Left In Lowell

I heard back from Gunther on some of the questions posed in the yard waste/recycling post, so here are his answers:

Yard Waste always begins “the first full week of April”. This year, with the 1st falling on Tues, we decided to make it Mon 3/31… helps everybody out!

See the current Newsletter (in a mailbox near you this weekend).

Recycling 101… with OK list… and do not list:

It will be posted on the website soon.

Styrofoam is a killer… the volume to mass ratio makes it undesirable… you just can’t truck enough of it (over any distance) to make the tonnage useful. So… even though it is labeled #6 (PS) don’t put it in the recycling bins.

The “rigid plastic” #6 i.e.. clear (sometimes black ‘rigid’) take-out containers etc can be recycled!

No D&D cups, no foam egg cartons, no foam deli/fruit trays, no foam take-out containers please!

F.W. Russell just does not have the time to pick through curbside bins (they do some 5,500 addresses a day).

Any unwanted items (light bulbs, frying pans…you would be surprised by what’s in the bins) get discarded at the plant… increasing processing costs.

No plastic bags… they really mess with the mechanical sorting equipment! Take them back to the Market. Yes, they get paid for the plastic they collect. Yes, Trex is one of the companies collecting plastic bags locally.

Compost bins are on order. I’ll have both models very soon!

Rain Barrels on sale too! $55.50 (with $10 voucher from Mass DEP). Rain Barrel distribution day happens Sat Apr 19 at 220 Aiken St, the LNHP Maintenance Facility & Community Gardens Greenhouse.

So, there you have it. The polystyrene (numbered coffee cups with “PS” under the number” cannot be recycled. Think about bringing your own reusable coffee mugs to D’nD instead! And you shouldn’t need to recycle plastic bags at the grocery store, if you bring your own reusable bags (for all the great reasons I listed in the last post).

Rain barrels are awesome. I looked at the drip hoses today when I got my live mousie trap (we have a late winter refugee living in our house) and they are pretty cheap. You can install valves into the hoses to turn them on or off, and wherever you need to water plants, you install the little drip thingies. All in all, a very cool idea for turning useless water from your roof into gardening heaven!

Of course, poor Mr. Lynne hasn’t ever seen my green-thumb side even after years of marriage. What with one single pathetic house plant dragged around our apartment moves for years, nearly killed off a hundred times from lack of watering. He has no idea what sort of monster is going to be unleashed now that we own a small plot of land. Shhhh. Don’t tell him.