“Excuse me?”
Donning my fashionable yellow and orange vest, I walked over to the car.
“Can I help you with something?”
“I’m just wondering, is there something going on? I don’t understand why the line is so long to drop off my trash today.”
Wow, is this a case of bad timing.
“It’s Town Clean-up Day today, where people can dispose of just about anything — mattresses, electronics, appliances, tires — for a small fee. They only do this once a year. You just had the misfortune to come today.”
“Oh, I didn’t know.”
“It’s always on the first Saturday of June every year.”
“Ok, thanks.”
Want to go somewhere where you’ll see all your friends and neighbors? Just get yourself out to Dump Day at the Transfer Station in Nederland. Dump Day is what the locals call it. The official name is Nederland Town Clean-up Day.
The line of cars stretched along Ridge Road when I arrived at 7:30 a.m. I talked to the man in the first car.
“I got here at 6 a.m.!” he cheerfully proclaimed. Why would anyone get up at that hour on a Saturday?
To get rid of anything and everything that has been cluttering your yard and house.
We all have stuff — stuff that has been taking up space in your garage, your crawl space, your closets. A lot of the reason we still have that stuff, is it’s hard to get rid of it.
We bought a new mattress set for our guest bedroom a couple of years ago. Trying to find anyone, someone who would even let me dispose of it was near impossible. Same thing for old televisions, appliances, and construction materials.
We cleared out a good chunk of our crawl space when we first went to Dump Day several years ago. Some people really take advantage, carting trailers filled with assorted items — envision the Beverly Hillbillies times 100.
I’ve gotten so used to this annual event, that I take note of items throughout the year. Oooh, that would be good to take to Dump Day.
Why is it such a big deal to mountain residents?
Because where else or how else would you get rid of this stuff? You might be able to take some to Eco-cycle down in Boulder, which will charge you at least $20 just for that one item. Good Will or the Salvation Army will take some of your things for donation. Other stuff would need to be carted to the trash.
You’d end up making numerous trips to Boulder just to get rid of a fraction of what you can dispose of for one trip to Dump Day.
My reason for being there was work related. What better way to get the word out to lots of mountain residents over the course of 2.5 hours? I just worked the line of people as they approached the gate, handing out one hundred flyers. At the same time, I got caught up on all the news, gossip, and other things going on with my friends I hadn’t seen in awhile.
Dump Day proved successful in more ways than one.
