Bill Bell was hired recently as Gloucester County’s new Clean Community coordinator.

Bell, who resides in Lancaster County, started working here on April 4, filling the position previously held by Lorna Frazier-Lindsey. He retired from his job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for more than 35 years the previous Friday.

"I worked with conservation, which is sort of what I will do here," Bell said. In his new part-time position, Bell said he wants to encourage local residents and groups to recycle, reduce and reuse as many items as they can.

Too often, Bell said, people throw stuff they could recycle into the trash bins. Many of those items, especially plastics, can have future lives when melted and remolded into plastic furniture and many other items, he said.

Also, Bell said, many people litter. "They just don’t think," he said of tossing sandwich wrappers, soda bottles and cigarette butts out the window while driving. Cigarette butts can harm the environment, as they can leach chemicals that seep into the groundwater.

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