I have just posted the Winter 2009 Recycletter to our website. The Recycletter is published quarterly by our Recycling Volunteer Program. This issue's contents include:
For details, I'll purposely refer you to the Recycletter itself!
We are on our normal recycling and trash collection schedule today.
If your collection day is Thursday or Friday, you will receive yard trim collection on your normal day. We reversed our decision to cancel yard trim service this week - despite yesterday's ice, the crews' work went well, and we will be able to take your yard trim items, including Christmas trees.
Is your collection day Wednesday? We will not make up your yard trim collection this week. Please hold your yard trim material until next Wednesday.
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.
If you have any questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please contact our Customer Service staff online or call 240-777-6410.
Good morning!
We are attempting our normal recycling and trash collection schedule today. However, yard trim collection, including Christmas trees, is canceled for today. (We'll make up for Christmas trees next week -- if you have a Christmas tree to be picked up, please set it out then.)
Trucks will likely begin their rounds with a delay. If a hill or street is not passable, the crew will make another attempt later in the day or tomorrow.
Please have your items visible from the street and at the curb, so that they are not hidden by snow banks or parked cars.
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.
Update, 12/7/2009: We now accept milk and juice cartons in our Montgomery County, Maryland, recycling program. Please remove the plastic caps from the cartons. Then, add them to your wheeled mixed paper recycling cart, place into a small paper bag or a small cardboard box with a secure lid, or bundle.
From our mailbag:
Are the 1/2 gallon rectangular shaped cartons that milk and orange juice come in recyclable? I just want to do the correct thing.
Thanks for your question, R.! Sorry, our recycling program does not accept milk and juice cartons because they are coated with a thin plastic film. In order to recover the paper fibers, they would need to be separated from this film layer. That's a step most paper recycling processes are not set up to handle. So, please put these cartons into the trash.
What kinds of wrapping paper are recyclable? I specifically wonder about the shiny, metallic paper that my wife likes.Thanks for your timely question, M.! Metallic and foil papers do create a fine-looking gift presentation! But, as much as I hate to introduce any domestic discontent, please tell your wife (gently!) that we cannot accept foil- or plastic-coated papers for recycling. We accept all other types of gift wrap paper (minus the bows and ribbons!).
Can you tell me what can be done with tissue paper?Sure! That can go into your wheeled cart or paper recycling bundle, right along with the rest of your recyclable paper.
Yesterday, I received this blog comment:
You should never throw your cfl bulbs in the regular trash because it contains mercury. It takes just one teaspoon of mercury to contaminate a 20 acre lake forever. It is also illegal to throw them into the trash in many states.
Were you writing in response to this blog entry about compact fluorescent light disposal? In the year that has passed since that entry was posted, our CFL recycling opportunities have expanded.
We have identified eight local retail stores which accept residents' CFLs for recycling. That's in addition to the Hazardous Waste drop-off at our Solid Waste Transfer Station and our community Household Hazardous Waste collection events. (Our community events have ended for 2008; we'll post our 2009 schedule as soon as it's announced in the Spring.)
We'll continue to update our map of local CFL recycling locations, and other CFL disposal tips as this information evolves.
Another installment of learnings from my trip to our Recycling Center...
Remember that metal conduit? Unfortunately, it is often in the company of other metal items that poke and prod the equipment at our Recycling Center. Here are some examples:
A metal roasting pan and metal piece with sharp edges (the round item at the top left is a tea kettle, also in the "thanks, but no" category for blue bin curbside collection)
The thing is that our sorting process and machinery are set up for accepting metal only in the form of cans and foil products. Oversize items can jam up the works. And, those sharp edges and pointy bits can damage the machinery (more on that later...).
Tip: We provide curbside scrap metal collection for large items at no charge. And, we set up a handy shortcut for details about this popular service: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/scrapmetal. If you have smaller amounts of scrap metal, or prefer to transport the metal yourself, use the scrap metal recycling area at our Solid Waste Transfer Station, also at no charge.
The November 2008 issue covers:
Interested in reading back issues? Visit our TRRAC Newsletter Archive.
Another installment of learnings from my trip to our Recycling Center... We accept metal cans, tins, and foil products in our weekly curbside recycling program.
Sometimes, people expand that, thinking "if it's metal, it must be ok." And, they drop their metal item into their blue bin.
But, it's not ok. For example, flexible metal conduit bends and pokes when it is intact. And when it unravels, as it inevitably does, it bends, pokes, and wraps around bits of the Recycling Center's sorting machinery all the more. It would make great "hair" for a wild Halloween costume, or for a sculpture. However, please keep it out of blue bins.
Tip: Please recycle flexible metal conduit (and the rigid type, too) by taking it to the scrap metal recycling area at our Solid Waste Transfer Station.
The day of my visit was pleasant and sunny, with few clouds wafting about. It had not rained in several days. Yet, a large puddle covered a section of floor quite a distance from the building entrance. Puzzling... what could possibly have been the source? When the sorting workers find bottles with water, juice, or soda remaining inside, they pull these bottles aside. When the bottle container is full, it is dumped out on the tipping floor. The front-end loader then runs over the bottles, crushing them, and allowing the liquids to drain out... thus forming the puddle I saw.
The crushed, and now empty, bottles are then put back onto the conveyer belts for sorting.
Tip: please empty beverage bottles before adding them to your blue bin.
Each weekday, and on Saturdays when we have a "slide" due to a holiday, we have field staff out in your neighborhoods. Their contacts with collection crews and residents, and their own observations as they drive through their assigned areas, help us monitor the recycling and trash materials set out for collection, and the collection service itself.
Last week, the field staff supervisor sent me this note:
Construction Debris: The crews are finding a lot of this in plastic bags. Nails and other sharp objects are cutting the plastic and either creating litter during collection attempts or potentially injuring the collector.
The remedy is to put your construction debris into trash cans when you set this material out for curbside collection. For reference, I have added this information to our trash service details webpage.
Thank you for helping to keep our collection crews -- and yourself! -- safe, and your neighborhood clean of potential litter, when you prepare your construction debris for pickup.
After finding our blog in a webseach, and reading these posts about pillow disposal, a blog reader sent me this note:
When I contacted my local animal shelters about old pillows, they told me they cannot take them, as the animals shred them and can accidentally ingest the filling.Thank you for the opportunity to do a little more research. I contacted two shelters local to our office.
One shelter responded with:
We do accept pillows. We also accept blankets (no wool), comforters, bathroom rugs, towels, beach towels, carpet squares, and mattress pads (no electric blankets).The other wrote back, noting:
I am not a fan of pillows because the stuffing is usually not good for animals and is hard to clean because of its thickness. We desperately need blankets, towels, and sheets.So, as is the case with many donation opportunities, check with your prospective recipients to confirm that they are able to use what you wish to give them. Our Use It Again Guide is one resource to help you direct your donations, and we're happy to receive your donations of tips to help us expand the Guide even further.
