Photo: Collection delayed a day.
The scheduled curb-side pickup of trash and recycling in Belmont will be pushed back a day due to the Patriots’ Day holiday, Monday, April 18.
As a result, those households, apartments and businesses who have their garbage cans and recycling bins emptied on Monday of this week will need to wait until tomorrow, Tuesday, to drag it to the street.
Photo: Goodbye until next year.
Today, Monday, Jan. 4th, is the day before Twelfth Night, which marks the end of the Christmas holiday (it’s the night before Epiphany, the day when the nativity story says the three wise men visited the infant Jesus), which in the past was a time of revelry and merry making.
And with the end of the holiday comes another tradition: the dumping of the family Christmas tree onto the curb.
And starting today, the Belmont Department of Public Works will collect your Christmas trees at the curb for regular trash pickup on the designated trash day during the first two full weeks of January.
For those who like to recycle, the branches can be spread over your garden plot to help protect the soil and provide some shelter for voles and chipmunks.
If you have any questions about ol‘ Tannenbaum, contact the Belmont Public Works at 617-993-2680.
Photo:
The Belmont Department of Public Works is giving Belmont residents the chance to recycle items and material hard to place in the blue/green bins.
On Saturday, Oct. 24 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the DPW’s Town Yard at 37 C Street, the DPW will take the following items from residents with ID:
Electronics: Small appliances, cell phones, iPods, cables, keyboards, hard drives. There is a $15 fee for monitors, laptops and TVs.
Bulky rigid plastic: old toys, lawn furniture, milk cartons, large water containers, buckets.
Textiles: Blankets, drapes, curtains, all sorts of clothes, sweaters, shoes.
Styrofoam: coffee cups, coolers, pipe insulation, packing blocks and “peanuts” and bubble wrap.
Eyeglasses
Books, CDs, DVDs: Up to five boxes of books, no self-made CDs or DVDs (keep your mix tapes at home).
Paper shredding: There will be a portable shredder that will destroy all you personal records.
For more information, cal 617-933-2689.
Photo: Recycling Saturday in Belmont.
This Saturday, May 9, Belmont residents will have the opportunity to recycle just about anything they could ever hope, thanks to the town and the parents at the Butler Elementary School.
• The town’s Department Public Work will have its annual Recycling Day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Town Yard, 37 C St. Residents can recycle:
They will also provide secure paper shredding with a five box limit.
In addition, children’s clothes collected will be given to the Nepalese employees at dado tea in Cambridge who are flying to Nepal to volunteer with post-earthquake relief.
Used, clean books should be donated to either the Belmont Public Library or at the Benton Library for their used books sale. Donors can take the donation as a tax deducttion.
The fees are:
One note: They accept cash or checks only.
Photo: Collection delayed a day.
The scheduled curb-side pickup of trash and recycling in Belmont will be pushed back a day due to the Patriots’ Day holiday, Monday, April 20.
As a result, those households, apartments and businesses who have their garbage cans and recycling bins emptied on Monday of this week will need to wait until tomorrow, Tuesday, to drag it to the street.
Photo: The town’s recycling policy is changing in a major way next week.
The days of throwing everything – empty cans of tuna, the Sunday New York Times newspaper, the plastic container your earphones came in, and empty craft beer bottles – into the blue or green recycling containers and having it taken away every two weeks are over.
Starting next week, there will be a right way and a wrong way to recycle in Belmont as F W Russell Sons Disposal – the town’s trash contractor – will only collect curbside recycling if it’s correctly sorted into a “dual stream.”
A dual-stream system requires paper and cardboard separated from containers such as plastic bottles and containers, glass and metal cans. Paper, cardboard and containers are banned from landfills and waste-to-facilities in Massachusetts and need to be recycled.
If not separated, the recycling will not be picked up, and scofflaws will need to drag the boxes back to the house.
(Information on how to successfully negotiate the new policy can be found on the Town’s website under the Department of Public Works Highway Division.)
So why the big change from those who already recycle?
According to Belmont’s Recycling Coordinator, Mary Beth Calnan, Somerville-based Russell was told recently by the regional collection facility its contract calls for Belmont’s recycling to be a dual stream.
Calnan said the town’s curbside recycling program began in July 1991 as a dual stream system. For some reason, the first recycling hauler, Laidlaw, didn’t enforce the system and the tradition of throwing all recycling material into the same container became the norm.
When asked how Belmont residents will react to the new rules, Calnan said residents want to do the right thing and the office has received many calls and emails about the flyers that went out in the light bills and on the Town’s web page.
“Most residents want to purchase another bin or have recycling stickers mailed to them so they can put out their recycling correctly,” she said.
“If a resident is confused or needs guidance they should contact me and I will gladly help them,” she said. Reach Calnan at 617-993-2789 or mcalnan@belmont-ma.gov
Got recyclables but they won’t fit or won’t be accepted in the blue/green recycling bins?
On Saturday, May 3, there will be a pair of location where you can dispose of non-toxic (those have to be recycled once a month in Lexington) materials in Belmont.
• From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the DPW Water Division Yard at 35 Woodland St,. residents will have the chance to recycle things like textiles, bulky-rigid plastics, Styrofoam and paper to be shredded, courtesy of the Belmont Department of Public Works.
Since the event will take place during the DPW Day celebration, residents coming only to recycle items should enter by the DPW Water Division via Woodland Street and exit via Prince Street.
Any questions about the recycle event, call 617-993-2689.