• According to the US Dept. of Energy, 10 incandescent strands of holiday lights running all night produces 300 pounds of carbon dioxide, vs. 30 pounds of carbon dioxide produced by LED lights.

What To Do

• Recycle your incandescent holiday lights! Home Depot stores have offered a consumer recycling program for holiday lights and may do so again. Holidayleds.com also offers free recycling.

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• There are 13 billion natural cork wine stoppers sold in the world market each year, most of which end up in the landfill.
• It takes approximately 300,000 wine corks to yield a ton of cork for recycling into a new product. (source: ReCORK by Amorim — recork.org)

What To Do

• Recycle them! The ReCork recycling program alone has recycled more than 7 million corks to date (May 2010), funneling them into a variety of applications including footwear, insulation, bulletin boards, flooring tiles, and more.
• Businesses such as restaurants can easily become a recycling drop location. See the FAQs page on ReCork.org for details on their program, and CorkReHarvest.org for information on their program.
• Area residents can drop off corks for recycling at the Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier. The Co-op takes part in a recycling program with CorkReHarvest.org.

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• Trophies are certainly important the moment they’re earned, but quickly gather dust on shelves and then end up boxed in the basement, attic, or garage.
• Trophies can be recycled and reused!

What To Do

• Contact a trophy company with a reuse and recycling program. The following are three options we’ve learned about:
  Lamb Awards & Engraving
  Total Awards & Promotions
  Creative Images

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• More than 12 million crayons are made in the U.S. every day.
• 100 new crayons weigh about 1 pound. That means that more than 120,000 pounds are produced in the U.S. alone each day — and a lot of those will end up in landfill.

What To Do

• Put together a drop box and send them to Crazy Crayons’ National Crayon Recycle Program. The program has recycled more than 53,000 pounds of crayons to date (as of May 2010). See the Web site link for mailing instructions.

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• There are over 370,000 hair salons in the U.S. and each collects about 1 pound of hair a day. Most of that goes into the waste stream. (source: matteroftrust.org)

What To Do

• Donate hair clippings as well as fur and fleece from animal grooming businesses and shearers to organizations that use the hair to make mats and booms for oil spill remediation efforts. Contact matteroftrust.org for information on their Natural Surplus collection program.

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• Lead Acid Batteries
• Waste Oil, including oil filters (unless the filters are punctured and hot drained)
• White Goods, including refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers, ranges, water heaters, dishwashers, and freezers.
• Tires
• Paint, including oil- and water-based paints (unless the water-based paint is thoroughly dried and is less than one gallon), paint thinner, paint remover, stains, and varnishes.
• Nickel Cadmium Batteries and other rechargeable batteries, used in cordless power tools, video cameras, cell phones, and personal care items (i.e. shavers).
• Mercury-Added Products, including thermostats, thermometers, manometers, barometers, and elemental mercury. In addition, any household mercury-added product that bears a label indicating it contains mercury, such as most fluorescent bulbs. Note: Flat screen TVs, flat screen monitors, and laptops also contain mercury and must not be disposed of in landfills.
• Fluorescent Lamps, including full-size and compact fluorescent bulbs, and high-intensity discharge lamps (HID) such as mercury vapor, metal halide, and sodium lamps.
• Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs), including computer monitors and televisions. (Not banned for households, although it’s recommended that they are not put in the trash; businesses are banned from landfilling CRTs. See the VT Dept. of Environmental Conservation CRT fact sheet for more information.)
• Propane Cylinders, including the 1 lb. propane torch size, 20 lb. grill size, and larger cylinders.
• Liquid waste (household liquid waste OK except septage and hazardous products; see Paint above for examples.
• Other Hazardous Waste. Contact the CVSWMD (802-229-9383 ext.106) with questions about specific wastes and for hazardous waste collection information.
• Untreated Regulated Medical Waste (RMW). Only treated RMW may be disposed and a certificate of treatment must accompany the treated RMW. RMW generated in the home is not restricted from disposal.  Contact the VT Solid Waste Program directly about this waste material: 802-241-3446

Senate bill S.77 was signed into law on April 19, 2010 by Governor Douglas. This Vermont law will regulate the collection and disposal of electronic waste and will reduce both solid waste and the financial burden it places on municipalities and citizens to cover the costs of safe disposal. This is great news! It will go into effect in July 2011. Until then, the CVSWMD will continue to charge the following fees to help cover some of the costs of e-waste recycling.

• Computer system — $10 (includes small printer)

• Television — $10; $5 for TV with 10-inch screen or smaller

• Electronic device or computer component — $5; i.e. VCR, stereo, fax machine, monitor

• Console TV or large copier — $20

• Small electronic device — $2; i.e. hand-held computer game, digital camera

Town Depots (Click on the town depot link for directions to the depot)

• Barre Town Depot – Tuesdays & Saturdays, 8am to 3:30 pm (depot phone: 479-9331) 

• Bradford Depot – Saturdays, 8am to noon (Town office: 802-222-4727)

• Calais Depot – Saturdays, 8am to noon (Town office: 802-456-8720)

• Chelsea Depot — Saturdays, 8am to 3:50pm (Town office: 802-685-4460)

• Northfield Depot – Wednesdays, 8am to noon; Saturdays, 8am to 3:30pm (depot phone: 485-6121)

• Tunbridge Depot — Saturdays, 9am to 3pm (Town office: 802-889-5521)

Facilities in the Region

• CV Transfer Station, East Montpelier (Casella)—802-479-2450

• Casella trash and recycling drop, Montpelier—802-223-7045

• Moretown Landfill – 802-244-1100

• Trash drop at All Metals, Hardwick—802-472-5100

For Scrap Metal Recycling

• All Metals, Hardwick—802-472-5100

• Bolduc Auto Salvage, Montpelier—802-223-7917

• Gates Salvage, Hardwick—802-472-5794

• King’s Salvage, Chelsea–802-685-4307

• Metal Recycling Enterprises, Waterbury—802-223-0509

Haulers
See the list of Licensed Haulers that operate in the region.

See the letter sent to CVSWMD member communities on January 21, 2010 about the need for the CVSWMD to step away from depot operations.

The CVSWMD will continue to offer all of our other programs and services to member town residents, including:
•    Hazardous waste collections for residents and small businesses
•    The Lawrence Walbridge Reuse Grant Fund to expand reuse in the local economy
•    Hauler licensing and compliance enforcement, including enforcement of the Mandatory Recycling Ordinance
•    Home food scrap diversion tools including compost bin plans, how-to booklets, and Green Cone food scrap digesters
•    School food scrap diversion program—currently reaching 20 schools
•    Business food scrap diversion program—currently reaching 57 businesses
•    Information and resources for local solid waste management via our e-newsletter for towns and Web-based tools, including our Reuse Business Database and searchable A-Z “What do I do with…” Guide
•    All of the solid waste planning and administrative requirements set forth by the state of Vermont, including the development of a 10-year Solid Waste Implementation Plan.

And starting July 1, 2010, the CVSWMD will begin to offer a variety of new services delivered directly to member communities. Stay tuned!

See the rest of the Web site for details about all CVSWMD programs and services, as well as local and regional solid waste management information.