Interview with Shirley Robinson, Voice of Portland's Garbage and Recycling Hotline

Summary

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Trash tends to raise tempers - and that's a lesson Shirley Robinson learns daily.

Robinson has been the voice of the Office of Sustainable Development's garbage and recycling hotline for the past 10 years, fielding from 150 to 170 calls a day. She directs callers to the people within the ODS who can answer their questions about building green, saving energy or making their office recycling more efficient. She answers questions about all different types of recycling.

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Extract

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Interview with Shirley Robinson, Voice of Portland's Garbage and Recycling Hotline

And then there's the trash talk. Robinson fields all solid waste and recycling questions and complaints as well as investigates what's happened when cans and bins don't get emptied. She hears a lot of raised voices - and a lot of swearing.

But she's learned not to take it personally - or to hold onto the complaints. The next call you get kind of cancels out the first one, Robinson says. Someone will call and say something really nice, and you forget about it.

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