Recycling

Within 10 to 20 years, all three county landfills will be filled to capacity, according to Dan Wolfe, community planner and Franklin County recycling coordinator. On Thursday night, Wolfe kicked off Renfrew Institute’s three-program series — “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Renew!” — with his lecture on “Solution to Pollution: Every Litter Bit Counts.” The programs are free to the public and are held in the Visitors Center at Renfrew Museum & Park.

The Washington County Forty West Landfill now accepts used and unused cooking oils from county residents for recycling. Commercial oils will not be accepted from restaurants or other businesses. Cooking oils may be brought to the recycling area during normal facility hours, and placed into the designated tank adjacent to the recycle lot attendant building. Any type of liquid vegetable oil may be accepted for recycling such as peanut, corn, canola, olive and safflower. Animal fats and grease will not be accepted.

scottb@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Up to 1,000 Hagerstown trash customers each will get a free 18-gallon recycling bin, the city said Monday. The city's Engineering Department will deliver the bins. Residents can have bins delivered by calling the Recycle Hagerstown line at 301-739-8577 ext. 106 and leaving their name, phone number and the address where the bin should be delivered. The bins are for voluntary mixed paper recycling, City Engineer Rodney Tissue said.

Hagerstown residents will be able to place yard waste at the curb for recycling, beginning next week. The city is starting its annual yard waste recycling pickup three weeks early because of the recent warm weather, said City Engineer Bruce Johnston. Yard waste should be placed in reusable containers or paper yard waste and leaf bags and placed at the curb after 4 p.m. on Tuesday to be picked up early Wednesday morning, officials said. The weekly pickup will run through November, Johnston said.

I have several things on my mind this week. First, I was elated to see that someone reads Leif E. Green. I got an e-mail from Herald-Mail reporter Julie Greene that a reader had called in about an earlier article I wrote about reducing the number of catalogs in your mailbox. The reader suggested instead of calling each catalog (my suggestion) to go to www.catalogchoice.org/dashboard Web site and they would remove your name from any catalog mailing list you wish. I got on the Web site to see how it works.

The Friends of the National Conservation Training Center will sponsor a cell phone recycling drive through Dec. 30 at several area places including the Ram's Den and outside room 304 of the Stutzman-Slonaker building at Shepherd University; Four Seasons Books, 116 W. German St.; collection box near lobby desk at Byrd Auditorium building at NCTC for NCTC employees and trainees only; Hillside Veterinary Clinic, 191 Augustine Ave., Charles Town, W.Va.;...

Prekindergarten students at Winter Street Elementary are learning about their community and people that help keep our community beautiful. Recently, visitors from Allied Waste volunteered their time to stop by Winter Street and show the students how their trash truck works and what happens to the trash once they take it. Students were given the opportunity to talk and ask questions about ways they can help the environment by recycling.

Two words I've never thought of putting together before are "recycling" and "fun. " But that has changed, thanks to Helen Clark and the other members of the environment committee of the Washington County Homemakers' Clubs. [cont. from lifestyle ] These women realized that most people are tired of hearing the same old things about recycling. It's a good thing to do for the environment, but it can be a chore, and it's probably not something you'd do when you're looking to have a good time.

Bicycles, electronics and metal products will be accepted for recycling April 26 at Smithsburg's annual Spring Cleanup drop-off, town officials said. Bulk trash also will be collected. The event is open only to Smithsburg residents, who must show ID as proof of residency, town clerk/treasurer Betsy Martin said. The drop-off site will be behind Smithsburg Emergency Medical Services on Maple Avenue, Martin said. Items will be accepted from 7 a.m. until the bins are full, or noon at the latest, Martin said.

Grosh's Lawn Service teamed with Washington County Recycling Coordinator Harvey Hoch and the Washington County Board of Education to hold a telephone book recycling challenge in elementary and middle schools. The top six schools received a cash donation for school supplies compliments of Grosh's Lawn Service. Schools were ranked based on their directory- per-student population ratio. In all, 6,886 phone books were recycled. The winner was Hancock Elementary School with 249 students and 1,520 books, book to student ratio of 6:1. The cash donations were as follows: o Hancock Elementary - $100 o Clear Spring Middle - $75 o Hancock Middle - $50 o Pleasant Valley Elementary - $25 o Marshall Street School - $25 o Boonsboro Elementary - $25

Boonsboro officials are notifying residents about the details of the town's new curbside recycling service as the July 2 startup date  approaches. The town has had twice-a-week trash pickup and recycling every other week, but the Boonsboro Town Council decided to use a new company that will collect trash and recyclables once a week. The new curbside recycling service offered by Apple Valley Waste will start Tuesday, July 2, and continue on Tuesdays, town officials said. The following is a look at how the change in service will work, according to town news release: Residents will now use a smaller 64-gallon container which is red with a yellow attached lid. Most of the containers that were used by Allied Waste were blue, 95-gallon containers.

Berkeley County residents are welcome to drop off unwanted liquid and powder pesticides at the Grapevine Road Recycling Center on Saturday, May 11, the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority announced recently. Limited to county residents, the event being held in conjunction with the state Department of Agriculture, will be held between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., the solid waste authority said. Items that will be accepted at the first large-scale collection event include a wide range of products used by home owners and farmers for pest control and garden applications, insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicides and aerosol cans, the Solid Waste Authority announced.

“This is for the street cleaner here in the wonderful city of Hagerstown. There is a street called Fry Avenue, and somehow he never gets down our street, for about the last three years. I'd appreciate it. And there are two sides to our street, also. It's one block, one way. I think it won't take him long to do it. We would appreciate it.” - Hagerstown “Nice articles in the paper, the opinion from The Herald-Mail. You hit it on target, with all this rhetoric we hear up here from most of the politicians in Washington County.

Cycler the recycle robot met with students at Pangborn Elementary School on Monday in the University Plaza in downtown Hagerstown for the City of Hagerstown Earth Day Celebration that featured Mayor David S. Gysberts, Barbara Ingram School for the Arts students, and other local officials. The robot, made out of recycled material, answered the students' questions about recycling. “How was recycling invented?” one student asked. “How old is the earth?” asked another student.

A state grant will allow the Washington Township (Pa.) Supervisors to purchase a baling machine for the municipal recycling center, which experienced financial losses last year largely due to repairs on the existing baler. The township recently received news that it has been awarded $205,754 from a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recycling development and implementation program. That grant will be used to purchase a new baler and related equipment, Township Manager Mike Christopher said.

Volunteer Washington County will be hosting an e-recycling program again this year as part of its MLK Day of Service and Celebration. County residents interested in participating in the program can drop off items between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday at one of the following locations: • Washington County Franklin Street Parking lot (137 W. Franklin St., Hagerstown) • Boonsboro High School • Clear Spring High School • Smithsburg High School Items that will be accepted for recycling by Horizon Goodwill include: Computers (all makes and models)

A citizens group upset with a county fee being imposed on citizens for recycling is considering civil disobedience to bring attention to their opposition to the charge. An agenda item for a meeting Thursday night of Citizens for the Protection of Washington County called for risking arrest by refusing to pay for a permit to recycle trash. Joe Lane, president of the group, said he has talked to other people who think it is wrong to force people to pay to recycle and he said civil disobedience would be a way to show how this “little hick place” views recycling.

Editor's note: As we usher out 2012 and welcome 2013, The Herald-Mail has prepared a package of year-end stories that provide short recaps of some of the top stories of the year past. These stories will be published each day through New Year's Day. Recycling Jan. 31-Present - Washington County's plan for boosting recycling in 2012 was to encourage it rather than mandate it. The Washington County Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 on Jan. 31 to promote private curbside recycling.

New recycling rules are coming to the Borough of Waynesboro for 2013, and the municipality's 4,300 Waste Management customers will be getting larger recycling bins. The borough is converting to a “single-stream” system, meaning all recyclables can be placed in the 64-gallon bins, regardless of type. Those bins will be delivered to customers the week of Jan. 7. “It's on wheels. It's relatively light,” Borough Manager Lloyd Hamberger said of the bins. On Wednesday, Hamberger talked to the Waynesboro Borough Council about the new program.

Washington County Washington County residents can recycle Christmas trees at no charge at county Solid Waste Department facilities. Clean Christmas trees, with all lights, ornaments and nails removed, will be accepted daily from Dec. 26 through Jan. 31, excluding holidays. A two-tree limit will be observed. Trees are accepted at the following locations: Forty West Landfill, one mile west of Huyett's Crossroads off U.S. 40 on Earth Care Road -   Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Greensburg Convenience Center, 13125 Bikle Road -   Tuesday to Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Hancock Convenience Center, 6502 Hess Road - Tuesday to Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Kaetzel Convenience Center, 2926 Kaetzel Road - Tuesday to Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Dargan Convenience Center, 2201 Dargan School Road - Tuesday to Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.   Wiring and lights Residential electric wiring and holiday lights will be accepted at the Forty West Landfill, the county said.