Zip to Hazardous Waste information

This week, it got easier to get to the hazardous waste program information on our website. Simply use this shortcut: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/hazardouswaste.

That will zip you on over to details about our Household Hazardous Waste collections, our Ecowise program for businesses that are small-quantity generators, and our "Clean Ways to do Dirty Jobs" poster.

Have some trash with your comics

This week, Washington Post columnist John Kelly examines trash and recycling. He writes:

It all has to go somewhere. And that is the crux of the issue: Because matter cannot be created nor destroyed, where does it all go? That's the question I'll be trying to answer all this week.

Travel along with him as he hits the streets to address this question. In the weekday print version of the Washington Post, John's column is found in the Comics section.

Memorial Day Holiday -- no County collections on May 30

Monday, May 30, 2005 ~ Memorial Day ~ is a recycling and trash holiday. There are no County-provided recycling or trash collections that day. All County-provided recycling and trash collections that week will be one day later than normal.

Memorial Day Holiday -- facility schedules

Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the Beauty Spots and Transfer Station will have the following schedules:

DAMASCUS and POOLESVILLE BEAUTY SPOTS

• Saturday, May 28, 2005: normal hours


• open 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.


• Sunday, May 29, 2005: closed

SHADY GROVE TRANSFER STATION

• Sat & Sun, May 28 & 29, 2005: normal weekend hours




• Car Entrance:




• Saturday: 7:30 am - 5:00 pm


• Sunday: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm




• Truck Entrance:




• Saturday: 7:00 am - 5:00 pm






• Monday, May 30, 2005: closed

All good things come to an end

The Spring 2005 session of our Behind the Scenes course ended last night. We met for 6 consecutive 2-hour Wednesday evening classes. We also took a Saturday field trip to tour two of the more outlying facilities.

Despite so many hours together, we still parted ways with questions left unexplored! One participant remarked, "I surprised me to learn that I could learn such interesting things about trash!"

In the coming weeks, I'll use some of those questions as fodder for blog entries. And, if you have burning questions of your own about recycling and solid waste, click on the link below to tell me about them. Better yet, see you in class the next time it's offered!

Blue Bins: Where's my new one?

New and replacement recycling bins are delivered to you by our field staff and our dedicated "blue bin delivery guy." These deliveries are not made by your recycling collection crews. So, they may coincidentally be made on your recycling day, but more often than not, the your bin will arrive on another day.

Newsletter Helper: Plastic recycling

We just posted our "Newsletter Helper" for May. This month's featured topic is plastic recycling. Montgomery County accepts all plastic bottles with necks. Many people mistakenly think we are still limited to certain resin numbers. The color of the bottle, and the resin number stamped on it in the "recycling triangle" don't matter. Newsletter Helper content is intended for convenient reuse in your own community publications. Sample some issues for yourself!

Recycling Center wins award

The Montgomery County Recycling Center has won the Solid Waste Processing Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2005 Facility Recognition Award in the Material Recovery Category.

Award criteria included the facility’s success in reaching its goals; innovative and technical contributions to solid waste processing; facility economics; environmental performance and safety; and, the facility’s role in integrated waste management. ASME’s award recognizes the Recycling Center’s contribution to the field of solid waste processing. We will receive the award on May 23, 2005.

Scrap Metal: Give bikes a new purpose in life

Collecting bikes for the scrap metal value beats putting them into the trash. Putting them back into service as a means of transportation is even better.

Bikes for the World, a sponsored project of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, offers collection events and drop-off sites all over our area. This program then delivers bicycles and spare parts to selected non-profits overseas, where the bikes provide affordable transportation to workers, students, farmers, and small businesspeople.

Scrap metal: Is it on the list?

Is the bike supposed to be picked up as scrap metal... or not?

Is that bike part of the requested collection, or did Junior forget it on the lawn?

We recently started asking you to provide an itemized list when you request a scrap metal collection (or a bulk trash collection). This does require a little more work up-front.

The benefits of this list can be invaluable. When collection crews arrive for a pick up, it is not always clear what they are to take with them. Under our improved procedure, the collection crew has your list in hand when they come to your home. And, they have instructions to pick up only what is on that list. This helps them check off to make sure they take everything you wanted them to take, and to leave the rest behind.