Talking Trash

Comingling! Sounds trashy, doesn't it? Well, as it turns out, comingling can be a beautiful thing. At my house we had those unsightly, wildly messy, piles of papers by the basement door just awaiting their fate. It used to be they would pile up until we could talk one of the boys into bailing, bagging or jettisoning them down the basement stairs. On the third or sometimes fourth leg of their journey, they went for a ride to the Londonderry Transfer Station and Recycling Center. We used to bail some, bag some and toss some. Now, we comingle, as do the papers. It's a beautiful thing!

So, what can you comingle you might ask? Here's the list: office paper, fax paper, telephone books, soft cover books, posters, white and colored paper, manila folders, envelopes, junk mail, magazines, chipboard (cereal boxes/gift boxes etc.), egg cartons, brown paper bags, hardcover books with the covers removed and school paper. Keep the newspapers separate. We'll take them for bedding for farm animals. WOW! That certainly makes my job easier.

If you live in the towns of Landgrove, Londonderry, Peru, Weston or Windham, bring your comingled papers to the Transfer Station on Route 100 and if you have questions, please let me know; Esther Fishman, Recycling Coordinator, Londonderry Group, 824-3356, londonrecycle@vermontel.net

Vermont Mercury Thermostat Incentive Program

DON’T TRASH IT- CASH IT
The Londonderry Solid Waste Group will be kicking off the new Vermont Mercury Thermostat Incentive Program at their Hazardous Waste Collection Day on Saturday, May 16 from 9 am to 1 pm at Flood Brook Union School on route 11 in Londonderry. Many old thermostats contain mercury, which can harm our health and environment. If you bring your old mercury thermostats to the Hazardous Waste Collection for safe disposal, you will receive a $5 coupon which can be redeemed for, yes, that’s right, $5. To be eligible for the $5 incentive the thermostat must be whole with the cover attached and contain mercury.  Not to worry, if you can’t make it to the Hazardous Waste Collection you can bring your mercury thermostats to the Londonderry Transfer Station during their regular hours. This will be an ongoing program. If you have questions you can contact the Recycling Coordinator, Esther Fishman at 824-3356 or londonrecycle@vermontel.net. For more information about the Hazardous Waste Collection, visit the www.lononderryvt.org web site.

VHS Tapes (from Women's Day Magazine)

Now that DVDs have taken over, everyone has a pile of old VHS tapes gathering dust. To keep them out of landfills, drop them in the mail to Alternative Community Training, a nonprofit Missouri company that provides jobs to people with disabilities. Workers erase the tapes, reselling the ones that are in good shape and recycling the plastic parts of the rest. They've recycled more than 1 million tapes so far. Mail the tapes (at the cheaper USPS media mail rate) to ACT, 2200 Burlington, Columbia, MO 65202

Vermont Business Materials Exchange Gets a Face Lift

With grant from Agency of Natural Resources, new managers enhance popular business "swap" site

WATERBURY“ Vermont™s Business Materials Exchange, VBMX, just got a face lift. Using a grant from the Agency of Natural Resources, the Northeast Recycling Council, VBMX’s newest managers, have added several features that make the service easier to use.

VBMX is a free matchmaking service that connects businesses with reusable items they no longer need with others that can use those items. Businesses can find homes for, or get hold of, such items as five-gallon buckets, fabric scraps, leftover insulation, and older (yet still functioning) computers and other electronics. The service helps Vermont businesses lower their trash fees as well as their purchasing costs.

At VBMX's new website, "subscribers" scroll through the Exchange's 24 categories such as office equipment, packaging, and construction/salvage or search by county to find items available in their area. Subscribers can sign up to automatically receive new listings from designated categories, such as listings for containers or textiles and leather, or restaurant equipment.

Ultimately, it helps all of us to keep still-useful items out of Vermont's landfills, by conserving resources, reducing greenhouse gases and saving energy. Remember, energy is generated at every step of a product's lifecycle - from extracting the raw materials to manufacturing, retailing and ultimately disposal. The longer most products remain in circulation, the smaller our carbon footprint on the Earth will be.

In our current economy, such programs help Vermont businesses, nonprofits, schools and towns count their pennies. They save money on the cost of buying new items and/or not having to pay the hauling and disposal fees to throw the items away - materials that could still be useful to someone else.

You never know what you'll get on VBMX:
* Daniel Davis of CuttingEdge Industries in West Burke listed the company's cardboard baler. Ben & Jerry's saw the listing and bought the baler for its recycling program. They included some Ben & Jerry's ice cream along with the sale.
* Kim Bent, artistic director for Lost Nation Theatre in Montpelier found tables, listed by Norwich University, for its lobby; a working copy machine from Vermont Community Land Trust and a bolt of cloth from a company in Elmore.
* Mike Doran, maintenance manager of the Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Shelburne, found about 20 gallons of cleaning supplies and six phones that matched the school's phone system. He estimates the cleaning supplies saved the school $300 in purchase costs and that new phones would have cost the school from $100 to $200 each. At the same time, the donor avoided paying the disposal fees for the cleaning supplies.
* Donna Zeller of Rutland posted her business's empty candle jars and lids as a free listing. They were picked up by a woman who used them to make crafts for her school's holiday craft fair.

Post your business items available for reuse or list items your business is seeking for FREE at www.vbmx.org. Remember, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Department of Fish & Wildlife . Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation . Department of Environmental Conservation

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE