Good morning, Northampton !!

It has been 3 weeks already that I spend time here and about 21 days to say good morning to this city. Time flies so fast especially when you are having fun and enjoy. This week, we also learn things in Northampton and cities nearby. We had a chance to meet with many people with their expertise.

First, Doug McDonald is a stormwater manager. Actually, he did a lot of interest things but the most impression for us is rain gardens. He introduced us about the rain gardens which are the garden that everyone can invent it at home. The rain garden is designed to temporarily hold and soak in rain water runoff that flows from roofs, driveways, patios or lawns. The garden is not only for leisure time but filtering the stormwater and cleanse pollutants that could harm water quality.

What does it look alike?

Second, Susan Waite, she is the waste reduction coordinator for the city of Northampton. In my opinion, she is an amazing one. She works with the waste management and the idea about reuse, reduce and recycle the wastes. At our first met, she showed me the Department of Public Work (DPW) transfer station. This station has received the household wastes (in separation) include trash, papers, can, compost and etc. from each house in the city before transfer to other landfill which is far away from the city. Northampton has the unique system, people in the city has to take their own wastes to the transfer station by themselves so, it is no payment for the waste haul service but still needs to pay-as-you-throw basis (recycling is free). Susan also showed me the old landfill of Northampton which is closed now. The ReCenter Swap Shop is located at that old landfill, for more information click here.

The most impressive thing about her is, she is working with the volunteer groups. She invited me to join her Reuse Committee meeting. It was so good that most members in the meeting is elder and retired. They are volunteers!! They presented their own projects about reuse the waste in their communities, unpaid. I felt the energy and the goodwill from them. Unfortunately, I could not be there until the meeting finished but at lease I got some idea from them. Thank all of them for this.

Now, I have to finish my blog but I still have many interesting things to share in the next blogs 🙂