I’ve been to the Wellesley Recycling & Disposal Facility hundreds of times since moving to town 20-plus years ago, but I’ll never look at the dump quite the same way again after visiting it recently with 91-year-old resident Stephen Brown.
Stephen has been going to the RDF for years, mainly on Saturdays before he retired as a Boston College theology professor in 2018. Since then he has been visiting the facility almost daily as a hobby, to entertain guests, and to help out those in need.
“Every out-of-town visitor we have gets a personalized tour of the dump from Stephen,” said his wife, Marie. “He is so in awe of this magnificent facility and has been for over the four decades we have lived here. I’m proud of it, too!”
Stephen Brown at the Wellesley RDF’s reusables area
I picked up Stephen at his home, one of several Wellesley addresses he has resided at over the years, and we headed to the RDF mid-morning on a temperate Friday in May. I had my back seat and trunk filled with recycling, food waste, and trash, while my companion was just along for the ride.
“We figured we could just do that tomorrow,” he assured, noting that he no longer drives himself there, rather relying on the help of home health aides who love going to the RDF as much as Stephen does. His wife had told me earlier that “Since our children are now grown and in their own homes, I am challenged to find trash collectibles for him” because he goes so often.
As we made our way to the RDF I asked Stephen, an emeritus professor at BC, what he taught.
“I teach philosophy and theology,” he said. “I’m very much a specialist in medieval philosophers, Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, and those people.”
Hmmm, a little outside my comfort zone. Good thing we had the dump to talk about…
Though I tried to determine if there might be any connection between philosophy and the RDF that I could force into this narrative. Stephen’s philosophy on coming to the RDF in the first place years ago was that his family didn’t have the money to hire someone to pick up their trash, he said.
I pulled into the main recycling area, in front of the plastics and aluminum bins, and that’s when Stephen started his play by play, perhaps almost feeling a bit jealous of those with items to chuck.
“We usually head first to the area where they take our cut-up mail and paper,” he said. He pointed out how people “take it seriously about putting things in their right place,” divvying up their bottles from their non-bottles, and added that the signage at the facility has become clearer over time.
I could sense his feeling of relief when I readied to exit the car to start recycling my items.
“Can I help,” Stephen asked, with one leg and his cane already partway out the passenger side door.
Why not?
Crutches, clothing & books
Stephen said one of his favorite areas to head to historically was the healthcare equipment section containing crutches, walkers, and the like.
His family had an acquaintance in New Jersey whose volunteer efforts included supplying hospitals in Africa with such gear. So Stephen would pick up what he could at the RDF, stash it in his garage, and hand it over to the man when he’d be up this way.
“This went on for many years,” he said.
Closer to home, Stephen marvels at the ability of people in town to pass along their shoes, suitcases, and other items through various stations at the RDF to those who can use the items.
Recycling is about a lot more than just plastics, paper, and aluminum.
“You really can bring benefits to many people through the give-and-take area,” he said.
Stephen, a published author many times over, has also taken advantage of the book swap area.
“Some of the people I’ve taught have taken jobs at small colleges where they have little money and limited access to books,” he says. “So I’d spend a lot of time looking through the books here so that I could send them collections, such as encyclopedias or works of Plato or Aristotle. Every day I’d find a handful of books and mail them to them.”
Stephen adds that some of his aides also have kids here or in other countries, and are able to pick up books at the RDF bring or send them home.
As for this day, we came back to his house empty handed, probably much to his wife’s relief.
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I enjoyed this profile very much and suggest doing others, particularly of older residents who may provide unique views of the town.
Thank you, Bob, for this wonderful story. I would love to see more profiles of Wellesley seniors like Professor Brown.