Recycling

“Picked up the paper, and the big article there about wanting to build the stadium, and the picture and all that jazz, and I got back to the sports page, and here's a ball player standing there with a bat on his shoulder, who just got a million-dollar contract for one year. Now you tell me why the taxpayers have to pay for a stadium.” - Hagerstown “President Obama several years ago signed into law the extension of the Bush tax cuts. So I don't know how Mitt Romney can say that Obama is a president who increased taxes by the highest of any president ever in American history.

Waynesboro Borough Manager Lloyd Hamberger is reminding borough residents that yard waste - tree trimmings, hedge trimmings, brush and similar items - will not be collected on a weekly basis. Yard waste will be collected every other week - on opposite weeks of recycling collection. Tree trimmings, hedge trimmings, brush and similar items must be tied in bundles not exceeding four feet in length and 50 pounds in weight, or placed in a container not larger than 32 gallons, separate from other refuse.

Allied Waste's opt-out curbside recycling program for Washington County will cost $5 a month and begin the week of June 4, a company manager said Monday. The program, which Washington County agreed to help promote, will pick up comingled recyclables every other week from all homes in several of the most populated unincorporated areas of the county, except those households that opt out of the program. The first notices to included homes are expected to arrive in mailboxes around May 1, Allied Waste Chesapeake Area Municipal Manager Don Groseclose said.

Hagerstown's new recycling program gets under way later this month and includes a rewards program that allows participants to redeem points for gift certificates and coupons at national and local businesses. Residents who requested a new trash container should expect to receive them between Wednesday and April 28, city officials said in a news release. Once it arrives, people can register online for the Recyclebank program, which rewards users with points for recycling based on tonnage collected city-wide each week.

This month, Keedysville became the fifth Washington County jurisdiction to adopt curbside recycling. So we take this opportunity to congratulate the town and to offer a gentle “ahem” to the county government, which continues to struggle with the issue. Keedysville solved the problem, if a problem it be, with a simple solution: Twice-a-week trash collection was converted to one day for trash pick-up and one day for recycling. Already, the town is reporting 60 percent compliance, which indicates that the people might be more ready for recycling than their governments give them credit for. Perhaps the Boonsboro Town Council took notice of this.

The Boonsboro Town Council unanimously approved Monday night a new trash-hauling contract that includes curbside recycling, which some residents have long supported for the community. Under the contract with Allied Waste, the town will maintain twice-a-week trash pickup but will add curbside recycling every other week. Although some people commended the town for moving ahead with recycling, there was also concern about the cost of the new service. The town will use a $30,000 Nora Roberts Foundation grant to pay for the service, council member Kevin Chambers said.

Some landfill users are not happy about Washington County's plan to begin charging even permit-holders an extra $36 a year to drop off recyclables at the landfill and other staffed drop sites, but they may like the alternative even less. If the Washington County Board of Commissioners decides not to introduce that recycling sticker fee - or not to require it for landfill permit-holders - it will have to find another way to raise more than $200,000 a year to empty the recycling bins, probably by increasing other landfill fees, County Administrator Gregory B. Murray said this week.

The Funkstown Town Council voted Monday night to opt out of a private curbside recycling program in favor of allowing its residents more freedom in deciding whether they want curbside recycling and which company they want to provide the service. In January, the Washington County Commissioners voted to support a curbside recycling program presented by Allied Waste, which wants to run pilot programs in several areas in the county, including Funkstown. Don Groseclose, Chesapeake area municipal manager for Allied Waste, described the recycling program to Funkstown officials Monday night.

Development of a new recycling center in the Borough of Waynesboro could be affected by municipal fees and requirements, the company's owner said Monday. Shon Duty, president and chief executive officer of Kiamon Group Inc., presented the Waynesboro Planning Commission with a sketch plan for redevelopment of the former Lumber Yard building at 206 Madison Ave., which is off South Potomac Street. Duty has proposed opening a recycling center that would handle nonferrous materials such as aluminum, brass, nickel and copper.

Keedysville has become the fifth community in the county to offer curbside recycling, changing its weekly trash collection service to do so, according to Mayor Matt Hull. The town has gone from garbage collection twice a week to garbage collection once a week and curbside recycling once a week, at no additional cost to town residents, Hull said. Garbage is collected on Mondays and recycled materials are picked up on Thursdays, Hull said. The town's trash hauler, Apple Valley Waste, offered residents the choice of two recycling containers: a bin or a larger container with wheels, Hull said.