First, congratulations and thank you for bringing back this wonderful forum to communicate with our friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens.
When we moved to Harvard in 1971, we were very impressed with how much recycling was being done, even though at that time Harvard had a landfill and recycling was not yet fashionable. And people carefully set aside items that they thought someone might be able to use.
So when I arrived on Saturday with some items for “Take it or Leave it,” you can imagine how amazed and disappointed I was to find it closed down. The nice young man in charge explained that too many children are running around the area and people leave things like knife sets and scissors, so it was too dangerous. We discussed various ways of changing things to make it safer and still be able to have a place for people to leave useful (and not so useful) items. Perhaps moving it to another location at the transfer station and/or have a volunteer help with the children as well as encouraging people to pull to the side while they are browsing and not to hold up the lines going to the compactors. Surely there is some way that we can continue Harvard’s long tradition of REUSE, which is the best form of recycling.
Sandra Lefkovits
Depot Road
