Spring 2015 Waltham Recycling Newsletter
Spring 2015 Waltham Recycling Newsletter
1. New 2015-2016 Recycling Calendar Available Soon
2. Rain Barrels: Reduce your Bills & Water your Garden
3. Ice Dam: Its Formation and Prevention
New 2015-2016 Recycling Calendar Available Soon!
The new 2015-2016 Waltham Recycling Calendar is coming!! The great news is that residents can now recycle Rigid Plastics! Here is the list of things you can now put in your recycling bin:
1 and 5 gallon buckets with handle attached; milk/soda crates, laundry baskets; small plastic bins (up to 5 gallon); plastic toys; landscape trays, plastic plant plots; kitty litter buckets; and children’s size rigid pools.
In addition, empty aerosol containers can also go into the recycling bin. Additional information about what and how to recycle will be on our new Recycling Calendar.
Yard Waste (YW) collection for 2015 will begin on April 6th if you have BLUE recycling bins and on April 13th if you have GRAY recycling bins. Capitol Waste Service, Inc. collects Yard Waste at the curb every other week. YW collection time alternates according to street address and the color of your recycling bins. Information about how to prepare for yard waste collection can be found on our new Recycling Calendar.
Hazardous waste collection begins in April. The Minuteman Hazardous Waste Facility in Lexington will have its first collection on Sat, April 18th. You can take all of your hazardous products directly to the Minuteman Facility between 9am – 2 pm and remember to bring proof of Waltham residency—license or Waltham bill. If you only have one item, try to reach out your neighbors and collect together with them.
Need more information? No worries! Our new Recycling Brochure will be mailed city-wide at the end of March, 2015. It will include detailed information on Recycling, Yard Waste, Trash, and Hazardous Waste disposal. Please hold onto it for reference throughout the year and post it in a convenient place such as your refrigerator. This brochure will be on our Waltham Recycling Department page under “Trash & Recycling” as well. On the website, you can also find the Waltham Disposal Index, which contains an alphabetized list of things and ways to donate, recycle, and dispose them. If you have additional questions about things such as composting, energy programs, or donations, you can find plenty of information online as well. Or you can call us, Waltham Recycling Department, at (781) 314-3391 between 8:30am - 4:30pm, we will be happy to help you with any issues!
Rain Barrels: Reduce Your Bills and Water Your Garden
Although the weather is not warm enough, spring has come! The City of Waltham is pleased to announce an opportunity for Waltham Residents to purchase the Great American Rain Barrel. The rain barrels can be purchased directly from the company at the discounted price of $79 at a savings $40 off the retail price of $119 per barrel. The great American Rain Barrel is easy to use and helps residents to conserve water, save money and reduce storm water run-off.
The rain barrel collects water under a rainspout leading from the roof of your house, collecting all the rain from your roof. It takes less than 1/8 inch of rain to fill a well situated 60 gallon Great American Rain Barrel. You can choose which port that you want to use for spigot, either the lower port to water your garden with a sprinkler hose or the upper port 14’’ above ground to use with a watering can for spot watering. It is also possible to have one barrel feed into another by connecting them with a short hose (around 3/4’’), thereby collecting twice as much rain water.
The Great American Rain Barrel is a recycled byproduct from the company’s food importing business. It stands 39’’ tall with diameter of 24’’, and it weighs 20lbs empty. The barrel comes with a hard top, wide mouth, removable lid, a screen, a plastic threaded spigot, and two 3/4’’ overflow. It is durable, versatile and safe to use. Water will not back up your downspout; the spigot can be easily replaced. The barrel is easy to install, and it can be opened and cleaned so that there is no buildup of odors.
The Great American Rain Barrel comes in three colors: Forest Green, Earth Brown, and Nantucket Gray. To take advantage of this community discount program, please visit www.greatamericanrainbarrel.com and look for “Shop Local programs” in the left sidebar. If you want to see a sample rain barrel and obtain an application form, you can come to Waltham Recycling Department at 165 Lexington Street. The purchase deadline is June 2nd before 5 pm, and the rain barrel pick-up day is Tuesday, June 9th. Barrels will be handed out at the parking lot besides the Waltham Police Department on 155 Lexington Street from 5 pm to 7 pm. If you need any additional information, the website www.greatamericanrainbarrel.com will be a great resource, or you can call The Great American Rain Barrel Company at 800-251-2352 with any concerns.
Ice Dam: Its formation and Prevention
Did your house have huge icicles under the roof during the winter? These icicles are often signs that ice dams are forming. Ice dam problems usually occur after heavy snowfall and several days of freezing temperatures, like what we had last month in Massachusetts. As shown in the picture below, ice dams form when warm air in your house rises to the roof, causing accumulated snow on a sloping roof to melt and flow down the roof until it falls to below freezing temperature air and becomes ice, typically at eaves. When the ice builds up, it forms a dam. The draining water hits the ice dam, backs up under the roof shingles, finds cracks and openings in the roofing and possibly leads to leaks through the roofing material, damaging the ceiling, walls and insulation.
Click here for an explanation of Ice Dam
In emergency situations where water flows into your house and you need to remove the ice dams, the safest choice is to hire ice dam professionals. Those roofing companies often use steam or low-pressure hot water to remove ice from your rooftop without damaging your shingles. But they tend to book fast during the winter. Some people use a roof rake to clear the snow from the first three to four feet along the roof edge immediately after it snows to prevent ice dams from forming.
The most effective way to stop ice dam problems in the long run is prevention. In theory, it is simple: “just keep the entire roof the same temperatures as the eaves”. You can do this by yourselves following three basic principles:
- Insulate the living space well to prevent conduction and convection of heat through the ceiling.
- Seal all points where warm air leaks from the living space into the spaces immediately below the roof sheathing.
- Vent the space between the insulation and the roof sheathing, so any heat that does leak through is carried away
You can find more information Here
A simpler way to get these installations is to participate in the Mass Save Home Energy Services Program. It includes a no-cost home energy assessment and no-cost targeted air sealing. Moreover, you can get 75% off the improvement costs, which means Mass Save will pay 3 times what you pay for the approved energy-saving improvements such as insulation and labor (up to $2,000 per year). Eileen Zubrowski, Recycling Coordinator, had the energy audit and insulation done in 2012. “The insulation reduced the bill considerably”, says Eileen, “and the house has become much more comfortable.”
If you think your home is a good candidate for air leakage sealing and insulation upgrades, call Mass Save at (866) 527-SAVE (7283) to schedule an appointment. If you are just renting a house, don’t worry! You can share this information with your landlords, who may be interested in the reduced rate to upgrade the building. It’s going to be a win-win program for both renters and the landlords. If you are interested in Mass Save and want to explore some of their other programs such as rebates and 0% heat loan, you can check their website and find plenty of information there.