July 4, 2006 - modified collection schedule

Tuesday, July 4, 2006, Independence Day, is a recycling and trash holiday. All County-provided recycling and trash collections will be one day later than normal.

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, these schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

• Monday, 7/3/06, normal collection schedule
• Tuesday, 7/4/06, Independence Day: best wishes for the holiday!
• Wednesday, 7/5/06, Tuesday's collections
• Thursday, 7/6/06, Wednesday's collections
• Friday, 7/7/06, Thursday's collections
• Saturday, 7/8/06, Friday's collections

Shady Grove Transfer Station:

• closed: Tuesday, 7/4/2006.
• reopens with normal hours: Wednesday, 7/5/2006.

Categories: News_

Dispose of water- and flood-damaged items

Have these heavy rains left your household with rain- or flood-damaged items?

We have disposal instructions on our website.

Metal cans: to cut or not to cut off the lid

Yesterday, a resident wrote:

I use a hand-operated can opener, and usually open the can about 90 percent and pour out the contents so that the lid doesn't splash down.

Should I continue cranking until the lid separates, and throw the lid away?

Or should I leave the lid attached and carefully bend it back so that no sharp edges protrude?

Both lid-opening options are fine for recycling metal cans. But, please give us the lid in either case. If you cut the lid off completely, the safest thing is to tuck it inside the can, and to gently pinch the can's opening to trap the lid inside. Then, put the can into your blue bin for collection.

Categories: Cans_, Recycling_

Glass: no Corningware, please

This offer was posted to a local Freecycle list:

I broke my favorite large Corningware casserole dish, but the glass lid survived. If you need one, it's here until next glass recycling day.

Thanks to this person for thinking that glass = recycling! The only thing is that if this lid doesn't find a Taker, it should be disposed of as trash rather than a "blue bin recyclable."

In Montgomery County, our curbside recycling program accepts only glass bottles and jars.

What's wrong with that lid? The heat-resistant properties which make it so convenient for baking cause problems when the lid is mixed in with the "regular" bottle and jar glass.

Categories: Glass_, Recycling_

It's just a trash can - Part II

The trash can from yesterday's entry was filled with leftovers from a construction project. The bag on top of the can's contents was a sack of cement.

Our weight limit for trash cans is 45 pounds. This one tipped the scales at 150 pounds. As a result, it was tagged with an orange sticker, and the crew left it behind.

What were the can owner's options at this point? The can's contents could have been self-hauled to the Shady Grove Transfer Station for disposal. Or, the material could have been set out for collection the following week, repackaged in smaller containers weighing up to 45 pounds each.

Categories: Seen at the curb_, Trash_

It's just a trash can, right?

Returning to our "What's wrong with this picture?" series... what's the matter with this trash can? Why could its contents not be collected on the day the can was set out at the curb?

Stay tuned... answer to come!

Categories: Seen at the curb_, Trash_

What do you do with sandbox sand?

From our (e)mail bag:

We put out two containers of old sandbox sand this week but the trucks did not take them because they weighed over 45 pounds each.

The key to the answer is in the container weight. In Montgomery County, we ask that cans, containers, and bags weigh 45 pounds or less. This rule helps protect the backs of your collection crews.

In the situation here, repackage the sand into smaller amounts, and the containers should be whisked away with your next trash collection. Or, you may self-haul the sand directly to the Shady Grove Transfer Station. The Transfer Station does not have per-container weight limits. But, watch for the health of your back as you load and unload your vehicle!

Trash?! Yes, sand is disposed of as trash. Our yard trim collections are limited to grass, leaves, and brush.

What else can you do with "waste" sand? Consider putting it back into service in another way. One suggestion: mix it with compost and soil as you build a rain garden in your yard. More information about rain gardens.

Build or repair your home... from trash

Last Saturday, we attended the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission's "Going Green at Home" Fair. We were delighted to share exhibit space with The Loading Dock, a non-profit building material recycler. The Loading Dock accepts the materials we receive in our "Don't Dump. Donate" program, located at the Shady Grove Transfer Station. Those building materials are then resold at The Loading Dock's Baltimore warehouse at a fraction of the retail price, saving customers money and keeping those items out of the waste stream.

We now have another option for buying reusable building supplies -- right in the middle of Montgomery County. The Habitat for Humanity Restore is open in Gaithersburg, and is also well on its way to finding new homes for new and used building materials.

Newsletter Helper: Tips for recycling during the summer

Beverage cans and bottles, plastic ice-cream containers, plastic strawberry and blueberry baskets, fencing, paint... all items we tend to generate for disposal over the summer months. What's recyclable and what's not? Find out in the May 2006 Newsletter Helper!

What other summer recyclables are puzzlers for you? Let us know, and look for answers in future posts...

International Compost Awareness Week

Next week, May 7 to 13, is International Compost Awareness Week. How to celebrate this? If you don't already have a compost pile in your yard, consider starting one. Montgomery County offers free compost bins at several locations around the County. 

Sunday, April 16, 2006: Beauty Spots Closed

Beauty Spots:

• Saturday, April 15, 2006: Normal Saturday hours at both Beauty Spots.
• Sunday, April 16, 2006: Both the Damascus and Poolesville Beauty Spots will be closed for the Easter holiday.

Shady Grove Transfer Station: It's business as usual at the on these dates -- there are no changes to operating hours.

Earth Day Celebration: April 22, 2006

Celebrate Earth Day with us on April 22, 2006. Seize the rare opportunity to tour the Recycling Center on a Saturday! Enjoy exhibits on recycling, waste reduction, and buying recycled... and more. For information: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/solidwaste

Saturday, April 22, 2006
11:00 am to 3:00 pm, rain or shine!
850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, Maryland
(in the parking lot in front of Montgomery County Public Schools Headquarters)

National Poison Prevention Week

This week is National Poison Prevention Week. More than 90% of the poisonings reported to Poison Control Centers each year happen in homes, says poisonprevention.org.

While bringing fewer hazardous products into your home, and using products with lower toxicity are two lines of defense, what can you do with the products you already have? The US EPA has online resources for locking up hazardous products. When you are ready to dispose of products you no longer need or want, remember our Household Hazardous Waste collections. We offer this service to County residents at no charge.

Got hazardous products from a business? Check out our ECOWISE program for small-quantity generators.

Cell phones: free mailing label for recycling

A number of local retailers accept cell phones for recycling. And, our County Sheriff's office and Victim Services' program reuse cell phones. These options beat putting those obsolete or no-longer-functioning phones into the trash.

Still, in order to participate, you have to remember to pack up the phone and charger, and take them to their destination. After one too many encounters with my toddler, I myself have a broken phone in my possession. The problem is that I only remember to take this phone to the drop-off point as I am driving past it. And when this happens, the phone is several miles away, tucked away on a shelf at home.

My excuses have just disappeared! I learned that you can print out a mailing label (postage-paid!), affix it to an envelope, tuck the phone inside, and drop it into a mailbox to send it on its way. What could be easier?!

Spring 2006 BTS Course is full

Wow! We still have almost six weeks to go until the Spring 2006 Behind the Scenes course begins, but so many of you have already registered that the course is full. We'll spend seven meetings and a field trip talking about... trash and recycling. I'm looking forward to it -- even though I've coordinated this program for many years, I learn new things each time.

Didn't make it into the course? Fear not! You are welcome to join the group for the April 22 field trip to the County's solid waste facilities in Dickerson, MD. (Yes, that's Earth Day. No, that was not planned, but it's a fitting coincidence.) We'll visit the Resource Recovery Facility (our waste-to-energy plant) and the Yard Trim Composting Facility. Please preregister for the trip. That lets me know how many groups we'll need to split into for our RRF tour. It also lets me know how many lunch fixin's we'll need -- we don't want any growling tummies or sagging energy due to hunger in the afternoon!

Plastics recycling: are dirty curbside finds recyclable?

Received in the mail:

As I walk through my neighborhood I sometimes take along a bag and collect trash bottles from the curbside. Some of these are awfully dirty, some even still have the caps on and are so dirty I avoid removing them. Is it OK to recycle these, regardless of their condition?

Thank you for your commitment to recycling, and for taking a bag along with you on your outings! (So often, I first remember the bag when I spot the litter, at which point it is, of course, too late. And, you can only carry so much in your hands...)

I put your question to our Recycling Center manager. He says that clean bottles are always preferable. Nonetheless, he would accept your "curbside finds" as-is, without any washing.

Before tossing the bottles into your blue bin for collection, please remove the lids. Why? The lids are most often made from a different plastic resin and through different molding processes than the bottles themselves. As a result, the lids would be "contaminants" in a bale of bottle plastic. So, please put those lids into the trash.

If this post inspires you to do more, consider learning more about Montgomery County's beautification and clean-up programs, including Adopt-A-Road and the Keep Montgomery County Beautiful task force.

Newsletter Helper: Disposal of Large Tree Branches

Ay! What if those March winds and April showers bring you lots of downed branches instead of (or, in addition to) May flowers? Our February 2006 Newsletter Helper offers some solutions. We'll be happy to take bagged or bundled pieces up to 4 feet long and 4 inches in diameter right from your curb. (Please limit those bundles to 45 pounds.) Larger pieces are accepted at the Shady Grove Tranfer Station.

Why the size and weight limit and that bundling requirement for curbside collections? Collection crews toss those bundles into their trucks by hand. And, they serve several hundred homes on a given route. Bags and bundles are much more efficient to load than the loose branches would be. And, the weight limit helps to protect the crews' backs.

Presidents' Day - Feb. 20: normal schedule

Monday, February 20, 2006 ~ Presidents' Day ~ is a regular recycling and trash collection day. All County-provided recycling and trash collections will be made on their normal schedule. 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, these schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

Feb. 13, 2006: Normal collections

We are on our normal recycling and trash collection schedule for today, with no delays due to this weekend's snow.

Please remember to have your items out at the curb for collection by 7 a.m. And, where there are snow banks and parked cars, please place your bins and cans so that crews can see them easily from the street.

Feb. 12, 2006: Snow Closings

The Shady Grove Transfer Station is closed today.

The Damascus and Poolesville Beauty Spots are closed also, as our Highway Maintenance colleagues focus all of their attention on today's snow removal effort.