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The Weirdest Things (Snake, Anchor) Turn Up in Recycling

April 07, 2009 - It's nice that southern Mainers are getting into the spirit of recycling.

But you knew someone had gone too far when ecomaine, the Portland-based waste agency, issued these new recycling guidelines this week:

Newspapers – yes.

Glass bottles – yes.

Milk jugs – yes.

Snakes – no.

Someone, it seems, decided to recycle a 7-foot-long python. The snake, already dead, arrived at ecomaine's giant recycling center in Portland a couple of weeks ago, mixed in with tons of paper, glass and plastic. A couple of workers saw it on a conveyer belt just before the snake got fed into the giant sorting machine.

The workers are always on the lookout for items that don't belong, but at the time it wasn't immediately clear whether the animal was alive or dead, and snake handling isn't exactly in their job description.

"The first guy who saw it go by didn't want to grab it, so the second guy had to pull it out," said Recycling Manager John Morin.

Now, some confusion is understandable when it comes to what waste goes where these days. But, as in the case of the recycled snake, the people who do our dirty work encounter a surprising amount of misplaced waste, from the bizarre to the valuable.

Workers at ecomaine's recycling center also recently fished out an antique 125-pound anchor and 10-foot chain. They commonly find deer parts during hunting season, and uncooked packaged turkeys after Thanksgiving, Morin said.

At ecomaine's waste-to-energy incinerator, where the real trash goes, workers have found everything from a loaded handgun to two discarded pet birds, still alive and flapping.

There also are the occasional treasures, including cash and jewelry, some of which is traced back and returned to its owners. Ecomaine's recycling workers, for example, found an $1,800 tax refund check in the pile and returned it.

Workers at Maine Energy Recovery Co., a regional trash incinerator in Biddeford, hit the jackpot about 15 years ago when a load of trash contained piles of cash. Police never found the money's original owner, said Ken Robbins, the plant's current manager.

One worker supposedly stuffed his shirt full of 10s, 20s, 50s and 100s, he said.

"I'm told he was able to buy a trailer with the money," Robbins said.

Workers who clean Portland's sewers and catch basins also find strange stuff, from lost jewelry to illegally dumped hypodermic needles. But no giant pythons or other exotic wildlife has been disposed of in the city's sewers, said John Emerson, Portland's wastewater facilities manager.

Those, it seems, are put in the recycling bins.

The recycled python created a stir at ecomaine.

"It's not too often you get to see a 7-foot python," Morin said.

Once the snake was determined to be long dead, the workers were happy to hold their trophy for photos. (The more interesting finds often get documented for ecomaine's internal newsletter.)

Morin said he believes the snake was dead when its owner decided a recycling bin was the easiest way to get rid of it.

The python was a first for ecomaine, which is constantly working to educate people about what gets recycled and what doesn't, said Shelley Dunn, a spokeswoman.

For the record, if you need to discard a dead snake, you should take it to a veterinarian to be cremated, Dunn said.

After having its photo taken, the misplaced python met a similar fate, in ecomaine's incinerator.

"So, in a way, it did get recycled," Morin said. "We did turn it into electricity."

JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald, April 4, 2009


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