the point where we're educating the kids of the first round of the Recycling Rangers, and that is just phenomenal." In 2004, TOB became the first Long Island town to do electronics recycling, and in 2010 New York State passed the U.S.'s most progressive electronics recycling law. Currently, S.O.R.T. is updating its garbage trucks to run on natural gas from their own natural gas filling station. When that's all done, look up The Oyster Bay Eco to see whatever they're doing next. David Sporn is the president and creative director of Village Communications Worldwide, Plainview, N.Y.