DC EXPANDS CURBSIDE RECYCLING PROGRAM
DC Mayor Adrian Fenty has announced that the DC Department of Public Works recycling collection crews will accept an expanded list of items for recycling, especially plastics. As of October 6, residents can now recycle:
- Aerosol cans
- Milk and juice cartons
- Plastic bags, e.g., grocery bags, newspaper bags, shopping bags (Please “bag the bags” by placing all the bags into one bag.)
- Rigid plastics: plastic milk/soda crates, plastic buckets with metal handles, plastic laundry baskets, plastic lawn furniture, plastic totes, plastic drums, plastic coolers, plastic flower pots, plastic drinking cups/glasses, plastic 5-gallon water bottles, plastic pallets, plastic toys, and empty plastic garbage/recycling bins
- Wide-mouth containers: peanut butter, margarine/butter tubs, yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, whipped topping, and prescription and other medicine bottles.
For a comprehensive list of allowable items for recycling, click here.
DC HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE/E-CYCLING DROP-OFF SITES
DPW operates two weekly household hazardous waste (HHW) /e-cycling drop-off and free personal document shredding sites at the Benning Road Trash Transfer Station (3200 Benning Road, NE) and the Fort Totten Trash Transfer Station (4900 Bates Road, NE). Both are open on Saturdays, except holidays, 8 am to 3 pm. These weekly drop-off sites replace the semi-annual HHW/e-cycling collection events. Residents also can bring documents to be shredded.
If you cannot make it to either site, residents can call 311, the Mayor’s Citywide Call Center, for a bulk collection appointment.
Accepted Household Hazardous Waste includes: Leftover cleaning and gardening chemicals, small quantities of gasoline, pesticides and poisons, mercury thermometers, paint, solvents, spent batteries of all kinds, antifreeze, chemistry sets, automotive fluids, and asbestos tiles, fluorescent light bulbs, polishes, and moth balls.
Unacceptable items: Ammunition, bulk trash, wooden TV consoles, propane tanks, microwave ovens, air conditioners and other appliances, as well as radioactive or medical wastes.
Residents can also e-cycle end-of-life consumer electronics, including audio-visual equipment, televisions, VCRs, cell phones and home office equipment such as computers, computer parts, printers, photocopiers and fax machines. These machines will be broken down into their component parts (plastic, glass, toxic metals) and recycled or disposed of safely. More Info >>
Pennywise Budget Cuts
Published November 30, 2008 Political Animal , Social Commentary , Sustainable Cities 1 CommentTags: affordable housing, budget, City Council, Council, DC, district of columbia, homeless, homelessness, housing, washington dc
No one who’s ever looked for an apartment in D.C. needs to told that there’s an affordable housing problem here.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, housing is affordable if it costs no more than one-third of income. By this standard, rental costs are unaffordable for nearly two-thirds of D.C. households that rent.
In fact, a person earning the current minimum wage would have to work nearly 158 hours per week to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment here. No wonder so many people are homeless or going without basic necessities like nutritious food and medicine just to keep a roof over their heads.
The District can do something about this problem. It can put more money into its affordable housing programs. Instead, the City Council recently cut funding for two of the major programs.
But, as Marc Fischer pointed out in his Washington Post column, providing housing for homeless people costs far less than the alternatives–emergency room visits, incarceration in jails or mental hospitals, overnight shelters, rescues of people who are freezing to death.
Some members of the City Council think the affordable housing budget cuts are worth a second look. Let’s hope the whole Council sees that it is being pennywise and pound foolish.
– Kathryn