We’re throwing compost party for the entire month of May!
About this time of year, gardeners go a little crazy waiting for the weather to settle into spring so we can start digging around in the dirt. That’s why CSWD and Green Mountain Compost have declared the entire month of May as “Compost Month” (and the U.S. Composting Council has declared May 5-11 International Compost Awareness Week). CSWD is offering a roster of events to celebrate the black gold that will soon be nurturing new roots and shoots.
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GREEN MOUNTAIN COMPOST IS OPEN EVERY DAY IN MAY!
That’s right: Your favorite local compost producer is making compost, topsoil, and mulches like mad to keep up with all the eager gardeners and landscapers itching to get going on their gardens and lawns.
Get it by the trailer or the truckload (we deliver, too!) or — new this year — by the bag! We supply the bags, you shovel it in at our bag-your-own bunker.
Due to high demand, our compost, topsoil, and mulches are available only at Green Mountain Compost in Williston — the compost version of an outlet store!
Green Mountain Compost, 1042 Redmond Road, Willison. Open 8am-4pm, 7 days a week through May!
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COMPOST JAM!
We’re throwing a huge, FREE party for compost and you’re invited! We’ve got all kinds of fun for the kids, workshops and activities for adults, great munchies, live music, a cash bar, raffle prizes, great partner organizations to add to the fun, and a showing of Dirt! The Movie, which is touching, energizing, and changes how you regard the dirt underfoot that nurtures us all.
WHEN: Thursday, May 15, 3-9pm
WHERE: Main Street Landing, 60 Lake Street, Burlington
WHAT:
* 3-5 pm
– FREE kid’s activities and snacks
* 3-7pm
– FREE seed planting with the Vermont Community Garden Network, Green Mountain Compost, and High Mowing Seeds.
– FREE demos and workshops on Drop-Off Composting, for those who don’t do backyard composting, or who want to compost all they can with both a backyard system and the drop-off system.
* 4-5 pm
– FREE backyard composting workshop – learn how to compost food scraps and yard trimmings in your own backyard.
* 5-7 pm
– FREE, live music by Phineas Gage.
– FREE munchies by Have Your ‘Cake Catering
– Cash bar
* 7-8:30
– FREE showing of Dirt! The Movie: We guarantee that however you feel now about the thin crust that sustains us, you will feel differently about it when you emerge from “Dirt! The Movie.” It’s funny and profound, and one of those rare documentaries that educates, energizes, and leaves you feeling good about what you can do in your daily life to be a better Earthling. “Dirt! The Movie” is an insightful, timely, and amazingly touching film, and features the famous “I Will Be A Hummingbird” sequence with Wangari Maathai.
* 8:30-8:45
– Drawing for FREE raffle prizes
Special thanks to our sponsors/partners: Main Street Landing, Seventh Generation, Have Your ‘Cake Catering, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Green Mountain Compost, Phineas Gage, Vermont Community Garden Network and YAkItToMe Mobile BBQ!!!
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FREE PUBLIC TOUR & START-YOUR-OWN-SEEDS AT GREEN MOUNTAIN COMPOST
See how compost is made from food scraps and yard trimmings, followed by a chance to start some seeds for your own garden using Green Mountain Compost Seed Starter Mix and High Mowing seeds.
WHEN:Thursday, May 8, 1-2 p.m.
THE FINE PRINT:
– Online registration is required.
– Space is limited, so please sign up early with this online registration form.
– Participants must be at least 10 years old and adhere to requirements noted on the registration page. Note: Tours are conducted partially outside, take place regardless of the weather.
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FREE BACKYARD COMPOSTING WORKSHOPS AT GREEN MOUNTAIN COMPOST
It’s easy to compost food scraps in your backyard — when you know a few simple tips and tricks to befriend the forces of nature that make it all happen. CSWD’s Backyard Composting Guru and Community Outreach Coordinator Marge Keough will show you how to get started and keep it going!
WHEN: 2 options: Monday, May 12 or Monday, May 19, both 5pm – 6pm
WHERE: Green Mountain Compost (1042 Redmond Road, Williston)
COST: It’s FREE! You’ll even receive a free compost collection pail and bucket and lots of info, support, and compost-camaradarie.
THE FINE PRINT:
– Online registration is required: Click here for May 12 or click here for May 19.
– Space is limited and these are popular classes, so please sign up early with this online registration form. Note: Tours are conducted partially outside, take place regardless of the weather.
Volunteer for a Day in the Dirt on Saturday, May 3
Expand your efforts on Green Up Day and volunteer some dirt-diggin’ time at the Second Annual Vermont Community Gardens Network Day in the Dirt! Ten teams of volunteers will pitch in at community and school garden sites all over the city of Burlington to give the gardens a spring boost and raise funds for the Vermont Community Garden Network, which provides technical assistance, training, resources, and grants for garden groups in Burlington and around the state.
Afterwards, celebrate a successful day with a delicious lunch at the Intervale Center.
WHEN & WHAT: Saturday, May 3, 9am – noon in Burlington, rain or shine! Teams meet at garden sites at 9am, work on projects until noon, then gather at the Intervale Center for a garden celebration and lunch from noon-1:30pm. Friends and family are encouraged to join us for lunch and prizes ($5 suggested donation for non-Day-in-the-Dirt! participants.)
EXTRAS: Free T-shirts, garden celebration, lunch, and prizes.
SIGN UP A TEAM: Businesses can sponsor a team of employees or community members to work on one of the 10 garden projects and groups can sign up as a team. Sign up your team by calling the Vermont Community Garden Network at 802-861-4769.
VOLUNTEER: Join us! Individual volunteers are encouraged to raise pledges for their Day in the Dirt! Call the Vermont Community Garden Network at 802-861-4769.
Release your inner Waste Warrior with CSWD
Are you a rampant recycler? Do you carry your banana peel home when you can’t find a compost bin? Are you on a mission to reduce waste and spread good fun in the process?
Then we want you! We’re looking for friendly, enthusiastic, volunteer Waste Warriors to spread our waste reduction mission at Chittenden County events.
Responsibilities could include helping event attendees know what goes where at a recycling/compost/trash station. Or maybe you’ll staff a booth at an event and hand out information to passers-by. Or you might even create your own spectacle to draw attention to reducing, reusing, recycling, and composting. There are endless ways a CSWD Waste Warrior can pitch in!
Your Waste Warrior opportunity starts NOW — well, on May 25th at the always rockin’ KeyBank Vermont City Marathon. Here’s a great opportunity to cheer for your friends and neighbors AND help make this event as green as it can be.
If you volunteer as a CSWD Waste Warrior, you get special training, a Waste Warrior team bandanna, and that special feeling that comes with helping your community become a cleaner, greener place.
CONTACT John Powell: jpowell@cswd.net for more information on becoming a CSWD Waste Warrior for the marathon and/or future events.
Burlingtonians! Are you moving out of your residence? This SMOP’s for you!
Whether you’re moving out or you just want a little more elbow room, the 14th Annual Spring Move Out Project (SMOP) is the place for unloading unwanted (but still usable) household goods — and the place for those who could use them to take them home. Bring your clothing, books, household items, furniture, and non-perishable food items down to this giant, community swap event. Leftovers will be donated to local charities and reuse stores.
WHEN: Thursday, May 22, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
WHERE: Two locations in Burlington: Loomis Street and Buell Street at South Union
Items in good condition can be dropped off for FREE. There is a cost to drop off furniture and other items that are in poor condition will be accepted for a fee at dumpsters located at each street. These dumpsters will be available only during the SMOP event. Please do not bring items banned from the landfill to SMOP, such as electronics, scrap-metal items, tires, large appliances, etc. These items are accepted at CSWD Drop-Off Centers. Fees apply to some items.
This popular street swap encourages reuse, recycling and overall better management of unwanted items resulting from students moving out at the end of the school year. SMOP partners include CSWD, City of Burlington, University of Vermont, Champlain College, ReSOURCE, Burlington neighborhood groups and landlords, Casella Waste Services, and Myers Containers.
For more information, contact UVM at 656-1103 or the CSWD Hotline at 872-8111.
May Day marks a fresh start for paint recycling
In 2013, Vermont became the fourth state to pass product stewardship legislation for paint. That means more convenience for you when you want to get rid of leftover paint!
Manufacturers have created a nonprofit organization called PaintCare to manage the collection and recycling of leftover paint in our fair state. They will set up convenient locations for paint collection and recycling throughout the state in hardware and home-improvement stores and paint retailers. CSWD’s Environmental Depot, will continue to accept paint only from Chittenden County businesses and residents, and we’ll still be reblending high-quality leftovers into Local Color, a low-cost paint with a premium pedigree.
Besides providing convenient drop-off locations for paint users, the PaintCare program enables CSWD, as well as the rest of the state, to collect more types of paint. The cost for the program is paid for by the addition of a small fee when paint is purchased. That way, all those who use paint and need an option for disposal are chipping in to make sure there is a system in place to meet their needs.
Vermont’s PaintCare program begins May 1. You can find out more about the program and locations near you for dropping off your paint by visiting the PaintCare website or CSWD’s PaintCare information page.
CSWD wins Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence
For the fifth time in 16 years, the Chittenden Solid Waste District will be one of the recipients of the annual Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence. The District is being recognized for its “comprehensive and multi-faceted waste reduction education programs serving a quarter of the state’s population, and achieving solid waste diversion and reduction numbers that lead state efforts.”
The District will accept the award, along with 20 other recipients, in a ceremony at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 14, at the Davis Center at the University of Vermont, following the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility annual spring conference.
In partnership with the private sector, CSWD provides a comprehensive waste management system, including recycling and composting facilities, for everyone who lives, works, and plays in Chittenden County. CSWD has also developed a number of tools and programs that help its members change their relationship with waste and, therefore, their impact on the environment.
The Chittenden Solid Waste District by the numbers:
– District members include 160,000 residents in 63,000 households, and 6,500 businesses with 98,500 employees.
– Chittenden County saw its highest daily disposal rate in 2005, when members threw an average of 3.76 pounds of waste per capita per day into the landfill. In 2013, residents and businesses lowered that number to 3.08. The statewide rate was 3.62 pounds.
– CSWD members currently keep about 45% of what they no longer need out of the landfill by recycling, composting, reusing, or otherwise diverting material to other uses. The statewide rate is about 35%.
– District members keep an estimated 68% of mandatory recyclables out of the landfill, compared to an estimated 48% statewide rate.
– In 2013, nearly 6,000 students and 300 businesses, institutions, and residential complexes, were directly supported with CSWD educational programs and technical assistance.
– In 2013, staff distributed close to 10,000 recycling containers, food-scrap composting containers, worm bins, and backyard compost bins.
-Unique visitors to CSWD’s website jumped from 30,000 in 2011 to 71,000 in 2013.
“Having access to wide-ranging, convenient programs and services does not guarantee participation,” remarked Nancy Plunkett, CSWD’s Waste Reduction Manager. “Robust education and continuing education programs are critical to maximizing waste reduction and diversion from disposal. Reduction and diversion decrease the use of virgin resources, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution, and the need for expensive landfill space in Vermont. The focus of CSWD’s education programs is to assist members in developing waste reduction habits and infrastructure at home, work, school, and play.”
Environmental excellence awards have been given since 1993 to recognize efforts and actions of Vermonters to conserve and protect natural resources, prevent pollution, and promote environmental sustainability. To date, more than 200 efforts have been recognized.
“These projects contribute significantly to Vermont’s environmental quality and encourage others to take similar actions to protect our resources,” said Deb Markowitz, Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. “They demonstrate the importance of innovation and partnerships in enhancing and sustaining Vermont’s environmental quality.”
Follow the flow of water on Water Quality Day
Do you know what happens to water after it swirls down the drain? In Vermont, 90 publicly owned treatment plants transform billions of gallons of wastewater a year from residences, businesses, and stormwater systems into clean, safe water. Even those with septic systems are part of the process, as their septage is usually transported to treatment plants.
To celebrate the work that water treatment plants perform 24/7/365 (yep, that’s every hour of every day, all year long!), participating wastewater treatment plants throughout the state are taking part in the First Annual Water Quality Day to provide an interesting way for citizens to learn about this essential part of modern society. Visitors will witness the path wastewater takes from the sewer pipe to discharge of clean water and treated, recyclable material.
Wastewater treatment is a biological process driven by trillions of microbes that clean water naturally, making it safe for the environment. It is a process designed to work every day, all day, to keep Vermont clean. Participating plants will offer free tours, refreshments, colorful “Water Recycles” posters, and more.
WHAT: Water Quality Day
WHEN: Friday, May 23, 9am – 2pm
WHERE: A wastewater treatment plant near you! Visit GMWEA for a list of participating plants.
Water Quality Day is sponsored by GMWEA, the Chittenden Solid Waste District, North East Biosolids and Residuals Association, and participating treatment plants.
For more information on Water Quality Day, contact Lisa Goodell at 802-229-9111 or Ned Beecher at 603-323-7654.
The latest twist on recycling
From the “If we each do a little we can all do a lot” department, enter the humble twist tie. Up until now, the best option for keeping twist ties with metal cores out of the landfill was to toss them into the scrap-metal bin at any CSWD Drop-Off Center.
Now there’s a way to keep them in use longer before recycling them: Bring them to Ribbon Recyclers in Williston and they’ll use them to tie up all the cords and cables that people bring in for reuse. The specifications are pretty simple:
– New or clean (no rust or mold)
– The longer the better
Drop them off at Ribbon Recyclers, 185 Commerce Street, Williston (call for drop-off times — they’re often out picking up material for recycling). They’re happy to pick them up if you have other materials for them to recycle, reuse, or repair (see Vermont’s e-cycle list for a run-down on what he accepts). Give Ribbon Recyclers a call if you need more information at 802-660-8960.
CSWD Calendar
Visit our website for the full CSWD calendar
Sunday, April 27 – Sunday, May 4: Take part in 7 Days’ Vermont Restaurant Week and visit participating restaurants that keep food out of the landfill by donating leftovers and composting food scraps!
Saturday, May 3: It’s Green Up Day! It’s Day in the Dirt Day (see story above)!
Thursday, May 8: Tour Green Mountain Compost! (see story above)
Saturday, May 10: Visit the CSWD booth at Kids Day in Battery Park, Burlington.
Monday, May 12 and May 19: Backyard composting workshop at Green Mountain Compost (see story above)
Thursday, May 15: CompostJAM at Main Street Landing (see story above)
Monday, May 26: In observance of Memorial Day, all CSWD facilities except Green Mountain Compost will be closed. Green Mountain Compost will be open 8-4 on Monday. All facilities will be open regular hours Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday.