When: Thursday, May 14 from 5 to 6:30 pm
Where: Hardwick Town Hall, 20 Church Street, Hardwick

The Board of Supervisors of the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District has voted to amend its solid waste implementation plan to include Vermonters Helping Vermonters (VHV) that will be located on Lot #1 on the north side of Vermont Rte 15 in the Towns of Wolcott and Hardwick. This site is situated on the Wolcott/Hardwick town lines and occupies land in both. The facility will be operated by Robert Colaceci d/b/a/ Vermonters Helping Vermonters (VHV) of Albany, Vermont.

The intent of the project is to collect waste tires from various sources including, but not limited to, retail/commercial establishments, the state of Vermont, and private locations around the state and bring them to this site for sorting and temporary storage. None of the tires are disposed of on this site. The tires that leave the site are resold for general recycling or reuse to various locations around the nation and Canada. The tires that are suitable for reuse for vehicles are sold at the site.

The project description can be viewed here.

Written comments will be accepted through 6:30 pm on Thursday, May 14, by sending them via postal mail to: CVSWMD, 137 Barre Street, Montpelier, VT 05602  Attn: TIRES
Or e-mail to: comments@cvswmd.org with the word TIRES in the subject line. Please note: If you choose to send comments by e-mail, please set your e-mail to provide an automatic notification that it was received and opened. We will not confirm receipt of written comments.

Questions?  Call 802-229-9383 ext.101

• Are you in the market for an  environmentally friendly  lawn mower?

• Are you gearing up for garden season and  thinking about  composting cones, rain barrels or a raised garden  kit?

• Do you need to unload an old television?

Neuton Mowers will be selling  battery-powered lawn mowers at heavily discounted prices–$249 for the CE 5.3 and $349 for the CE 6.3, plus VT tax.

Zero Waste Inc. will be  selling Green Cones ($72.50 each plus VT tax) that digest all household food scraps,  including meat, fish, bones and dairy.

The Central Vermont Solid Waste  Management District will be on-site to recycle old televisions for free.

And, National  Life will have rain collection barrels and raised garden bed kits assembled  by local labor for sale.

There will also be eco-friendly activities  and information available. Spend a Saturday morning learning, shopping and  helping to make your community a little greener.

There will be a special showing in the morning for school groups.  Advanced registration is required.  Funding to help with buses may be available.  Call the District School Outreach Staff for information and reservations at 229-9383 ext.101.

Everyone else is welcome to attend at 7pm. All general public attendees are asked to RSVP Online for the evening show. It

Here’s a bit about the movie and why the CVSWMD is co-sponsoring it:

What if you had to live with every scrap of trash, pollution, and waste you created? Would you find uses for the garbage of your life, or be overwhelmed by it? Find out how one family lived with every scrap of garbage they created for three months, at a special FREE screening of “Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home,” sponsored by Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District, Community for a Greater Barre, and the Barre Opera House. The school showing has been made possible by funding provided through a Vermont Agency of Natural Resources grant.

This powerful documentary skillfully and succinctly puts all the information in one place - from melting glaciers and oil slicks to our neighborhoods and into our homes - so anyone can connect the dots between our daily actions and the reactions that affect us and our planet.

The event will also feature a visit from the Greenpeace’s Rolling Sunlight solar demonstration truck. The Sunlight carries a bank of working solar panels that will power an educational activity for area school kids following an early matinee showing of the film and will store the extra power in batteries to power coffee makers and other
appliances to serve refreshments for evening showing attendees.  The Sunlight will be touring Vermont all April as part of Greenpeace’s local work to support the development of renewable energy in Vermont, and the on-time closure of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant in 2012.

The Sunlight is one of several environmental opportunities that movie-goers will be treated to as part of the screening. Environmental and other groups focused on reuse and recycling will have displays in the Opera House lobby during the showing as an opportunity for attendees to learn more about how they can make changes to diminish waste, and everyone who attends will be entered into a drawing for a variety of environmentally friendly products from area organizations and businesses, including two Green Cone food scrap digesters that allow residents to divert all food scraps from going to waste in a landfill.

Composting and recycling services will be provided by the CVSWMD. Attendees who bring their own mug get 50% off of coffee!

The CVSWMD developed a pilot program to test how the cones work in small school settings, and we found that they offer a sound option for food scrap diversion for small programs. See the project report here.

As a result, we developed a how-to booklet to help small schools, day care centers, and other small programs to decide whether Green Cones might work for them and, if so, how to choose a site, determine how many cones are needed, and develop a food scraps-to-Green Cones Program.

The booklet is called  Green Cones for Small Schools: A food scrap management option for small schools, day care centers, low-residency colleges, and more, and you can download a low resolution version for viewing/using or a high-resolution version for printing:

• Download the low res version of the Small Schools booklet (916 KB PDF) here.
• Download the print-quality version of the Small Schools booklet (4.6 MB PDF) here.

We also developed a helpful poster for reference in areas where food scrap sorting is to take place, and two versions of that poster are also available for download:

• Download the low res version of the Green Cone poster (246 KB PDF) here.

• Download the print-quality version of the Green Cone poster (3.9 MB PDF) here.

Many thanks to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources for the grant funding to develop the Small Schools Program, test the cones with this population, and produce the booklet and poster.

This CVSWMD Guide to Developing Host Town Agreements (331KB PDF) was written to help town officials and residents understand what Host Town Agreements are and how to go about developing one. We hope you find this Guide helpful.

State law allows and encourages local enforcement through judicial bureau (24 V.S.A. 2201). Here’s what your town can do to help reduce illegal burning and the associated human and environmental health risks:

1. You can choose to enforce the state statute by designating a municipal designee or designees as the statutory enforcement officer. See the Vermont State Statute 24 V.S.A. 2201 for details: Click Here.

2. You can choose to write and adopt your own ordinance. These three sample ordinances from CVSWMD member towns may offer some guidance:

• Bradford, VT ordinance
• Washington, VT ordinance
• Marshfield, VT ordinance
• Vermont League of Cities and Towns sample ordinance

Ad #2 of a six-part ad series the CVSWMD has run in area newspapers to highlight the dangers of illegal burning.

The person(s) or position(s) responsible for enforcement of the state statute or the town ordinance is selected by the town. Some towns give enforcement authority to members of the town Selectboard, the Town Health Officer, the Town Attorney, and /or the Town Constable. The process outlined in the ordinance is followed in addressing the offender and remedying the situation.

Because the District’s goal is effective reduction of illegal burning incidences, we see the adoption of a local ordinance as the best way to reach that goal. The state requires the town or solid waste district to take responsibility for enforcing the law against illegal burning.

If towns choose to leave the enforcement responsibility to the District, the goal of reducing illegal burning may not be met. With 22 geographically diverses member towns, the District simply can’t enforce against illegal burning as quickly and efficiently as an official within the town where it occurs. In addition, leaving this to District staff may require an increase in the per capita that member towns pay the District to help fund this additional service.

The District Board of Supervisors and staff are available to help you develop an effective response to illegal burning in your community.

Thank you

OR

The programs detailed in this Web site explain the programs and assistance we offer member town residents and businesses. The following links offer some of the Member Town-specific details of the commitment a member town makes when joining the District.

• CVSWMD Board of Supervisors Representation
  • Board of Supervisors (15 KB PDF)
  • Board Committees (27 KB PDF)
• Per Capita Fact Sheet (103 KB PDF)
• FY 2009 Per Capita Assessment (9 KB PDF)
• CVSWMD Services for Member Communities (44 KB PDF)

Ad #1 of a six-part ad series the CVSWMD has run in area newspapers to highlight the dangers of illegal burning.

The people who burn garbage and the families who live next door and downwind receive the most direct contact to the toxins emitted into the air they breathe. And the impact doesn’t stop there. Burning garbage pollutes the air and water and affects the people and wildlife throughout the region (see the Illegal Burning section under Resident Services for more information).

Illegal burning is a serious human and environmental health threat. The State of Vermont takes this very seriously and is requiring solid waste districts and towns to take action to enforce against it.

The CVSWMD Board of Supervisors believes that local enforcement is the most effective way to combat illegal burning. Thanks to a grant from the VT Agency of Natural Resources, CVSWMD staff and board members contacted all CVSWMD member towns about illegal burning ordinance options and to encourage the adoption of local ordinances, and member towns were asked to complete surveys detailing their town’s decision.

• Survey Results
• Ordinances — Information and Samples

During this process, several towns requested that the CVSWMD provide the template for a letter that they could send to residents who have been illegally burning trash. For towns with an approved illegal burning ordinance, or a designated enforcement officer to enforce the VT State Statute (24 VSA 2201), the following letter template can be used to notify residents of their infractions against the town ordinance and/or the state law, and the fines associated with further infractions. We hope this template letter can be used to help make enforcing against illegal burning easier for your town.

• Enforcement Letter Template