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Search Results for: give and take

Lady Godiva gallops into the Wellesley RDF Give and Take area

October 13, 2023 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

What’s the point of going to the RDF’s Give and Take area if you can’t have a little fun? When Wellesley resident Carolyn Faye Fox stops by, she never misses a chance to put together an interesting still life from the treasures that get dropped off.  “This one is called ‘Lady Godiva Barbie at the RDF,'” she said.

Wellesley dump art
Wellesley dump art by Carolyn Faye Fox, titled “Lady Godiva Barbie.”

As you may remember, in 1040 Lady Godiva beseeched her husband Earl Leofric to ease the tax burden on the people of Coventry, England. The Earl said he would do so if his wife rode naked on a horse through the center of town. She did just that, using her long hair as strategic coverage, although she needn’t have bothered with such modesty. In solidarity, the townspeople stayed indoors, refusing to gawk at the site of the great lady who had their back(sides?).

With property taxes coming due on Nov. 1,  clearly the townspeople of Wellesley need such a champion. I’d do it myself with a loaner steed from Hunnewell Farm, but my hair isn’t long enough. And I’m allergic to horses.

So who can take up the mantle of leadership, and save us from our quarterly tax burden? Interested parties are encouraged to apply for this gender-neutral position. The ideal candidate need only be bold and have long, flowing hair. A horse will be provided.


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Filed Under: Dump, Humor

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Give and Take area to reopen at Wellesley Recycling and Disposal Facility

May 4, 2021 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Give and Take area at the Wellesley RDF will make its grand reopening on Thur., May 6. The area will follow a hybrid schedule to start out, and hopefully open up more as the season progresses.

Wellesley RDF
Wellesley RDF Give and Take area

 

Give and Take schedule:

  • Thursdays: 7am-3pm, drop off only
  • Fridays: 7am-3pm, pick up only (i.e., shopping)
  • Saturdays: 7am-3pm: both pick up and drop off

Shopping is limited to 10 minutes.

All COVID restrictions will be enforced as dictated by the RDF.

Wellesley RDF hours, spring 2021:

  • Mon.-Wed.,  7am-noon
  • Thur.-Sat., 7am-3:45pm
  • Sun.: 10am-3pm

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Filed Under: Dump, Environment, Volunteering

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Wellesley RDF Give and Take area re-opens, and Sunday hours to come back

April 12, 2016 by Deborah Brown 2 Comments

Wellesley Give and Take Volunteers, 2016
Wellesley Give and Take volunteers on opening day.

It’s been a long time since the dump kept Sunday hours. From 1997 – 2005, the RDF was open 7 days a week, but then budget cuts intervened, and the DPW was forced to reduce the number of days residents could get rid of their trash and recyclables (you can read more about that here). The only exception has been several Sundays per year during the busy leaf season, but that’s about to change.

To a smattering of applause at Town Meeting (such outbursts are generally frowned upon at the staid, all-business forum) Town Meeting members voted last week to approve Sunday hours to start July 10 running through around the end of November, 11am – 3pm. The money to do so comes from savings in the DPW budget. The DPW has always supported the idea of Sunday hours, noting that it’s what the people of Wellesley want. As recently retired RDF Superintendent Gordon Martin used to say, “There’s no doubt in my mind that if we were open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, residents would come in all throughout the day and night.”

Give and Take area re-opens

Don’t just throw away all the clutter in your home you’ve accumulated over the winter. That old lamp sans lampshade or the rug with hardly any holes at all may look like nothing more than decorating abominations to you, but I guarantee this — they will be treated as rare found objects and lovingly carted away by someone if you bring them to the now-open RDF’s Give and Take area.

All the books, toys, games, 1990s entertainment centers, and other items that you wouldn’t so much as delegate to the depths of your home’s man-cave can find appreciative new owners at Wellesley’s biggest free yard sale. Look at you clearing out that unused stuff. You’re so tidy.

If you’d like to get the first look at things as they come in, the Friends of Wellesley RDF is looking for volunteers to help sort out all incoming treasures.

There’s also a place for your ratty old cloth items that are in such a state of degradation that you’d be ashamed to donate them to the Salvation Army. New RDF Superintendent Jeff Azano-Brown says, “We’re looking to get the word out about our textiles area because we don’t believe that people know that you can put just about anything in there – ripped clothes, blankets, stained clothes, belts, etc.”

The RDF hours are:

Mon – Wed, 7am – noon
Thur and Fri, 7am – 3:45
Sat, 7am – 4:45
Sun, Closed (until July 10)

 

Filed Under: Dump, Environment, Wellesley High School

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What they’re trying to say is Wellesley Give and Take will be back in action soon

April 5, 2016 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley RDF, Spring 2016

Filed Under: Dump

The Cashmere Sale, Wellesley

Winter must be coming: Wellesley Give and Take area closing for season

December 4, 2015 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley Give and Take closing, 2015

Filed Under: Dump

Fran's Flowers

Give and Take area to open at Wellesley RDF

April 4, 2014 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Clearly, those old household items have got to get out of your house, but obviously they’re too good to just throw in the dumpster.  No problem,  the Wellesley RDF has you covered.

Starting Tuesday, April 8 the Give and Take Area opens.  So as long as you give, say, four things and take only three, you can legitimately say you’re moving 002toward minimalism in your life.  See?  You’re not a hoarder after all. You can totally get rid of stuff.

If you’d like to get the first look at things as they come in, the Friends of Wellesley RDF is looking for volunteers to help sort out all incoming treasures.

Also of interest:

Latest Swell dump find

$20K Wellesley dump book mystery still unsolved

Obama was everywhere: even Wellesley dump

Filed Under: Books, Dump

Wellesley Give and Take area re-opens April 11

April 2, 2013 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

wellesley rdf sign

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE INFO ON WELLESLEY RECYCLING AND DISPOSAL FACILITY

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Star studded start for Wellesley give-and-take area

April 30, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Word has trickled out about the Wellesley Recycling & Disposal Facility’s Reusables Area opening this week, and we stopped by on Thursday to treasure hunt.

As it turns out, I took only photos and left only footprints. A Bottle Blast beach game set was tempting, but missing part of a pole.

I did make a couple of celebrity sightings—Both E.T. and Elmo were in the house!

As were volunteers (thank you!) and a couple of regular shoppers that I recognized but didn’t dare interfere with.

I did hear one patron say to a volunteer: “I’m surprised you’ve already got so much good stuff!”

 

stuffed ET doll

elmo doll

wellelsey rdf give and take opening week

wellesley rdf give and takewellesley rdf give and take


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Filed Under: Dump, Environment

Wellesley public works taking fresh look at RDF give-and-take area

June 27, 2022 by Bob Brown 3 Comments

The reusables area at the Wellesley Recycling & Disposal Facility has reopened for the season and is in full swing, for good and bad.

Residents are scooping up bargain toys, sports gear, and furniture, while resellers are swooping in to snag bikes and other donations before they hit the shelves. Some argue that those donating shouldn’t care who’s taking their stuff, as long as it’s staying out of landfills, while others counter that such profiteering isn’t in the spirit of the area. Still others recommend avoiding the whole scene and just making the donations and exchanges via online groups like Wellesley Give and Take.

Resident Lara Crawford spoke up at the start of the May 12 Wellesley Board of Public Works meeting to air concerns about “how absolutely icky the give-and-take is these days,” citing regulars at the space who grab stuff from donors before they can even get them it out of their vehicles. The Board took up the matter for discussion during its June 7 meeting (see Wellesley Media recording), and during that session, Jaden Crawford shared an anecdote about neighbors who say they sometimes dump items in the bulky waste disposal area rather than “run that gauntlet” at the resusables section.

Wellesley RDF
Wellesley RDF Reusables Area

 

Department of Public Works Director David Cohen said the issues raised at the earlier meeting weren’t necessarily new, but did prompt a fresh discussion. “The reusables area has been a struggle over the years,” he acknowledged.

The reusables area was closed in the early 2000s due to budget cuts, at a time when DPW staffed the area. A “huge groundswell of support” to reopen the area followed, with Friends of Recycling volunteers crowding the boardroom and convinced the board to reopen the area with volunteers handling the bulk of the work. Volunteers are required to go through orientation and digest a packet of information, but there have been complaints over the years of bad behavior by volunteers and others, even while so many volunteers devote large chunks of time to making the operation run as smoothly as they can.

“What we found over the ensuing years is that an area that’s entirely run by volunteers an be very challenging,” Cohen said.

After closing the area during the start of the pandemic, the DPW reopened it under a limited schedule and with some staff support to help monitor the area and be available as a resource. The DPW doesn’t look for volunteers to handle enforcement. That seemed to help, Cohen said, but the DPW hasn’t been able to staff the area since. Meanwhile, the number of regular volunteers has dropped from close to 20 to just 10. That’s led to a reduction of hours.

That brings us to today, and the DPW is renewing efforts to find a more efficient way to run the area and “provide a more pleasant experience for folks,” Cohen said.

Among steps taken are painting at the area to help delineate the drop-off area, and renewing efforts to hire a staff member to monitor the reusables space. The hire would observe challenges faced in the area to help the DPW develop a proposal for new ways to operate there.

“I’ve had it in my mind that for it to be successful it really has to be staffed and the town needs to support it to that level, and that’s a budget issue,” Cohen said.

Board of Public Works Secretary Ellen Korpi says she’s been impressed with a  local give-and-take group on Facebook, both in terms of volume of items exchanged, and the quality of it. Part of the overall solution for reusables should be looking online, she said. (Those less enthusiastic about the online method might feel uncomfortable arranging a meeting place, feel like there’s less overhead in just dumping off a vehicle full of stuff at the RDF, or just plain want a break from being online.)

As for items at the RDF, she’d like to see whoever is hired at the reusables play a role in curating the items accepted, to ensure that things like broken bicycle helmets don’t make the cut.

Cohen said one thing his team has discussed is breaking up the “front-of-house business and back-of-house business…the dropoff and collection are two separate things. If you think about Salvation Army or Savers, you don’t have that mixing. The best practice would be to separate, but we’re constrained by our space.”

No promises, Cohen said, but the the town’s Facilities Management Department has some capital plans in the works that would include building improvements, including at the RDF. Whether an improved reusables space could fit into that remains to be seen.


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Filed Under: Environment, Government

Wellesley RDF give-and-take closes Dec. 4

November 16, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley RDF

The give-and-take area at the Wellesley Recycling & Disposal Facility is set to close for the year on Dec. 4, when it will be open for taking only.

The reusables area has operated on a limited schedule this year, Thursdays-Saturdays.

“Next season we are hopeful we will be back to the full schedule,” says volunteer Priscilla Messing.

She passed along huge thanks to the Wellesley RDF crew as well as to Friends of Recycling volunteers who have worked throughout this season.


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Filed Under: Environment

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