PROVINCETOWN — In morning’s early light, Kingsley Samuel, known around town as KG, loads recyclables into the bed of his Chevrolet low cab forward parked outside Spiritus Pizza. KG handles the refuse that most people would rather avoid. As the owner and only employee of a recycling and trash disposal business, he spends his weekdays making the rounds to restaurants, bars, and hotels, where he collects piles of discarded items — cardboard boxes, worn furniture, and bags of trash — and gets all of it to the transfer station on Race Point Road.
“It’s a cycle,” he says between rounds. “Load up, clear out, and repeat.” Time is of the essence. By noon, the transfer station imposes fees for cardboard drop-offs, and KG can’t afford to miss the cutoff. “Either I’m there, or I’m paying.”
Despite the time pressure, KG finds satisfaction in his work, particularly in the physical part of it. Though one part of the job really irks him: separating recyclables from his customer’s trash. “Paper isn’t supposed to be in the garbage,” he says. “I tell them so many times, but they keep doing it.” —Elias Duncan
