The first time I heard of the "Wellesley Dump" was at a Cazenove House Council meeting. In our efforts to refurbish the 1980s time-warped Green Room, one House Council member suggested picking up a couch at the aforementioned dump. I was confused.
The word "dump" doesn't seem to follow the name "Wellesley" very well, as the town of Wellesley is one of the wealthiest of its size in the nation. But the title is actually not a contradiction to its status; "Wellesley Dump" is a nickname for the Wellesley Recycling and Disposal Facility (RDF), and an impressive display of organized sustainability by the town.
Since Wellesley has no public trash collection, most residents opt to haul their waste to the dump, rather than hire a private collector to pick it up at their homes. Before the dump was created in 1997, residents who didn't want to hire a private collector dropped their waste at smaller residential drop-off areas. This system proved to be rather inefficient, and lines of traffic became cumbersome. With streamlined traffic flow and on-site waste processing, the Wellesley Dump has since alleviated these issues, while also financially benefiting the town.
When you enter the facility, you follow a circular traffic pattern around the kidney-shaped property before parking outside of the receptacle that you need.
The dump has an area for regular trash drop-off, but the recycling and compost areas are what dominate the landscape. Color-coded signs categorize what you are recycling (metals, plastic, hazardous waste, paper), and one semicircular tent indicates the reusables area. This tent was the reason why I came.
This take-and-leave area is the dump's draw for Wellesley students. Let's face it—the prospect of "free stuff" is attractive to college students, and visiting the Wellesley dump is a good break from midterms. You get off campus without having to venture too far (the dump is across from Olin College), and you can shop with the ease of knowing that you are not spending any of your tuition savings. I took a break from staring at a blinking cursor on a blank page to check it out.
Before you do the same, be sure to have your Wellesley OneCard ready. Only Wellesley residents are allowed access to the Dump, and that includes college students. There's a 30-minute parking limit outside of the tent. This doesn't prove to be a huge issue because most "reusables" are indeed trash (this isn't an antique shop, people!). Sometimes the line between what you want and what you need is thin. This is not the case at the dump. Still, there's a joy in perusing these items. Some of them look old. What is the history behind them? Some of them are brand new. Were they unwanted Christmas gifts?
I visited the dump on a Saturday morning, the Dump's "busiest day," according to one worker. Residents were trickling in with their rusty golf clubs, ancient exercise equipment, and dusty coffee mugs.
One bag that someone had recently dropped off contained four African masks made in Ghana. "Well, I suppose I could hang that over my desk," I thought. Clearly, the wish to merely acquire "stuff" had trumped my usually refined tastes; I took three of the four masks. Now, I was pumped. This is what I grabbed within the next ten minutes:
•two photo friends (those picture frames in the shape of a boy and a girl; you put the picture in the head)
•A magnetic building set (unopened!)
•An English mug with a painted street scene
•A Lisa Frank bulletin board—Lisa Frank was my favorite childhood brand (besides Playmobile and Bonnebell), so I was excited to see my colorful whales and dolphins smiling at me.
Another part of the dump, not to be missed, is the used book section. It's a short walk, or drive, from the reusables area. This wall of books features a few outdated computer books and travel guides, as well as several pregnancy and child-rearing guides. I freely grabbed:
- "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli
- "Monkeys" by Susan Minot
- "The Man of Property" by John Galsworthy
The book section is probably the most worthwhile, although the goods under the tent vary on a daily basis. I probably would have grabbed more books if I had the time, but I recalled the difference between "need" and "want"—that paper was still a blank page, and I needed to get to work.
The Wellesley Dump is located at 169 Great Plain Avenue Wellesley, MA 02482
It is open:
Monday through Wednesday: 7:00 a.m. - 12 noon
Thursday and Friday: 7:00 a.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Saturday: 7:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Sunday: CLOSED
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