June 22, 2011:  As of June 1, residents may recycle many more plastic products than previously allowed by Westchester County.  Prior to the new regulations, only plastics marked 1, 2, or 3 were accepted at the material recovery facility in Yonkers.  Now plastics marked 1 through 7 can be recycled.  The additional numbers include such items as medicine containers, yogurt cups, shampoo bottles and even buckets and flower pots.  The caps and lids of containers are also now recyclable, as well as empty aerosol cans.

Last year, the Village of Bronxville ranked first in Westchester County in the amount of garbage we recycled (71%), just ahead of Scarsdale and Bedford.  The county-wide average was 51%, so the Village performed extremely well.

Recycling is not only about the environment, it translates into real money savings for the Village.

The "tipping fees," or the cost of dumping non-recycled garbage into landfills or burn facilities, are extremely high.  Last year $58,491.41 of your Village taxes was spent to use the burn facility in Peekskill to dispose of our garbage.

An even greater amount of our county tax dollars ($122,483.00) went to the operation of the disposal facility.  The ash dump in Cortland, NY, where the residue of the burnt garbage was stored was closed and capped due to reaching its capacity.  As a consequence, a substantial portion of the county levy actually goes toward the cost of transporting our "garbage ash" out of state.  In contrast, there is currently no "tipping fee" for recyclables and when we deliver recyclables to the material recovery facility, the MRF sells them to manufacturers and processors and the Village reaps its portion of the profits.

Using recycled materials instead of virgin materials for manufacturing saves a great deal of energy.  For example, it takes 95% less energy to make an aluminum can from recycled aluminum than it does from virgin aluminum.

Since reusing materials saves so much energy, it makes manufacturing costs cheaper and the market for recyclables lucrative, especially now that the price of oil is so high and consumer demand is robust.

An aluminum can will still be a can in 500 years if it is thrown away, but if it is recycled, it can be used to make a new can within six weeks and it can be recycled an unlimited number of times.  In contrast, our landfills are so filled with trash, that, as a nation, we have less than twenty years of capacity left.

Understanding what is recyclable and taking the initiative to separate household waste will further decrease the amount of our trash going to the burn facility and further improve our 71% recycling rate.

As a refresher, the following items may be recycled in addition to the obvious ones such as newspapers, beverage bottles, and aluminum cans.

Cereal boxes, phone books, pizza cartons, corrugated cardboard, glossy magazines and inserts, aluminum foil and trays, egg cartons, and detergent bottles, and now even the caps and lids to any tin or plastic item, can be placed in your recycling bins.

We ask that you flatten all cardboard but do not bundle with string or tape together. Please rinse all cans and bottles before placing them in your blue bin, as residue can cause recycling machines to malfunction.  Labels may remain on all items.

The following are items that cannot be accepted for recycling:  Paint or oil cans, Pyrex, plastic and Styrofoam packing materials, waxed cardboard such as milk cartons, cardboard containing any trace of food, paperback and hardcover books, clothes hangers, and uncoded plastic such as found in large toys and plastic tableware.

Only glass that has been used for packaging food or beverages may be recycled.  Lightbulbs, mirrors, and ceramic and kitchen cookware must be placed in the regular garbage.

If you have any questions as to what can be recycled, you can either call Village Hall or refer to the county website at www.Westchestergov.org.

Yard Waste:  In the same spirit of environmental stewardship, we ask that you dispose of all yard waste and grass clippings in biodegradable bags placed at curbside.  The bags allow us to pick up more frequently, eliminate the odors that emanate from grass piles on warm summer days, and most importantly, avoid clogging our sewers and drains with grass carried by rainstorms.

Even better from an environmental and economic standpoint is the concept of leaving the grass clippings on your lawn.  The Village spent almost $60,000 last year just to collect and remove yard waste.  As the clippings decompose on your lawn, they supply needed nutrients to the soil, shade the grass by keeping the roots cooler, and help to reduce moisture loss.

Grass clippings can also be used as mulch around garden plants, shrubs and trees.  By placing a clipping layer of one to two inches deep, weed growth is held down and moisture is kept in the soil.  Grass clippings of one inch or less actually decompose quite quickly and the mulching mowers owned by most landscapers do a terrific job of shredding the clippings.

Our Village Green Committee has been instrumental in promoting many of these environmental initiatives, and we will continue to work with them to find solutions to issues such as the disposal and mulching of fall leaves.

We are very proud of the Village's environmental record, but there is still much more that we can do.  Please join us in keeping the Village at the forefront of environmental stewardship.