Who Did It Best? Recycling for a Living

BETSY DOES WHAT SHE LOVES—AND LOVES WHAT SHE DOES

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Passionate. That’s the perfect word to describe Betsy Ramo. Her passion for our environment drove her back to school to study environmental science. We met Betsy through our recycling program that offers rewards for old, working appliances. Now, she works for the city of Baltimore, sharing her passion for recycling with everyone. That viewpoint is probably best expressed when Betsy is at one of the many recycling events she contributes to throughout the year and through her community. We sat down with Betsy and found out what makes her tick.

Go ahead and introduce yourself.

My name is Betsy Ramo, and I’m the recycling associate with Baltimore City’s Department of Public Works in the Office of Waste Diversion.

How did all this begin?

I was actually a baker for many years. I went to culinary school and then decided I wanted to switch gears. Seeing firsthand the amount of food waste and things that go on in commercial kitchens.

I went back to school for a bachelor’s in environmental science. That kind of switched my gears towards something like this.

I started working with the Department of Public Works in 2023. In terms of curbside recycling, thinking about food scraps and other hard-to-recycle items, all that is stuff I feel really passionate about.

Did working in the restaurant scene feed a preexisting passion?

I think I was a little middle of the road before that. I started working in restaurants when I was 18 or 19. My family always recycled at our house. But just plastic bottles, aluminum cans, aluminum foil—your basic recyclables that you’re doing at home. So, going into food service and seeing the waste kind of sparked something in me. As I got older, my passion for things like that definitely grew.

What was the easiest thing you saw that would make the biggest difference?

I honestly think diverting your food scraps is really not a difficult thing to do. A lot of restaurants just don’t even think about it. The last place I worked at, we did divert our food scraps, and it really wasn’t extra work.

How would you describe what you do, say, at a dinner party?

I do a lot of education and outreach. We go to schools and different local organizations that are having events. We’ll show up there, hand out information, speak to residents about recycling and just get the word out around all the programs we offer.

There are so many free resources the city offers, so many opportunities to recycle items that residents just don’t know about. That is a big part of my work. I also organize our school recycling program and work directly with Baltimore City Public Schools to encourage more schools to sign up and have their recycling collected throughout the academic year. Because the city collects from Baltimore City Public Schools for free.

Do you do your own recycling events as well?

We do. We partner with BGE along with other organizations and host [recycling and] shredding events four to five times a year, which are some of our larger events. That’s where residents can bring sensitive documents to be shredded on-site, and then all that paper is recycled. Because in Baltimore City, if you have a paper shredder at home, all that shredded paper can’t go in your curbside recycle bin—it’s not accepted because it messes with their sorting machines. So, we encourage people to bring their papers to these events. And it’s totally free to the community.

BGE Appliance Recycling Event

Tell us more about your experience with BGE at these events.

BGE brings a lot of people to the events. The partnership increases our visibility because they’re reaching different customers. BGE and EmPOWER Maryland give residents a way to get money back for the items they bring in. So, it’s been really great.

What’s been your favorite interaction with residents at one of the events?

It’s fun when you go to a compost workshop. You get hands-on training, and you get a free take-home guide. You get a free compost bin if you decide you want to start composting in your backyard. At those events, people are always just so grateful for the hands-on knowledge and all the take-home stuff. It’s really rewarding to see how happy people get from a small thing like a compost workshop.

Also, I think whenever kids come to any of the events—that’s my favorite, because kids are so excited about recycling and just learning new things. It’s so easy to get them on board while trying to do something new. When we go to schools, we talk about recycling. They’re so excited to go home and share that information. They learn with their families, right? So, I like teaching kids. It’s so much easier than adults, who already have all this learned behavior. It’s really hard to get folks to change, and kids are such little sponges.

I went to a school in the city, and the kids were so excited to tell us what their green team was doing and show us the bins for their classrooms—decorated cardboard boxes—to be their recycling bins. Last year, they had created anything they wanted out of materials they found in their recycling bins. They were so excited to share what they had come up with and so proud that it was all just stuff that would have otherwise been wasted.

What items are just too small to recycle?

We like to tell people if it’s smaller than like 1/2 sheet of paper, it’s not gonna make it. They’re just gonna fall out, because everything gets dumped out onto large machines. And, while people are also there sorting along with the machines, it’s just very easy for the small pieces of paper to not be recycled. So, it’s a good rule of thumb.

What does heading up the recycling program mean to you?

It means a lot to me. I live in Baltimore City. Providing free resources to city residents is so important, and making sure that they know about it is also important. There are just so many good things that the city does that residents are just unaware of, and it’s just getting out the information.

I feel passionate about making Baltimore a cleaner city, and that starts with recycling education and getting people to care. All of that starts with these interpersonal connections that we make at these events. You talk to a couple people, and they go home and talk to a couple more people, and it just spreads.

But I think it starts with passing along my passion for wanting Baltimore to be a better city. I think that kind of is infectious to other folks, and then they want to share that too. When they learn about all the free resources, residents are always so excited. We always get positive feedback from the events, especially when they’re getting something out of it too. BGE’s recycling rewards—those are the kind of things that they’re gonna go back and tell their neighbors about and get people interested.

Do you have an old working appliance?

Visit bgesmartenergy.com/residential/help-me-save/appliance-recycling for details or to schedule a pickup.