Our July 2009 TRRAC Newsletter is available

TRRAC is our program for recycling and waste reduction at apartment and condominium properties.

The July 2009 issue includes:

• 2009 Annual Recycling Awards
• Some easy steps to put your property in award
  contention

Interested in reading back issues? Visit our TRRAC Newsletter Archive.

Can I recover a valuable item from the trash?

Recently, my phone rang. My Solid Waste Transfer Station colleague, Ray, was on the other end.

"Today, we had someone in here looking for a diamond watch and ring. Maybe this would be something for the blog..."

Indeed it is! Part of the daily Transfer Station operations includes keeping the various dropoff areas humming, and the trucks unloading. Generally, the material that's brought in is intended to stay there. However, sometimes, valuables mistakenly end up in the trash. When this happens, our Transfer Station staff springs into action.

On that day, it was jewelry that had accidently ended up in the wrong place.

Thankfully, the trash collection truck which serviced the resident's home had not yet come to the Transfer Station to unload. When it arrived, staff pulled it aside, and had the driver unload in a separate area. (If the truck had already unloaded when the resident contacted us, it would have been too late to attempt to find the items.)

We contacted the resident, who then came to begin the hunt for the bag which held the missing items. We provided safety equipment, and assisted as much as possible. This can be very challenging work, especially if the sought-for things are small.

Was there a happy ending? The missing bag was recovered! We were ready to celebrate! However, it turned out that the jewelry was not in the bag after all. The story did ultimately end in victory: the resident called us later to share that the missing items were found behind the dresser. Hooray!

What should you do if you discover that an item of monetary or sentimental value has been whisked away as trash? We've taken this particular jewelry situation as inspiration to jot down the procedure for how to (possibly) recover a valuable item from the trash.

Yard trim labels are great... when they stick

From our mailbag, in response to my recent post about the importance of labelling yard trim cans:

I agree with your concerns about labeling yard waste cans. The problem is that those labels are not robust enough to stick or stand-up to moisture and come off readily.

Thanks for your comments, M.

Agreed. Getting the yard trim labels to remain on cans has been a challenge sometimes. We haven't given up! When we ordered our most recent batch of labels this Spring, we selected ones which are supposed to have better adherence and fade-resistance than our previous ones. We'd be happy to mail you replacement yard trim labels from our new stock.

We're also happy to make a house call with spray adhesive for yard trim stickers which refuse to stay stuck. To request a visit, please contact our Customer Service staff.

Our February 2009 and May 2009 TRRAC Newsletters are available

TRRAC is our program for recycling and waste reduction at apartment and condominium properties.

The February 2009 issue includes:

• Making Recycling Count - monitoring performance
• Keep Up the Great Work!
• Let Your Residents Help!
• Where Did You Get Those Baby Blues?
• Seminar Attendees Share Effective Recycling Program Strategies
• Special Recycling Education Requests? Please Ask

The May 2009 issue includes:

• Simple Ways to Recycle More Outdoors
• Montgomery County Celebrates Earth Month
• Innovation Highlight: The Gallery at White Flint Looks "Inside the Box"
• Recycling — Cost vs. Benefit
• Got Mercury? We’ll Take It!

Interested in reading back issues? Visit our TRRAC Newsletter Archive.