August 1st is an auspicious day down here in Harpswell. Years of frustration, angst and nuisance will be no more. The recycling center is “streamlining” itself so we do not need to break down all our rubbish into a large number of different categories.

The staff has been handing out fliers with new instructions for months.

Then again, it is par for the course with the current bunch. They have always been helpful, kind and patient. They are quite professional and willing to make the effort needed to get things right, with as little bother as possible. Fred Cantu, the current manager, obviously is a good leader for his staff. He is always very approachable and helpful.

It was not always thus, however.

There were years back that you could almost depend on being yelled at by the manager of the place. If you made the slightest peccadillo, you could expect a rather terse letter in the mail soon thereafter threatening all sorts of fines if you didn’t get it right the next time.

I came to dread going to the “dump” as my father got rather annoyed when he got a snide letter about my latest transgression. There were a few times back in the day where things almost came to blows between officious staff and cranky patrons.

But that is thankfully long gone with our current staff. They are even managing to do the changeover from the current set-up overnight the night before the 1st of August. No long-term closure while it is all sorted out.

I suspect there will be some teething pains for those who didn’t bother to read the fliers handed out. The staff will have to repeat the breakdown many times in the next few months. I will need to take another gander at the instructions myself to make sure to get it right, as I do the dump runs for the Dodge household.

I hope many of my fellow Harpswell residents will take their returnables and pop them in the slot to help pay the costs of the recycling center.

Every little helps, as they say.

See? And some of you might have expected me to write a long-winded rant about how recycling has proven in many cases to be a complete waste of time and money. Or you expected me to refer to a few caught-ontape moments where town managers (in other parts of the country/ Western world) have admitted that is all about behavior modification and not the environment at all (in that area).

As Harpswell is a rural area, we have to get rid of our disposables somehow or other. And this step is one that makes it easier for the residents and more efficient and less costly for all.

I find it hard not to think that is a good thing all around.

ANDREW IAN DODGE is a libertarian former U.S. Senate candidate and writer who lives in Harpswell.