Do the Right Thing - Recycle, and Recycle Right!Do you know of any gray curbside recycling containers that have twigs poking up through the lid? Have you seen recycling containers that have filled garbage bags stacked up in them? Or disposable baby diapers? When recycling containers in your neighborhood are emptied, do packing peanuts scatter around the neighborhood? If you've seen any of the recycling containers above, you're seeing misused and abused recycling containers! Join us in helping these poor things! Here are some basic recycling rules to share with family and friends: All recyclables have to be in place and ready to pick up no earlier than 3:00 p.m. the day before collection and no later than 7:00 a.m. the morning of the collection day. The containers should be taken off the street before the end of the day after collection. The gray recycling toter holds recyclable household containers and paper products. They are collected, taken to a sorting facility, then sent to factories to be made into new products. For example, the soda cans recycled this week will be made into new soda cans or metal products within a few weeks! For a list of materials recyclable in Hampton's curbside recycling program, see the attached information, call Hampton's Customer Call Center at 311, Click HERE; or e-mail hccc@hampton.gov to request a digital copy. Basically, they are paper, food & beverage cans, foil, #1 and #2 plastics (look for recycling triangle with number inside it on bottom or side of container), glass bottles & jars. HCCC has refrigerator magnets to help remind your family – you can pick one up from our office. Large yard waste (branches 5 inches in diameter, 5 feet long or less) should be stacked at curbside 3 feet away from other materials that have been set out for collection. They'll be made into mulch. Small yard trimmings (sticks, twigs, weeds, leaves, and grass) should be put in clear plastic bags, fastened securely, and placed at curbside 3 feet away from other materials. They'll be made into compost. Up to five tires per week, no more than 10 tires per year, can be collected for recycling from your home. You can call 311 to make sure the collector knows your tires will be there, but you are not required to call ahead. They'll be burned at the waste-to-energy facility to make steam for NASA experiments. Large metal items, like appliances, are recycled after they are collected. Go HERE for more information about how to put them out for collection properly, or call 311. These metal appliances will be made into new steel products within weeks. If you put anything non-recyclable in the gray recycling toters, you could make our solid waste costs go up! Once the materials get to the recycling sorting facility, the garbage is sorted out and disposed of, but if we have too much garbage in our recycling, we'll have to pay the recycling company. Besides, a great deal of thought, time, and effort has gone into making Hampton's solid waste system one of the best in the Commonwealth. When people ignore the rules and put the wrong materials in our recycling collections, it causes problems and cost increases. So do a favor for the recycling containers in town – make sure everyone knows how to use them properly! If you are an apartment or condominium resident and don't have a gray curbside recycling container, you can still recycle! Just follow the recycling rules and take your recyclables to:
For more information, call 311 (727-8311 from cell phones). To register for the October 22 Tour de Trash to see our solid waste facilities in action, go HERE. |
|