Posts

Recy­cling

• Shred­ding, E-cycling, and Bulk Items – New Info!
• Clean­ing House Green Edition
• Every Day is “Amer­ica Recy­cles Day” in Howard County

In Howard County, recy­clables can be placed “ALL TOGETHER” in the same con­tainer. A blue cart, bin or see-through bag is all you need. This includes all recy­clable paper, plas­tic, metal cans, card­board and glass. Please empty con­tain­ers and rinse lightly, but you don’t need to remove lids, caps, labels or rings.

For exten­sive infor­ma­tion on recy­cling oppor­tu­ni­ties in Howard County, visit: www.howardcountyrecycles.org/

For a print­able chart of recy­clable items, click here.

Visit the Alpha Ridge Res­i­dents’ Con­ve­nience Cen­ter for addi­tional recy­cling out­lets such as auto bat­tery, tire and antifreeze recy­cling.  Addi­tion­ally, Howard County res­i­dents who do not receive curb­side col­lec­tion can take their recy­clables to the Resident’s Con­ve­nience Area.

Res­i­den­tial Bat­tery Recycling

Have old bat­ter­ies and don’t know what to do with them? Check HERE to see if your bat­tery is recy­clable and con­sider cus­tomer take-back pro­grams at retail stores such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, My Organic Mar­ket and Radio Shack. Visit www.rbrc.org/ (Recharge­able Bat­tery Recy­cling Cor­po­ra­tion) for details and addi­tional locations.

eCy­cling

Com­put­ers and other con­sumer elec­tron­ics are a grow­ing part of the solid waste stream. With newer, faster com­put­ers and con­sumer elec­tron­ics avail­able, County res­i­dents need out­lets to prop­erly dis­pose of their old equip­ment. Com­put­ers, tele­vi­sions and other elec­tronic equip­ment can con­tain lead, mer­cury, cad­mium and other toxic mate­ri­als, which should be dis­posed of properly.

These items also con­tain valu­able met­als such as gold, sil­ver and pal­la­dium that can be recy­cled through spe­cial programs.

You can dis­pose of your eCy­clable items at the Alpha Ridge Land­fill. Res­i­dents using the land­fill are required to show their dri­vers licenses as proof of res­i­dence in Howard County.  Visit Howard County elec­tron­ics recy­cling to find out what elec­tronic items are recy­clable and more info on other recy­cling locations.

Home Com­post­ing

Approx­i­mately 12% of the County’s land­filled trash is yard­waste. Solve the yard­waste chal­lenge in your own back­yard! Com­post­ing is a safe, nat­ural way to con­vert leaves, grass clip­pings, and veg­etable refuse into valu­able organic mat­ter, known as humus, which is rich in nutri­ents. When spread in the gar­den, humus improves soil aer­a­tion, water reten­tion and root pen­e­tra­tion.  For more details on start­ing your own com­post pile, visit the Com­post­ing page .

For infor­ma­tion on where to get a free com­post­ing instruc­tion kit and/or a free com­post bin while sup­plies last call (410) 313‑6444. Com­post bins are made from 100% recy­cled plas­tic and avail­able to Howard County res­i­dents only.

Grass­cy­cling

Leave grass clip­pings on your lawn to return nutri­ents to the soil and improve lawn qual­ity. Grass­cy­cling will not cause thatch, dam­age your lawn or spread dis­ease; in fact, lawn care pro­fes­sion­als rec­om­mend grass­cy­cling for a greener, health­ier lawn! Grass­cy­cling helps our streams and even the Chesa­peake Bay!  For more infor­ma­tion, visit this site.

Rake and Take Program

Rak­ers (res­i­dents who will rake and bag their leaves/grass) are matched with Tak­ers (peo­ple who want leaves/grass for home com­post­ing and also vol­un­teers who col­lect mate­ri­als for use at our com­post demon­stra­tion site at Alpha Ridge Land­fill). To par­tic­i­pate in this pro­gram, call the Howard County Mas­ter Gar­den­ers at (410) 313‑2707.