If sustainability is part of your summer youth program, we can help you fill out your schedule with games, skits and presentations that make recycling, composting and reducing waste fun.

Check out our Summer Youth Programming page for more information and contact Johnny Powell, Schools and Youth Outreach Coordinator to set up a planning meeting today. He’ll come to you and provide a quality educational program with a lighter side for the summer months.

The post Summer Camp/Program Assistance Available appeared first on CSWD.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency wants your drugs … the leftover ones, that is! On Saturday, April 27, 2012, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., local constabulary will be on hand at various locations to accept your leftover prescription drugs for proper destruction. This is particularly helpful if you have leftover dangerous or addictive medications that require extra care when it comes time for their disposal. It’s free, it’s anonymous, and it’s the safest way to dispose of them.

Note: This event is NOT taking place at CSWD Drop-Off Centers or the Environmental Depot! We will not accept leftover drugs for special handling at these facilities.

Drug Take-Back Day locations:

Burlington Police Dept., 1 North Avenue
Essex Police Dept., 81 Main St., Essex Junction
Hinesburg Police Dept., 10212 Rt. 116
Richmond Police Dept., 285 Bridge St.
Shelburne Police Dept., 5420 Shelburne Rd.
South Burlington University Mall parking lot, 155 Dorset St.
Williston: Shaw’s parking lot, 71 Boxwood St.
Winooski Police Dept., 27 West Allen St.

More local sites may be found here: DEA National Drug Take-Back Day web site

The 2010 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study notes that 51 percent of those surveyed believe that most teens acquire prescription drugs from their own family’s medicine cabinets. Prevent this from happening in your home and bring your unused prescription drugs to Take Back Day for destruction.

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Join CSWD and the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) for a screening of Dirt! the Movie on Thursday, April 25th at 6:30 pm. You’ll learn about the soil that sustains our planet in this entertaining and inspirational film narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis. We’ve partnered with VYCC to host this unique movie in their historic restored barn to highlight the role that healthy soils play in our local food system. CSWD is committed to composting as a way of building up our local soils and using resources wisely. To help us make this a zero-waste event, we encourage you to bring your own cup and bowl to share some free popcorn and apple cider.

About our host, the Farm at VYCC

In the same way that composting promotes the nutrient cycle, the Farm at the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) is working towards completing the loop for a food-secure Vermont.  A full-circle food cycle takes a village. Through partnerships with local medical communities, the Farm at VYCC is training the next generation of agricultural leaders to grow and distribute food to Vermonters in need. Philanthropists, volunteers, statewide food security partners, corporate and foundation sponsors, and the medical community are all crucial parts of the circle. In 2012, the pilot year, 150 families received 12 weeks of farm fresh vegetables, pastured poultry, and nutrition education. This year, the Farm at VYCC will double its impact and serve 300 families in Chittenden and Washington counties.

Event details

When: 4/25/13, 6:30 pm-8:30 pm
What: film screening, door prize drawing for t-shirts, a free range chicken, a SoilSaver compost bin and more
Where: the VYCC West Monitor Barn, 1949 East Main Street, Richmond, Vermont 05477
Contact: Marge Keough, CSWD Community Outreach Coordinator, at (802) 872-8100 x234

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School vacation week stretches out before you. Are you looking for a great outdoor activity for older children and adults to do together? Want to learn more about soils and compost for Earth Week? We still have space on our Green Mountain Compost tours this Tuesday and Thursday.

Community Outreach Coordinator, Marge Keough, will meet you at the Edu-Shed for a look at what compost is and how bugs, microbes and worms help us make it. Then she’ll show you the giant blender, screener and earth-moving machinery that turn food scraps and yard debris into this amazing natural fertilizer. You won’t want to miss this behind-the-scenes look at how our compost is made and how you can help us save resources and build up our native soils.

Visit our tours page for more information and to register for the tour.

The post Space Still Available for Compost Facility Tours appeared first on CSWD.

April is Compost Month at CSWD!

We’re celebrating this soil-building, water-holding and plant-fertilizing wonder material with a contest at all of our Drop-Off Centers, back yard composting workshops, tours of Green Mountain Compost and at a special screening of Dirt! The Movie. Whether you choose to compost in your back yard, at a CSWD Drop-Off Center, or you keep a box of wriggling red worms to do the work, you won’t want to miss the festivities.

Schedule of events:

Drop-off Composting Challenge Kick Off

April 1-December 31st at all CSWD Drop-Off Centers

Each time you drop off food scraps at a CSWD Drop-Off Center, you get a punch on your Drop-Off Composting Challenge card. Once you get just 5 punches, you’ll win a prize and be entered into a drawing for more great prizes. The more cards you fill, the more chances you have to win! This contest runs through 2013. Ask for a card the next time you drop by any Drop-Off Center.

Free Back Yard Composting Workshops
April 15, 16, 22, 23, 5-6 pm
Location: Green Mountain Compost, 1042 Redmond Rd, Williston
Space is limited and registration is required.

Green Mountain Compost Tours
April 16, 18, 23, 25, 12-1 pm
Location: Green Mountain Compost, 1042 Redmond Rd, Williston
Space is limited and registration is required.

FREE Screening of Dirt! The Movie at the Richmond Monitor Barn
Thursday, April 25^th, 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Celebrate the soil with CSWD and the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. This special event includes a screening of Dirt! the Movie, free popcorn and cider and a drawing for great prizes including: a SoilSaver compost bin, a free range chicken, T shirts, cloth shopping bags and more. Learn more about the soil that sustains us from this funny, intelligent and inspirational movie, narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis. Please bring your own cup and bowl to help keep the event zero-waste. Contact Marge Keough, Community Outreach Coordinator, for more information.

All year ’round: SoilSavers for sale! These backyard compost bins have been flying out the door and landing in backyards all over Chittenden County, keeping food scraps out of the landfill and in use as compost. Pick one up for $47 at Green Mountain Compost.

The post April is Compost Month-Community Events appeared first on CSWD.

Vermont could gain financial benefits of $600,000 annually on the collection and management of roughly 160,000 gallons of leftover paint every year. This cost typically represents half of municipal Household Hazardous Waste budgets. CSWD supports passage of H. 262: an act relating to establishing a program for the collection and recycling of paint. This product stewardship bill reduces the role of government in paint collection and recycling and reduces the burden on taxpayers of managing the costs of disposal for leftover paint.

Update:

Paint recycling bill passes in Vermont Legislature
It has taken a full decade to get a paint stewardship bill passed in the Vermont Legislature, and Chittenden Solid Waste District’s Legislative Liaison Jen Holliday, who has had her shoulder to the wheel every inch of the way, reports that on May 14, 2013, the House gave the final approval of the bill. Now only the Governor’s signature is needed for the bill to become law.

Benefits of paint stewardship legislation in Vermont:

• Reduced government cost.
• More recycling opportunities – Fewer than 50 percent of Vermonters currently have access to latex paint collection due to lack of funding.
• Green sector jobs – Potential for expansion of paint recycling industry in Vermont.
• Less disposal, more recycling – More paint will be diverted from disposal facilities and recycled, which helps the state reach its recycling goal.
• Less waste – The industry will educate the public to buy the right amount of paint for a job and reduce waste.

The post Paint Recycling Bill Passes the Vermont Legislature appeared first on CSWD.

Vermont’s landfills were once again deprived of coffee stirrers, wine corks, cassette tapes and more thanks to the creative efforts of 43 high school students from seven Chittenden County high schools who entered CSWD’s 17th Annual Creative Reuse Showcase. The landfills’ loss was definitely our community’s gain as students and teachers “trashed” the Adam’s Farm Market with art of all shapes and sizes. In a close contest that showed remarkable practicality as well as artistry, judges awarded a table made of wine corks, PVC pipe and Christmas tree stands with the $200 Best In Show prize sponsored by NRG Systems.

The public is invited to check out Showcase entries at an open house on February 16th from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Adam’s Farm Market on Old Stage Road in Williston. You can vote for your favorite at the Open House and then at Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft  Gallery on Church Street in Burlington after March 1st. The People’s Choice Award will be announced at the Frog Hollow show closing on March 28.

Here are the 2013 winners:

Browse all images >>

Click each image to expand.

Best-In-Show: sponsored by NRG Systems ($200 cash) “Put A Cork On It”-a table made from wine corks, discarded PVC pipe and old Christmas tree stands, by Sarah Ferry and Alex Groen of South Burlington High School.

2-D Awesome Art: sponsored by Boutilier’s Art Center ($100 gift card) “Breakfast at Tape-any’s”-a portrait of Audrey Hepburn rendered in cassette tape on poster board, framed by the cassette tapes, by Sarina Cannizzaro of South Burlington High School.

3-D Awesome Art: sponsored by Burlington City Arts ($100 gift card) “Nostalgia Trip”-a steam locomotive constructed using coffee stirrers, cassette tapes, and floppy disks, by Olivia Hern of Champlain Valley Union High School.

Fabulous Fashion: sponsored by Battery Street Jeans ($100 gift card) “The Flight of the Recycled Printer Paper”-a dress stitched from fabric scraps and a Goodwill skirt, adorned with origami cranes folded from classmates’ papers and school printer scraps, by Rose Watts of Champlain Valley Union High School.

Jammin’ Junk: sponsored by Advance Music Center ($100 gift card) “Punk Rock”-an audio speaker incorporating a paper mache mask, leather scraps and a variety of broken audio and electronic waste, by Victoria Southwick of South Burlington High School.

Perfectly Practical: sponsored by The Outdoor Gear Exchange ($100 gift card) “Computer Chip Chess”-a giant chess board made from computer chips, driftwood, corks, cups, caps and other scrap, by Jack Barron and Kyra Fay of South Burlington High School.

Strongest Statement: sponsored by Bolton Valley Ski Resort (four lift tickets for 2014 season) “Ungainly Beauty”-a pelican with its prey constructed from discarded fabric, broken glass, and scrap metals by Leah Dell of Colchester High School.

Techno Totems: sponsored by ReSOURCE ($100 gift card) – “Jewel of the Computer,” jewelry made from computer data chips, circuit wires and keyboards by Jonathon Pearce and Lance Perry of Mount Mansfield Union High School.

True Trash: sponsored by Casella Waste ($100 check) “Light Bulb Terrarium,” a terrarium crafted from construction-waste plexiglass and burned out, eviscerated incandescent light bulbs, by Nash Krywka, Christopher Cobler and Spencer Dodds of Mount Mansfield Union High School.

People’s Choice: sponsored by Frog Hollow.  Come to the Open House or to Frog Hollow Gallery and vote for the artist YOU want to win the $100 gift card!

Congratulations to all the students who participated, and a big “Thank You!” to all the terrific sponsors, including Adams Farm Market in Williston for their generous donation of time and space.

The post CSWD Creative Reuse Showcase Winners Announced appeared first on CSWD.

The Chittenden Solid Waste District’s Annual Report for Fiscal year 2012 details CSWD’s efforts to fulfill its mission to provide efficient, economical, and environmentally sound management of solid waste generated by member towns and cities and their residents and businesses.

It is available for download (9.9 megs) on the About CSWD page. In an effort to conserve resources, the District does not publish hard copies of the Annual Report; however, hard copies will be made available upon request. Simply call 872-8111, email info@cswd.net, or fill out our contact form.

The post CSWD’s FY12 Annual Report available for download appeared first on CSWD.

The January 31 free community showing of Bag It: the Movie, Is your life too plastic? sponsored by CSWD and the Milton Conservation Commission will now be located in the Milton Public Library at the Milton Municipal Building. It was previously scheduled to be in the Community Room. The great news is that this means we can serve both local popcorn and local cider at this event, so bring your cup as well as your bowl!

For more information on this event, please visit the Community Events page.

The post Event Update: Bag It: the Movie Showing on Jan 31st appeared first on CSWD.

If you’re wondering what to do with that holiday tree that’s hanging out in your living room. We have many options for recycling it to recommend. Please be sure to strip off all decorations if you’d like us to recycle it, or we’ll have to charge for landfill disposal. Check our tree recycling options page for more information.

The post Christmas tree recycling is underway! appeared first on CSWD.