Kevin Waters is a driver for Ruggiero Trash Removal in Bellows Falls. Right around 9:30 every Wednesday he pulls his truck onto our dirt road in Westminster West where fifteen or so families have lined up our trash and recycling bins. He and his assistant then empty our row of eighteen or so trash cans, those of our neighborhood here on Old Codding Road.
One recent Wednesday I went out to thank Kevin and his assistant for their reliable, efficient service. When I did, he turned to me, smiled and said, “I’m living the dream!” He felt he was at the heart of the recycling effort here in southeastern Vermont. It was clear he felt a very real sense of accomplishment.
Kevin, 31 years of age, grew up in Bellows Falls and graduated from the high school there in 2010. After graduating, he worked odd jobs and then for three years he drove his own car as a Medicaid driver, basically a volunteer job. His sister Sara, the Bellows Falls dispatcher for both The Mover Bus Company as well as Medicaid Transport, “hired” him three days a week to transport Medicaid patients.
For three years he drove ill people covered under Medicaid for appointments in hospitals from Burlington to Boston. His only pay was mileage reimbursement. “The job just about covered my needs. It was a journey. I got to meet and talk with all kinds of people on those long round-trip drives: veterans, the homeless, people who ran small businesses, folks living in shelters. It was a rough time for me and that job helped me by helping others.”
He did that for three years and then he told me “I stumbled into trash. In 2019 I was looking for full-time work. I heard Ruggiero Trash Removal was looking for a driver for their three-day-a-week Westminster route. John and Jimbo Ruggiero hired me as one of their ten workers. I started hanging off the back of the trash truck unless it was bad weather or there was a long distance to the next pickup spot when I’d get in the cab. When the truck was full, we’d drive to the transfer station in Springfield. Now we drive to Ruggiero’s own transfer station south of Walpole, NH and dump into 100 cubic-yard containers for transport to a huge regional station.”
“After working for eight months off the back of a truck three days a week, I asked for more hours and began working five days a week. Because my routes were getting longer, I would often get out and stomp the rubbish down to extend the capacity of the truck.”
The three-day Westminster Route takes Kevin and his partner through the entire town: “We collect separated trash and recyclables on 20 miles of paved roads and 50 miles of dirt road.” (To understand those distances, on I 91, it is just over 50 miles from the southern Vermont border through Massachusetts to the Connecticut border.)
“I realized I was holding myself back and needed to get my CDL license so I could drive the biggest trucks to increase my income. To get that license, I had to come up with the $7,500 fee. With the help of the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, I enrolled in the Northeast Driving School in Chester and now have my CDL.”
And why did Kevin tell me he was “living his dream”? RECYCLING. Kevin feels he’s at the heart of the matter when it comes to recycling in our area. “The town of Westminster and many others in our area require homeowners to separate trash destined for the landfill from recyclables: roughly 40% trash and 60% recyclables. Ruggiero also sees to separating metals for special recycling and I’m part of that work. We haul tons of recyclable metal to American Recycling in Claremont every week.”
And what about Kevin’s life now? “My girlfriend Courtney has been very supportive and I’m a stepdad to her two daughters. My Mom is pretty proud, and I am too of what I’ve accomplished. The sense of satisfaction I feel comes from being able to face challenges that used to make me nervous. Now I drive 15-30 ton trucks, bring home a good wage and I’m at the heart of the matter with recycling.”
This is one of a series of some 30 profiles of working people from southern Vermont and adjacent New Hampshire that I wrote and then published in the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper every Friday from Jan 1 - May 30. Do the same with your local newspaper.