A hearty thank you to everyone who volunteered and who attended the 4th annual Recycle Your Reusables Day on Oct. 20. Two-hundred and forty-three cars from 20 towns dropped off recyclables. Here's a selection of what we diverted from the landfills:

*A 53 foot long trailer truck full of household goods for the Lowell Wish Project

*2,600 pounds of textiles for Bay State Textiles

*1,930 pounds (almost a ton!) of paper was shredded (the equivalent of saving 16.4 mature trees and 6,700 gallons of water)

*800 pounds of Styrofoam

*3.8 tons of electronics

*30 bicycles

*1,600 books

*3 barrels of returnable bottles and cans

*33 boxes of used athletic shoes

*A ton of plastic

*500+ non-recyclable plastic bags

In addition, we collected $1800 worth of food and cash donations for Loaves and Fishes.

I would like to thank numerous volunteers and other supporters, without whom the event would not have happened:

*Rich McGrath and Kathryn Lyon from the ASRMS

*Our great vendors: the Lowell Wish Project, All-American Recycling, More than Words, ReFoamIt, Bikes Not Bombs, Valley Green Shredding, Casella, Nike Reuse a Shoe, Wheels for the World, Bay State Textiles, Lou's Upcycles, Boston Building Resources and Terracycle.

*Tessa David

*Ayer Dunkin Donuts

*ASRHS National Honor Society students

*Youth Venture Ayer Helpers

*Eileen Cantrill and Girl Scout Cadette Troop 62018

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*Boy Scout Troop 1 from West Groton

*Fidelity Bank

*Volunteers from local towns

*From Ayer: Kim Krieser, Shawna Graham, Dan DeMille, Martha and Bill Dean, Al Camara, Beth Suedmeyer, Faith Salter, Ruth Maxant (thanks for the pizza!), Jean Diemert and Nicholas Martone

*From Shirley: Dawn McCall, Nancy Askin, Pam Torres

*From Townsend: Susan Shaine

Next year's event is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 19, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m., Ayer Shirley Middle School. For more information, or to volunteer contact ayerrecycles@gmail.com or 978 496 5839.

LAURIE SABOL

Ayer Recycling Committee