Reduce, Recycle, Reuse: Dodd helps clean up Newton
By JESSICA LOWE NDN Staff Writer
Ask any little girl what they want to be when they grow up and most won’t reply a garbage collector. That wasn’t Liz Dodd’s first choice either but love led her to the business. She has been helping — alongside her husband Dave — with the daily operation of Dodd’s Trash Hauling and Recycling for several years.
“I married into this. If I’d known then what I know now I may have not gotten into this,” Dodd jokes.
No one could blame her. Dodd’s day starts early. Waking up at 1 a.m. she quickly gets ready for work and heads out to drive a truck to pick up recyclables with her crew. While she drives, employees pick up and sort the recyclables in the back of the truck. When the crew has made the rounds they return with their goods in tow and begin baling the recyclables.
The Dodds can see their recycling operation from their house. She credited her husband with getting the town on board with recycling long before green was the in thing.
“Dave saw an Earth Day special and said it was something we needed to be doing,” she said.
In 1990, Dodd’s Trash and Hauling took on the role of helping people reduce and recycle waste. Kellogg was the first community to join the recycling effort in Jasper County. After Kellogg, other communities soon followed suit. Dodd said more and more people have begun to recycle, although she said many never will get on board.
“There are some people who just absolutely refuse for whatever reason,” she said, “my thought the more we can keep out of the landfill the better.”
Right now, with a sluggish economy, it’s hard for Dodd’s to sell off the recycle goods but she said she doesn’t want to discourage people who are currently recycling.
“Nineteen years ago it was hard to get people to get behind the idea,” she said. “There’s no money in it but I don’t want to break people’s good habits.”
Dodd’s Recyling picks up anywhere between nine and 15 bales worth of recyclable goods each day. With that much glass, cardboard and plastic Dodd remains extremely hands on in the recycling business.
After the work of collecting sorting and baling is done —usually by 9 a.m. — Dodd goes to work on the books, answering phone calls, dealing with customers and helping out wherever else she is needed to keep the 50-plus year company running smoothly.
“I’m more physical,” she said. “I want to be doing stuff and helping out. I hate that part of the job — bookkeeping.”
Along with helping her husband Dave run the family business, Dodd remains active in the community. Dodd who has a bubbly personality and an infectious smile has made a name for herself in Newton by dealing with the city’s trash. She is a well known business woman who is involved with a number of civic organizations from the Chamber of Commerce to adopting families through St. Nick’s Club.
“Someone has got to be on the Chamber and the other organizations. We’ve got to be involved,” she said. “It’s all part of the business owning process. You have to invest in the community. It’s a responsibility of being a business owner.”
Along with serving her community, Dodd said she enjoys knowing that she has done a good job.
“Trash and recycling is one of those jobs where people don’t really notice it’s getting done until something happens and the trash is still on the curb,” she said. “It’s just nice to know that people appreciate all the work. The most rewarding part of the job is knowing people are happy and we hear a compliment of a job well done.”
Jessica Lowe can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 426 or via e-mail at jlowe@newtondailynews.com.
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