Save Time & Money on Twigs & Trash
Ever go at your yard with gusto and create an overwhelming mound of twigs and leaves? If you want to get rid of that debris with your weekly trash pick-up in Millcreek Township (Pennsylvania), you have to bundle the sticks neatly in four-foot long parcels, and you must place all of your leaves in large, clear trash bags. Well, did you know that you can line your trunk with a tarp, haul the waste over to Millfair Road, and dump it for free?
I knew that, but, I was reminded by Judy Zelina, Millcreek’s Public Services Department director, at the composting workshop I attended recently. Judy also told us about the per-bag option for Waste Management trash hauling, and I am now seriously thinking of trying both.
The Millfair Compost and Recycling Center is located on the boundary between Millcreek and Fairview, and it is a collaboration between Millcreek, Fairview, and the West County. It’s open seven days a week and accepts leaf waste, shrubbery, tree trimmings, and Christmas trees, among other items.
The Millfair facility processes all of the organic materials and then sells mulch, leaf compost, clean fill dirt, and logs at reasonable prices. It also offers wood chips for free when they are available.
Businesses and landscapers can also drop off organic loads with a permit. For example, the cost for a pick-up truck load is $10. For more info, contact the recycling coordinator at the Millcreek Municipal Building at (814) 833-1111, ext. 317.
Per Bag Trash Program
Are you living in a small household and barely filling one trash can every week? Did you know that you can save a significant amount of money each quarter by trying out the Millcreek Township Per Bag Program?
All you have to do is call Waste Management at (866) 833-1327 to transfer your account and stop in at the Millcreek Muncipal Building to pick up your green bags at $25 for a pack of five, 33-gallon bags.
If you use one bag per week, you’d spend about the same as you do for regular trash pick up, but if you can stretch it out to twice per month, you will only be spending $30 per quarter instead of around $60. You can still set out an unlimited amount of recycling every week and participate in the spring and fall leaf pickups. Judy says a lot of families like to take the per-bag project on as a challenge. And since two-thirds of all the trash a household generates per week is recyclable, it might not be a bad idea for a smaller household to try the per-bag option.
Now that we’re empty nesters at our house, it’s hardly worth wheeling the garbage can out to the curb once a week. Our garbage usually doesn’t smell, because we don’t eat meat, and we’re now composting our kitchen scraps, thanks to that workshop I told you about. If you’re worried about odor, I read recently that some people freeze their kitchen waste between garbage pickups, so that could be an option for someone who wants to try the per-bag option but is afraid of odor.
We might just give this per-bag program a try, and if we do, I’ll let you now how it goes.
More posts from the composting workshop:
RecyclErie – Too Good to Pass Up
Ann Silverthorn (Twitter: @annsilverthorn) is a versatile blogger who also writes about a wide variety of topics in numerous genres, including non-fiction, fiction, poetry, travel, and grant writing.
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