Community Service Day Recap

On October 24, residents at Manchester Manor Apartments, Tanglewood Apartments, and Sligo Hills Apartments in Silver Spring were treated to on-site paper shredding/recycling and the opportunity to donate clothing and household goods to families in need.

Montgomery County collaborated with Office Paper Systems, A Wider Circle, and the Housing Opportunities Commission to provide these services in the parking areas of these properties.

Montgomery County volunteers and staff also went door-to-door, placing apartment-sized recycling bins and recycling information at the door of every apartment, and replaced the labels and posters at the collection areas to raise resident recycling awareness.

This event was part of the countywide Community Service Day, a day of volunteering to encourage the spirit of giving among county residents.

From the November 2009 issue of our TRRAC Newsletter for multi-family properties.

Veterans Day Holiday, November 11, 2009 - normal collection schedule

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - Veterans Day - is a regular recycling and trash collection day. There will be no holiday slide; all County-provided recycling and trash collections will be made on their normal schedule. Our Solid Waste Transfer Station will have its regular hours of operation.

If you have any questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please contact our Customer Service staff online or call 240-777-6410.

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, these schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

Do you subscribe to our reminders for holiday and weather-related collection service changes? We offer email and text message options!

Can you recycle glass air freshener bottles?

Montgomery County accepts food grade glass bottles and jars for recycling. Glass air freshener bottles are not recycled in the curbside recycling program.

Do not recycle glass items such as: drinking glasses, ceramic plates, glass cooking ware, and wine glasses. These items can be sold at yard sales or donated.

Wondering what do with broken glass? Place any broken glass in a paper bag and dispose of it in the trash.

From the Fall 2009 issue of the Recycletter, our newsletter for our Recycling Volunteers.

What happens to bikes you recycle?

What happens to the bicycles you set out for curbside scrap metal recycling, or add to the scrap metal pile at the Shady Grove Transfer Station?

Our staff sorts through the bikes, setting aside those which are in good condition. We partner with Bikes for the World, a sponsored project of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, to put as many bikes as possible back into use. Bikes in damaged or rusty condition are recycled as scrap metal.

And what is the next step for bikes collected by Bikes for the World? Through selected non-profit agencies near and far, they become transportation for people who use them to get to work or school.

In honor of the International Day of Climate Action, Bikes for the World has set a goal of collecting and shipping 350 bikes at its collection events this weekend. Two of its events will be in Montgomery County:

• Saturday, October 24, 2009, 9 am – 12 noon
  St. Paul’s Catholic Community,
  at the Community Gazebo, corner Rt. 108 and Rt. 124,
  Damascus MD 20872
• Sunday, October 25, 2009, 10 am – 2 pm
  Congregation Beth El,
  8215 Old Georgetown Road,
  Bethesda MD 20814

In addition to bicycles, Bikes for the World also accepts bike-related items, sewing machines, and cell phones.

• Bike donation guidelines
• Full schedule of Bikes for the World collection events and drop-off locations

Four paper shredding and clothing/household donation events on November 14 + 15, 2009

We are celebrating America Recycles Day four times: in four locations over two days!

Join us in Germantown and Silver Spring on November 14, 2009, and in Bethesda and Silver Spring on November 15, 2009. Each site will feature a community paper shred and clothing/household goods donation drop-off.

Paper shredding and recycling is available at no charge to Montgomery County residents only, with a 5 bag/small box limit. Your materials will be shredded on-site.

The usable clothing/household item donation drop-off will benefit four local charities. Accepted items will include clean clothing, miscellaneous household goods, small electronics, books, furniture, and much more. Receipts available upon request.

• Download our America Recycles Day flyer (313 kb)
• See detailed time, location, and shredding/donation information

Have you received our expanded recycling program mailer or seen our ad?

To help you learn about our expanded recycling program, we sent out mailers -- has this handy reference arrived in your mailbox already? We have put the mailer online (PDF, 1.63 MB):

We're running this newspaper ad (PDF, 839 kb) as well:

We encourage you to share these links and documents with others!

We gave a composting presentation, and learned just as much

Yesterday, my colleague, Ana, and I gave a composting presentation to the Darne Bloomers Garden Club in Darnestown.

No sooner did we enter the meeting room, I whipped out my camera, and started snapping away! Never mind the composting presentation -- we were in waste-reduction paradise!

The meeting invitations were printed on the inside of brown paper bags. Their last line read: "Please compost this announcement".

The tables were covered with brown paper (also compostable!), each sporting a different garden-related quotation. The table decorations were arrangements of fruits and vegetables.

Delightfully-decorated "fruits" and "vegetables" -- tiny cakes! -- were among the goodies served. These were presented on cabbage leaves, in cookie crumb "soil".

There were no plastic utentils or other disposables here! The cutlery was wrapped in a cloth napkin package, easy to pick up and take back to one's seat.

Three labeled containers awaited the end of the meeting, and the return of silverware; dishes; and cups, glasses, and bowls (from left to right).

Congratulations on the thoughtfully prepared meeting, and on the negligible amount of material which went out as trash!

Do you have a meeting coming up? Benefit from the zero-waste meeting lessons learned by a US EPA employee, and check out the EPA's Green Meetings resources.

Monday, September 7, 2009 - Labor Day - is a recycling and trash collection holiday. After the holiday, all County-provided recycling and trash collections will be one day later than normal.

If your normal collection day is:	Your collection day for the week of September 7, 2009, is:
Monday	Tuesday
Tuesday	Wednesday
Wednesday	Thursday
Thursday	Friday
Friday	Saturday

If you have any questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please contact our Customer Service staff online or call 240-777-6410.

Note: if you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, these schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

Shady Grove Solid Waste Transfer Station

• Monday, September 7, 2009: Site and administrative offices closed.
• Transfer Station location, hours and other details

Damascus and Poolesville Beauty Spots

• Saturday, September 5, 2009: closed
• Sunday, September 6, 2009: closed
• Beauty Spot locations, hours and other details