Amy Schirf has a passion for recycling. She also loves to teach.
And while her job as education coordinator for the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority may not be a dream job, it’s pretty darn close.
“My main job is to educate as much as I can,” she explained. “We teach the residents, businesses, anyone in the county, really.”
Schirf’s position is a daunting one. As recycling continues to grow in Centre County, she is responsible for getting the word out. She does so through a number of ways — quarterly newsletters, e-mails, and word of mouth.
She said she tries to keep things as green as possible when it comes to educating the masses.
“I have about 800 people I email about once a month just to keep them updated on any new recycling events that are coming up,” Schirf said.
Schirf said she loves to get out in the community and speak to the masses about the positives of recycling.
A big part of her job is visiting schools and businesses to educate large groups about what makes the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority tick.
“When I go out to speak, I’ll only talk for about 10 minutes,” Schirf said. “We usually spend about 40 minutes with questions. Everyone has a million questions every time I go somewhere.”
Through the years, Schirf has watched recycling in Centre County take off — and then some. The industry continues to change in ways she never imagined.
Recycling in Centre County has gone from just aluminum cans to everything under the sun, and she has witnessed many of the changes.
“I’ve been here just over nine years. We’ve gone from taking (aluminum) cans to taking 11 items curbside, four colors of glass, any plastic bottle, jug or jar, metal cans and we just added the spiral cans — things like Pringles and peanut cans. Of course, we’ll take any kind of paper that you have. I can’t think of any kind of paper that we don’t take curbside,” Schirf said.
Whenever Schirf speaks to a large group, one of her main points is talking about how easy it is to recycle. Nearly everything, she said, can be put into the orange bin for curbside pickup. The county does ask that residents bag up paper, however.
“We just don’t want it to blow away,” Schirf said. “It’s a lot easier to grab a bag and throw it in the truck.”
The items collected by the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority serve many purposes. For example, newspaper is shredded, baled and sold to local farmers for animal bedding. According to Schirf, a lot of items that are recycled remain in the county.
Electronics cannot be placed curbside. Those items must be dropped off in person at the center, which is located on Transfer Road.
“We get an awful lot of electronics. Anything with a plug, we take here. And we do mean anything — curling irons, hair dryers, vacuum cleaners. TVs are huge. We used to take those things on special collection days. Now, it’s every day,” she said.
Centre County also recycles tires and vinyl siding. Schirf said they are always looking to add more items.
“We are talking about adding wood scraps and even clothing … not good clothing, but things that can’t be donated. We’re going to add that to our program soon,” she said.
She said that one of her favorite things to do is give tours of the facility — especially to school-aged children.
“They are so excited when they get here. You would never think fifth graders would care. But when they walk around the facility, they say, ‘This is awesome. This is the best tour ever!’ They think it’s really cool,” Schirf said.
When she’s not getting the word out about recycling, Schirf loves to play poker. She placed in a World Series of Poker Tournament in Las Vegas a couple of years go.
“I got 44th place out of 4,000 people. That was fun. I try to get out there every year to play in a little tournament,” she said.
Schirf is also a sports fanatic. Coaching, playing and watching sports is another one of her passions.
“Anything to do with sports,” she said, “I’m in.”
Schirf resides in Stormstown with her husband, David, and their children, Adam and Ali.
