Announcing textile recycling, composting workshop and more
June 4, 2021 | By John Malter
The Household Hazardous Waste collection at Harwood Union High School last month took in tons of cleaners, chemicals, pesticides, paint and more. Photo by Gordon Miller.
Textile recycling is now operating in the Mad River Resource Management Alliance.
Folks can go to Rodney’s Rubbish Transfer Station and Redemption Center with their worn-out or unwanted clothing and household fiber items to recycle them for free.
You can bring any type of material composed of natural or synthetic fibers such as products made from wool, silk, linen, cotton, polyester, leather, vinyl, hemp and rayon. Items can be donated in any condition. They can be torn, worn, stained, missing buttons, and with broken zippers as long as they are clean, dry and odorless.
So bag up all types of clothing including outerwear and clean underwear, Halloween costumes, sports jerseys, plush toys and pet clothing. You can include footwear (in pairs), backpacks, pocketbooks, belts, gloves, ties, linens, bathrobes, sheets, blankets, towels, curtains, drapes, aprons, cloth napkins, decorative pillows (no feather pillows), comforters and throw rugs (no large area rugs).
The textile recycling collection bins are provided by Helpsy, Inc., a textile recycling company from White Plains, N.Y. There is no charge for this service.
Take your textiles for recycling to Rodney’s Rubbish on River Road in Waterbury. Hours are Wednesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (closed 12-12:30 p.m. for lunch); Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
June 12 composting workshop, truckload sale
The Mad River Resource Management Alliance will be holding its Spring Composting Workshop and a sale of composting containers on Saturday, June 12, in Waterbury.
The free workshop will be held in person in the Steele Room at the Waterbury Municipal Office from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
To participate, please send an email to John Malter at malterport@aol.com with your name, address, phone number, and email address. Note if you are interested in purchasing a Soil Saver Compost Bin or a Green Cone Solar Digester. Workshop participants may purchase these items at discounted prices: $45 for the Soil Saver bin and $140 for the Green Cone. Please register by close of business on June 10.
Currently, the workshop attendance will be capped at 25 due to COVID-19 restrictions and masks should be worn.
If you are only interested in purchasing a Soil Saver bin or Green Cone, please email to reserve one at the Truckload Sale that will be held the same day, June 12, from 1 to 2 p.m. at the old armory on Armory Avenue behind Thatcher Brook Primary School. Composter prices without attending the workshop are $52 for the bins and $150 for the Green Cones.
There will be another Composting Workshop in Waitsfield on August 7 if you can’t attend the June 12 event.
Tons of household hazardous waste collected
John Malter greets local residents at the recent Household Hazardous Waste collection event. Another is scheduled for Oct. 2. Photo by Gordon Miller.
On May 8 at Harwood Union High School, individuals from 372 households, small businesses and institutions participated in the alliance’s Spring Household Hazardous Waste Collection.
Thanks to everyone who spent the time getting rid of stuff from your garage, basement, barn, and under the kitchen sink and dropping it off for proper management and disposal.
We haven’t yet received the inventory of quantities of materials we collected but based on the number of participants, we expect that the total will exceed 10 tons. We collected a lot of pesticides with RoundUp being very common. We also collected six five-gallon containers of old Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF). These foams contain chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) which have been linked with various cancers and have recently been banned by state law.
The alliance’s Fall Household Hazardous Waste Collection is scheduled for Oct. 2 at Harwood from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
To assist with these important collections, the Mad River Resource Management Alliance recently received a Solid Waste Implementation Grant for $12,128.35 from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
The grant helps cover the cost of properly managing and disposing of household chemicals and related materials consistent with the requirements of the Vermont Materials Management Plan. This grant will cover about a quarter of the cost of disposal of these waste items in the alliance’s member communities. The collections supported by the state and local funding greatly benefit the health, safety and environment of our residents and small businesses.
John Malter is the administrator of the Mad River Resource Management Alliance which serves Waterbury, Moretown, Waitsfield, Fayston and Warren. Contact Malter with questions about any of the alliance’s programs at 244-7373 or malterport@aol.com.