MONROE - Alternatives for the City of Monroe Spring Clean-up Days were announced Wednesday.
Public Works Director Kelly Finkenbinder and Street Department Supervisor Tom Boll released information on a series of self-supporting programs to help residents dispose of large, bulky and environmentally unsafe items in the weeks and months to come.
The exact dates of the individual pick-up and drop-off programs will be publicly announced as they approach.
Spring Clean-Up Days were a City of Monroe budget casualty last fall.
"We are trying to provide an avenue for the public to get rid of items and not send them to landfills in garbage," Finkenbinder said.
The list of programs includes the city's regular programs, such as stickers for bulky items and yard waste, which the city will pick up. Finkenbinder and Boll hope citizens will make use of these year-round programs to help eliminate stock piling waste in their garages and back yards.
Furniture, lumber and appliances without freon would qualify as bulky waste. Cost of a pick-up sticker varies with the items. A sticker for a washing machine, for instance, costs $20.
Yardwaste stickers are $2.
Newest to the list is an electronic waste drop-off/recycling program.
"E-wastes," as they are being called, include computer systems, printers, scanners, copiers, TVs, VCRs, DVD players, projectors, stereo components, cell phones and smoke detectors. The recycling program also will take all batteries except vehicle batteries. Thermostats and thermometers are being considered.
Boll expects the program to start in mid- to late-April, with drop-off points at the Street Department or at city hall. The process of how to handle the service still is being worked out, because of the wide variety of sizes and weights of the items being accepted.
Drop-off charges will vary. The cost to the city will be passed on to the public, Finkenbinder said.
The city still takes fluorescent light bulbs, for a $1.25 charge regardless of size.
The E-waste program is late in being added to the list of options, because the company servicing the city program was looking for a reliable, licensed recycler, Boll said.
The company does not export or send items to a landfill. Hazardous material, such as lead, mercury, PCBs and other metals, are identified and sent to approved material handlers. The rest of the item is broken down into individual components and materials for reuse.
"They didn't want these things being sent to someplace like China where kids would be taking them apart," he said.
Two other hard-to-dispose-of items, tires and appliances with freon, will have their own special disposal days, which have not yet been set.
Tire disposal will cost from $1.75 for passenger vehicles to $3 for truck and $6 for tractor tires.
The city is re-implementing the yard waste drop-off program, in conjunction with a local Boy Scouts project, from May through October. The program, which was started last year with favorable results, allows residents to drop off yard waste at no charge, one Saturday a month.
Residents may continue to set out extra bags of trash for $2 each, and are not limited in the amount of all recyclables in clear or blue bags they set out.
"The options are to help the public out with this situation we're in," Finkenbinder said
Spring Clean-up Days was shelved as part of city budget cuts last October, with an option of going forward with it, or with an abbreviated version of it, only if winter street maintenance didn't use its entire budget.
Fuel, road salt, health insurance and other costs put street maintenance and public works machinery and equipment budget lines over their 2 percent limit during the 2009 budget meetings. The cost of salt last fall ($120 per ton) almost tripled from the previous year ($42). All employee health insurance costs rose about 20 percent.
During the budget cuts in October 2008, the Spring Cleanup Days program was calculated to cost $50,000, over and above regular labor costs.
Public Works Director Kelly Finkenbinder and Street Department Supervisor Tom Boll released information on a series of self-supporting programs to help residents dispose of large, bulky and environmentally unsafe items in the weeks and months to come.
The exact dates of the individual pick-up and drop-off programs will be publicly announced as they approach.
Spring Clean-Up Days were a City of Monroe budget casualty last fall.
"We are trying to provide an avenue for the public to get rid of items and not send them to landfills in garbage," Finkenbinder said.
The list of programs includes the city's regular programs, such as stickers for bulky items and yard waste, which the city will pick up. Finkenbinder and Boll hope citizens will make use of these year-round programs to help eliminate stock piling waste in their garages and back yards.
Furniture, lumber and appliances without freon would qualify as bulky waste. Cost of a pick-up sticker varies with the items. A sticker for a washing machine, for instance, costs $20.
Yardwaste stickers are $2.
Newest to the list is an electronic waste drop-off/recycling program.
"E-wastes," as they are being called, include computer systems, printers, scanners, copiers, TVs, VCRs, DVD players, projectors, stereo components, cell phones and smoke detectors. The recycling program also will take all batteries except vehicle batteries. Thermostats and thermometers are being considered.
Boll expects the program to start in mid- to late-April, with drop-off points at the Street Department or at city hall. The process of how to handle the service still is being worked out, because of the wide variety of sizes and weights of the items being accepted.
Drop-off charges will vary. The cost to the city will be passed on to the public, Finkenbinder said.
The city still takes fluorescent light bulbs, for a $1.25 charge regardless of size.
The E-waste program is late in being added to the list of options, because the company servicing the city program was looking for a reliable, licensed recycler, Boll said.
The company does not export or send items to a landfill. Hazardous material, such as lead, mercury, PCBs and other metals, are identified and sent to approved material handlers. The rest of the item is broken down into individual components and materials for reuse.
"They didn't want these things being sent to someplace like China where kids would be taking them apart," he said.
Two other hard-to-dispose-of items, tires and appliances with freon, will have their own special disposal days, which have not yet been set.
Tire disposal will cost from $1.75 for passenger vehicles to $3 for truck and $6 for tractor tires.
The city is re-implementing the yard waste drop-off program, in conjunction with a local Boy Scouts project, from May through October. The program, which was started last year with favorable results, allows residents to drop off yard waste at no charge, one Saturday a month.
Residents may continue to set out extra bags of trash for $2 each, and are not limited in the amount of all recyclables in clear or blue bags they set out.
"The options are to help the public out with this situation we're in," Finkenbinder said
Spring Clean-up Days was shelved as part of city budget cuts last October, with an option of going forward with it, or with an abbreviated version of it, only if winter street maintenance didn't use its entire budget.
Fuel, road salt, health insurance and other costs put street maintenance and public works machinery and equipment budget lines over their 2 percent limit during the 2009 budget meetings. The cost of salt last fall ($120 per ton) almost tripled from the previous year ($42). All employee health insurance costs rose about 20 percent.
During the budget cuts in October 2008, the Spring Cleanup Days program was calculated to cost $50,000, over and above regular labor costs.