Yard trim observations - Intern report

Hey All,

This is Thomas the intern. In case you didn’t see my previous post, I’ll remind you that I am the person who's been looking through your recycling for the past few weeks. While for the most part, everyone seems to get the general idea of recycling, I have noticed some confusion about yard trim.

 "Yard trim" includes leaves, grass, and brush. Yard trim is recycled on your collection day. Just put yard trim out next to your other recycling, by 7:00 am on your day of collection. You may prepare yard trim in three different ways:

1. in a reusable container marked by a green yard trim sticker, 
2. in yard trim paper bags, or 
3. bundled by twine.

Now, I know I said put them in a container. But, that does not include your blue bin:

Oops! Logs in blue recycling bin.

Your blue bin is only for cans, bottles, jars and plastic containers and lids.

"Container" does not include blue wheeled carts either:

Another oops! Branches in blue wheeled paper recycling cart.

Your blue wheeled cart is only for paper and cardboard.

Reusable containers should be marked by a green sticker, so that the yard trim truck crew can spot them easily:

Yard trim can identified by sticker

Yard trim is picked up by a separate truck. If the truck's crew cannot tell what is inside of a container or bag, they may drive by and miss your items because they don't know that the items are for them.

Oops! Yard trim set out in a small paper shopping bag.

This yard trim set-out is a step in the right direction! But, the yard trim crew may very well miss it. They are looking for bigger paper bags, like these:

Branches prepared for yard trim pickup in large, paper lawn and garden bags.

If you have a container that you want to use for yard trim, identify it with one of our yard trim stickers. You may request stickers online or by calling the Montgomery County Customer Service Center at 311 (or 240-777-0311; TTY: 301-251-4850). It really helps the yard trim trucks know what to take!

Until next time,
-Thomas, Intern