July 2014 Sign Sweep cleans up County right-of-way areas

On Wednesday, Montgomery County Division of Solid Waste Services staff participated in the July 2014 "Sign Sweep".

The Sweep team -- about 60 colleagues from the Departments of Environmental Protection, Housing and Community Affairs, Permitting Services, and Transportation -- gathered in the morning for instructions.

Teams then split up according to their assignments, and set to work.

The group collected roughly 2,000 signs from County right-of-way areas, and delivered them to the Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station. They sorted the signs by material, and recycled what they could.

Look at that pile of metal signs and sign holders, a fitting background for this media interview with Sign Sweep Coordinator Ehsan Motazedi, Division Chief, Zoning and Site Plan Enforcement!

What should you do if you see a sign on a County right-of-way? Let us know its location by calling the Montgomery County Customer Service Center at 311 (or 240-777-0311; TTY: 301-251-4850). 

Please do not remove signs yourself (unless you are picking up your own sign)! Let us take away the signs you spot to:

• Avoid danger. (We only send out trained staff in removal teams.)
• Avoid any confrontation with sign owners.

We are planning to repeat the Sign Sweep effort twice a year, but please call any time you see a sign out of place on a right-of-way.

For more information about signs:

• Political signs (PDF) - Fact sheet on size, placement and required permits
• Sign permits, including the application process, fees, and more

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

Independence Day 2014 - modified recycling and trash collection schedule

Sign up for our Holiday Reminder email and text messages

Independence Day: Friday, July 4, 2014: No County-provided collection services will occur on this day. Friday recycling and trash collections will slide, and be one day later than normal.

If your collection day is	Your collection day this week is
Monday	Monday, June 30, 2014 (no change)
Tuesday	Tuesday, July 1, 2014 (no change)
Wednesday	Wednesday, July 2, 2014 (no change)
Thursday	Thursday, July 3, 2014 (no change)
Friday	Saturday, July 5, 2014

If you have questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please call the Montgomery County Customer Service Center (MC311) at 311 (out-of-County: 240-777-0311, TTY: 301-251-4850).

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, our schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

To add our recycling/trash collection schedule changes directly to your electronic calendar, subscribe to this link.

Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station

The yard trim disposal fee at the Transfer Station is changing, effective July 1, 2014. See yard trim fee details.

Transfer Station location, hours and other details

• Friday, July 4, 2014: Entire facility closed.
• Saturday, July 5, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Sunday, July 6, 2014: Open with normal hours.

Poolesville Beauty Spot

Beauty Spot location, hours and other details

• Saturday, July 5, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Sunday, July 6, 2014: Open with normal hours.

Recycling refrigerators: refrigerant removal not required

Refrigerators in Transfer Station's scrap metal drop-off area

Has your refrigerator stopped chilling? Your dehumidifier stopped removing humidity? Your air conditioner stopped keeping you cool?

We accept these large appliances -- and more -- as scrap metal for recycling.

If you receive recycling service from Montgomery County, you may request a curbside scrap metal collection for your no-longer-needed or no-longer-working appliances.

We also accept scrap metal directly at our Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station.

If your large appliances contain refrigerants, you do not need to remove the them before you set the appliances out for curbside collection or deliver them to us.We have a contractor who comes by to remove refrigerants.

When you bring refrigerant-containing items to us, here are two important tips from the Transfer Station staff:

1. Please take care in unloading them so that you avoid breaking open the cooling system. 
2. Drop them off in the first scrap metal bay (where you see refrigerators organized in an orderly line), and not in the bays where all of the metal is just in a pile

Recycle your election lawn signs after voting is over

Today is Election Day!  Visit the Montgomery County, Maryland, Board of Elections for voting details, and to view election returns.

Recycling your sample ballot, newsprint voting guides, and brochures and postcards you might have received from candidates and organizations is simple: just add them to your other paper recyclables.

However, what about any lawn signs you might have?  Here is a little guide to disposing of those:

Wire sign frames and holders
Bring sign frames and holders to the scrap metal drop-off area at the Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station.  Sorry, we do not accept wire items in our curbside blue bin recycling program.

Corrugated plastic signs
We do not accept corrugated plastic signs in our recycling programs.  Perhaps you might be able to reuse them.  For example, I recently used a scrap piece of corrugated plastic to make a rigid bottom for a cloth shopping bag.  If you do not have other uses for this sign material, please put it into your regular trash.

Film plastic signs
Film plastic signs look a lot like plastic bags.  However, please do not add them to plastic bag recycling bins, as they may be made of different resins than bags!  As with rigid corrugated plastic signs, please reuse film plastic signs, or place them into your regular household trash.

Cardboard signs
Please add cardboard signs without a plastic coating to your other paper recyclables. However, if the signs are coated with plastic film, please place them into your regular trash.

What other election support materials would you like to dispose?  Let us know, and we'll share the answers back here.

Worn recycling bins are easy to replace - Intern report

My name is Thomas, and if you have noticed someone looking through your recycling this month, that would be me. Well, I hope so at least.

The Division of Solid Waste Services is doing a recycling survey for the month of June 2014. I go out 5 days a week with a Field Staffer from the Division and look at what you have set out for recycling. It is nothing to be concerned about—we are just gathering data to help us improve our programs.

As an intern from outside Montgomery County, and outside of Maryland, the Division’s recycling program is entirely new to me. So, I spent some time studying the "Recycling Basics" flyer to get myself acquainted with the dual stream method. I have been impressed by how many households recycle.

Although, some of you have some pretty beaten up bins:

Cracked and taped recycling bin (oops! no plastic bags, please!)

Like really bad:

An even more cracked recycling bin

The fix to this is easy! You may request a new bin online, or by calling the Montgomery County Customer Service Center at 311 (or 240-777-0311; TTY: 301-251-4850).

Some of you like to fill your bins up. Like all the way up:

Overflowing recycling bins

That’s great! But if you ever want another bin, all you need to do is place an online order, or call 311!

Until my next report,

-Thomas, Intern

Changed yard waste disposal fee at Transfer Station, effective July 1, 2014

Starting July 1, 2014, our fees for yard waste loads delivered to the Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station will be the following. All other fees remain the same.

If you deliver this amount of RESIDENTIAL or COMMERCIAL yard waste	Your fee will be
Less than 500 pounds	No charge
500 pounds or more	$46.00/ton

As of July 1, 2014:

• All yard waste loads likely to weigh 500 pounds or more must enter through the Shady Grove Road entrance, and go over the truck scales. This entrance is open Monday through Saturday, 7:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
• Yard waste loads weighing 500 pounds or more cannot be delivered weekday evenings (5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) or any time on Sundays.

See full fee schedule for the Shady Grove Transfer Station and Processing Facility.

How do I recycle trophies and award plaques?

A resident recently asked how to recycle trophies. We do not accept trophies for recycling. However, these items are good candidates for reuse, which is even better!

A terrific group of volunteer program managers gave us some reuse tips for trophies and award plaques a while back. These included:

• Here's a possible use: Activity Directors in nursing homes and assisted livings sometimes have "Senior Olympic" programs for their residents, and I imagine the creative ones would love to award the participants with trophies - imagine the delight for a senior, to have a real trophy among the treasures in their room! What a self-esteem boost that would be!
  
• Scout troops often sponsor regatta and matchbox derbies... Many times they are looking for old trophies that they can refurbish so there can be prizes for everyone.
  
• I used to recycle old trophies and plaques for new volunteer awards (just had new engraving done) when I worked for a nonprofit group that annually gave out volunteer appreciation recognition.

What other suggestions would you add?

Use our "How do I recycle/dispose of..." lookup tool

Memorial Day 2014 - modified recycling and trash collection schedule

Sign up for our Holiday Reminder email and text messages

Memorial Day: Monday, May 26, 2014: No County-provided collection services will occur on this day. After the holiday, all County-provided recycling and trash collections will slide, and be one day later than normal.

If your collection day is	Your collection day this week is
Monday	Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Tuesday	Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Wednesday	Thursday, May 29, 2014
Thursday	Friday, May 30, 2014
Friday	Saturday, May 31, 2014

If you have questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please call the Montgomery County Customer Service Center (MC311) at 311 (out-of-County: 240-777-0311, TTY: 301-251-4850).

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, our schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

To add our recycling/trash collection schedule changes directly to your electronic calendar, subscribe to this link.

Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station

Transfer Station location, hours and other details

• Saturday, May 24, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Sunday, May 25, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Monday, May 26, 2014: Entire facility closed.

Poolesville Beauty Spot

Beauty Spot location, hours and other details

• Saturday, May 24, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Sunday, May 25, 2014: Open with normal hours.

This week is Recycling Awareness Week 2014

May 19 to 23, 2014, is Recycling Awareness Week 2014 in Montgomery County!

During this week, we're holding 13 events designed to focus attention on exceptional recycling efforts underway in the County. Staff will present the "Magic of Recycling" show to twelve private schools to motivate students and staff to continue (and increase) their recycling efforts at school, at home, everywhere. The week's highlight is the Recycling Achievement Recognition Ceremony on Wednesday, May 21. At this ceremony, 10 individuals, 20 multi-family properties/residents and 50 businesses/organizations will be recognized for their recycling achievements.

We'll post the list of Award winners to our website tomorrow afternoon.

Yard trim tip: keep length to 4 feet

Collections Manager Joe recently spotted this bag of yard trim at a curb.

The trimmed branches were very neatly and carefully bundled in a paper yard trim bag, per our specifications.

Each piece was less than 4 inches in diameter, meeting another of our yard trim requirements.

But, oh, the length! These elegant branches were easily 12 to 15 feet long, well in excess of our 4-foot length limit for yard trim.

Unlike the trucks used by tree companies, those used by our contractors for yard trim collections do not have chippers. Therefore, branches residents set out for yard trim must be able to fit into the truck hopper as-is.

To help collection crews be able to take the branches you set out at the curb for them, please prepare branches to meet all of our requirements.

See our detailed yard trim requirements and tips.

Have a question about preparing items for collection? We're happy to help!

How to recycle your lawn mower in Montgomery County, Maryland

Lawn mower at the Transfer Station's scrap metal drop-off.

With Spring here - finally! - the grass is growing, and... we're hearing that some of your lawn mowers are no longer fit for service.

How can you recycle your old lawn mower?

If you receive Montgomery County-provided recycling service, recycling your mower is as simple as setting it out at the curb for a scrap metal pickup. Here are the steps:

1. Submit your scrap metal pickup request online or call 311 (or 240-777-0311; TTY: 301-251-4850).
2. Empty your mower of all fuel and oil fluids. 
3. Remove batteries (if applicable).
4. Set your mower out at the curb by 7 a.m. on your recycling collection day.

Have trimmers / weed whackers or other similar lawn and garden tools? Recycle them the same way as lawn mowers. Unfortunately, we cannot accept riding mowers in our curbside collection program.

To check whether you have County-provided recycling service, use our Collection Day Lookup.

Thanks to Transfer Station staffer Andy for the photo!

See more information about scrap metal recycling in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Poolesville Beauty Spot closed, Sunday, April 20, 2014

This weekend's schedule for the Poolesville Beauty Spot is:

• Saturday, April 19, 2014: open with normal hours, 7:00 am to 1:00 pm.
• Sunday, April 20, 2014: closed

The Shady Grove Transfer Station and Processing Facility will be open with normal hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

Operating Status for March 17, 2014

Sign up for our operating status updates by email or text message.

Because of snow, Montgomery County-provided recycling and trash collections begin at 10 a.m. today, March 17, 2014. If a street is not passable today, the crew will service it on Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

Where there are snow banks and parked cars, please place your bins, cans, and carts so that crews see them easily from the street.

If you have any questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please call the Montgomery County Customer Service Center at 311 (out-of-County: 240-777-0311, TTY: 301-251-4850).

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, our schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

Do you have a fire hydrant near your home? Please help our Fire and Rescue colleagues by taking a few moments to clear the hydrant of snow.

Check out our spring cleaning resources

Are you as ready to move on from this past winter as we are? Welcome, Spring!

Spring cleaning, on the other hand, may be less exciting. We have resources to ease the process for you. Here are some ideas for reusing, recycling, and discarding things you may no longer need.

Keep our "How to recycle/dispose..." tool bookmarked on your mobile device. Put keywords into this app-like feature to quickly find answers about what to put where.

Medications

The next Prescription Drug Take Back Day is scheduled for April 26, 2014. Area locations have not yet been announced, but you can already put a save-the-date note in your calendar now. We’ll be posting updates as we get them. Or, use our instructions for disposing of medicine in your trash.

Cleaners, pesticide, herbicides, and other home and garden chemicals

Our Household Hazardous Waste drop-off at the Shady Grove Transfer Station is open daily.

Wondering whether something needs hazardous waste disposal? Hazardous materials have these properties:

• reactive
• ignitable
• combustible
• toxic, and/or
• corrosive

Items in usable condition

Maybe you have unwanted or unneeded items that are still in usable condition. Hop over to our Use It Again Guide for referrals to organizations that would be happy to receive your clothing, household goods, furniture, and more.

To check an item's condition, ask yourself whether you'd give it to a friend.

Confidential papers

We are offering several community paper shredding events again this season.We will update our calendar as dates and locations are confirmed.

Large metal items

If you receive Montgomery County-provided recycling service, call on our curbside scrap metal collection program for pickups of large metal items, such as appliances, grills, lawnmowers, etc. Simply request the collection, and get your metal items out to the curb by 7 a.m. on your collection day. We'll take care of the rest.

Yard clean-ups

Our yard trim collections for leaves, grass, and brush are year-round. Bag or bundle those branches snapped off by ice and snow, and we'll turn them into mulch.
We also have instructions for handling oversize yard trim that's too large for our curbside collections.

Trash

If you receive County-provided trash service, you may request up to 5 bulk trash pickups from us per calendar year. If you place your request online, you can even clean right up until the last minute (well, up to midnight) before submitting it.

Have an item we didn't address? Ask us about it in the comments.

Happy Spring!

Recycling/Trash collections slide one day during week of March 3, 2014

Sign up for our operating status updates by email or text message.

Because of today's snow, all Montgomery County-provided recycling and trash collections will slide this week, and be one day later than normal.

We expect snowy and icy road conditions tomorrow morning, so our trucks may run a bit behind their normal schedule. If a street is not passable in the morning, the crew will attempt it again at the end of the day. Streets remaining unplowed by late Tuesday will be serviced first-thing on Wednesday morning. By the end of the day on Wednesday, we expect all Monday and Tuesday routes to be complete.

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

UPDATE: The Shady Grove Transfer Station plans to open at 7 a.m. tomorrow. If treatments are needed for overnight icing, minor delays are possible.

If your collection day is	Your collection day this week is
Monday	Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Tuesday	Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Wednesday	Thursday, March 6, 2014
Thursday	Friday, March 7, 2014
Friday	Saturday, March 8, 2014

If you have any questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please call the Montgomery County Customer Service Center at 311 (out-of-County: 240-777-0311, TTY: 301-251-4850).

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, our schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

Do you have a fire hydrant near your home? Please help our Fire and Rescue colleagues by taking a few moments to clear the hydrant of snow.

Operating status for Monday, March 3, 2014

Montgomery County-provided recycling and trash service has been cancelled for Monday, March 3, 2014, due to weather. We will determine and announce a slide schedule for the week as soon as possible.

The Shady Grove Transfer Station and the Recycling Center will be completely closed.

If you have any questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please call the Montgomery County Customer Service Center at 311 (out-of-County: 240-777-0311, TTY: 301-251-4850).

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, our schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

February 15-17, 2014 - Transfer Station, Beauty Spot, and Recycling Center status

Facility locations, hours, and other details

Saturday, February 15, and Sunday, February 16, 2014

• The Shady Grove Transfer Station and public recycling and trash drop-off areas will be open with normal hours.
• The Poolesville Beauty Spot will be open with normal hours.

Monday, February 17, 2014, Presidents Day Holiday

• The Shady Grove Transfer Station scales and public recycling and trash drop-off areas will be open with normal hours.
• The Recycling Center scales will be closed.
• The administrative offices of the Shady Grove Transfer Station and Recycling Center will be closed.

February 14, 2014 - collections cancelled, due to snow

Montgomery County-provided recycling and trash collections have been cancelled for Friday, February 14, 2014. The Shady Grove Transfer Station will be open with normal hours.

Although snow crews are working very hard to clear our streets, many residential neighborhoods have not been plowed. For the safety of our residents and our collectors, we will not “slide” Thursday and Friday’s schedule through the weekend. There will be no trash or recycling collection on Saturday and Sunday.

If you had paper recycling cart repairs or pickups scheduled for February 13 or 14, we will make those on February 18 and 19, 2014.

Monday, February 17, 2014, is Presidents Day, a Montgomery County holiday, so no collection services will be provided that day. That week's schedule remains as we previously announced:

If your collection day is	Your collection day this week is
Monday	Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Tuesday	Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Wednesday	Thursday, February 20, 2014
Thursday	Friday, February 21, 2014
Friday	Saturday, February 22, 2014

If you have any questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please call the Montgomery County Customer Service Center at 311 (out-of-County: 240-777-0311, TTY: 301-251-4850).

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, our schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

Do you have a fire hydrant near your home? Please help our Fire and Rescue colleagues by taking a few moments to clear the hydrant of snow.

Presidents Day 2014 - modified recycling and trash collection schedule

Sign up for our Holiday Reminder email and text messages

Monday, February 17, 2014 - Presidents Day - is a recycling and trash collection holiday. After the holiday, all County-provided recycling and trash collections will slide, and be one day later than normal.

If your collection day is	Your collection day this week is
Monday	Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Tuesday	Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Wednesday	Thursday, February 20, 2014
Thursday	Friday, February 21, 2014
Friday	Saturday, February 22, 2014

If you have questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please call the Montgomery County Customer Service Center (MC311) at 311 (out-of-County: 240-777-0311, TTY: 301-251-4850).

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, our schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

To add our recycling/trash collection schedule changes directly to your electronic calendar, subscribe to this link.

Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station

Transfer Station location, hours and other details

• Monday, February 17, 2014: Facility open with normal hours. Administrative offices closed.

Poolesville Beauty Spot

Beauty Spot location, hours and other details

• Saturday, February 15, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Sunday, February 16, 2014: Open with normal hours.

New printable holiday calendars

Want a recycling and trash holiday calendar customized to your regular day for County-provided collections? Try our newest calendar format! Download the version for your regular collection day:

• Monday calendar
• Tuesday calendar
• Wednesday calendar
• Thursday calendar
• Friday calendar

All of these by-collection-day calendars are also available on our Holiday page.

What other information or resources would you like on our website? We welcome your comments and suggestions.

Paper shredding in Spring 2014

The first paper shredding event in our Spring 2014 series is

Saturday, April 5, 2014 at
Sherwood High School
300 Olney-Sandy Spring Road,
Sandy Spring, MD 20860
get directions via Google Maps

Event time: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. - add this event to your calendar

This event is free of charge, open to all residents, and held rain or shine. No businesses, please.

It is a drive-through event and you will be asked to stay in your vehicles. For everyone’s safety, you will not be able to watch your paper being shredded.

We are scheduling additional dates and locations for Spring 2014. See details on our paper shredding page.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2014 - modified recycling and trash collection schedule

Sign up for our Holiday Reminder email and text messages

Monday, January 20, 2014 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day - is a recycling and trash collection holiday. After the holiday, all County-provided recycling and trash collections will slide, and be one day later than normal.

If your collection day is	Your collection day this week is
Monday	Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Tuesday	Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Wednesday	Thursday, January 23, 2014
Thursday	Friday, January 24, 2014
Friday	Saturday, January 25, 2014

If you have questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please call the Montgomery County Customer Service Center (MC311) at 311 (out-of-County: 240-777-0311, TTY: 301-251-4850).

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, our schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

To add our recycling/trash collection schedule changes directly to your electronic calendar, subscribe to this link.

Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station

 Transfer Station location, hours and other details

• January 20, 2014: Entire facility closed.

Poolesville Beauty Spot

Beauty Spot location, hours and other details

• Saturday, January 18, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Sunday, January 19, 2014: Open with normal hours.
 

Our new website has arrived

You saw glimpses of our new Division of Solid Waste Services website here and there over the past weeks. It is now fully-released! Thank you to all who participated in our site studies and user evaluations to date. Visit the new site - we welcome your comments:
www.montgomerycountymd.gov/solidwaste

The Department of Environmental Protection has a new site as well - take a look at
www.montgomerycountymd.gov/dep