The last one was a big success, and so the COFFE (Citizens of Forward-Facing Ellenville) are planning another cleanup day in the Village of Ellenville. This time, the date is Saturday, Sept. 30, beginning at 10 a.m. The rain date will be Oct. 7.

Victoria Messner of COFFE appeared at the Wawarsing Town Board meeting last week to request permission to bring the gathered trash from the cleanup to the town transfer station beside Lippman Park. This time, she said, the effort would focus on the area around the Ellenville schools, including Maple Avenue and side streets by Canal Street. All the work will be within village borders.

The last time around for Earth Day, COFFE drew 70 volunteers and they collected an awesome amount of trash.

That lead to discussion of tires. As Councilman Paul Tuzzolino, the town board liaison to the transfer station, noted, tires are expensive to recycle. They will be left this time.

Tuzzolino said it would be good this time if the cleanup crew sorted the rubbish and removed anything recyclable. The town pays for garbage collection through UCCRA per roll-off dumpster load; recycling cuts down on the volume of garbage.

Among things that can be recycled are plastic bottles, glass bottles, clean cardboard (not pizza boxes), metal items, and electronics.

Tuzzolino also noted that all Ulster County’s garbage goes to Seneca Meadows, the enormous landfill in Seneca Falls in central New York. There are big question marks hanging over the future of the landfill; prolonging its existence by reducing the amount of waste sent to it pushes those questions further into the future.

The last request from the board was that all the trash collected be taken to the transfer station well before 4 p.m., when it closes.