IIRC your property taxes here pay for garbage collection.
Recycling in Walton County
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IIRC your property taxes here pay for garbage collection.
The blue bag program IS NOT working due to the fact that most bags are being broken in the trucks at pick up. The reason the bags are hard to find, is that this program is being eliminated. I filled out a survey in the fall at the anex about this issue. Cindy Meadows' office had them too. Didn't anyone else get one??
Yes, I did one of those surveys too. And the new blue bags that are stronger (and less likely to break in the garbage trucks) are available free at various places around, including the Courthouse Annex. They are paler blue than the first batch.
I know that a couple of citizens have been working closely with all involved over many months (maybe years?) to refine and improve the system so that it does work better.
Okay, so I finished reading the entire thread. Looks like there's a lot of expertise in this group. Has anyone looked into what the county is doing with compostables (lawn, garden, landscape and food "wastes")? Given that:
1. Interest in local food self sufficiency is growing exponentially;
2. Most of us have sand rather than soil which can discourage even the most dedicated green thumbs and wannabees;
3. Adding compost is a great way to improve soil; and
4. Gardening (of the organic sort, anyway) cleans the air, builds the soil, makes oxygen and provides delicious healthy food; then
It stands to reason that there should be something in place to divert all this nutrient-rich bulk away from the landfill and into one or several composting centers. Large scale composting has been done by municipalities and private contractors for many years. Another area where all we (county?) need to do is google, ask other places how they do it, etc. Then citizens could get cheap or free compost to put in their gardens; the county could even package some of it and sell it to tourists as Walton County's own gourmet blend.
So far, from what I've been able to pick up, we do have a big chipper shredder at or near the prison/garbage sorting area, and they divert at least some of the plant material from the landfill to put through the shredder. I think that shredded material is more like mulch than compost. The trouble is, hardly anyone knows about it, and the way it's set up, you have to take a truck up there and load it yourself with a shovel, unless you're lucky enough to find someone around who can and will operate the little scooper tractor thingie (word escapes me, sorry). And I'm pretty sure they're closed on weekends, so you'd have to go up during weekday biz hours.
The food and seafood wastes from our households and restaurants is an enormous and mostly wasted source of nitrogen that I really wish we could put back into our gardens! I've talked to restaurant owners, and they say they would like to separate and recycle/compost, but the pickup service would have to be very reliable and foolproof because of pests and the stinko factor. Looks like a fine opportunity for someone to start a new gourmet compost business. Arix Zalace and Jen Kuntz (of Raw & Juicy fame) are already doing this, converting their food wastes into worm compost and worm tea, otherwise known as "brown gold."....
BTW there are ways to compost even animal products. I think it's Sweden where they have very strict regulations about household waste and composting, and every household has to compost all their own kitchen and yard wastes, including bones, fat, etc. They have systems in place where this is done even in dense urban areas at the household level....Japan also has something like this in some areas...
1. Interest in local food self sufficiency is growing exponentially;
2. Most of us have sand rather than soil which can discourage even the most dedicated green thumbs and wannabees;
3. Adding compost is a great way to improve soil; and
4. Gardening (of the organic sort, anyway) cleans the air, builds the soil, makes oxygen and provides delicious healthy food; then
It stands to reason that there should be something in place to divert all this nutrient-rich bulk away from the landfill and into one or several composting centers. Large scale composting has been done by municipalities and private contractors for many years. Another area where all we (county?) need to do is google, ask other places how they do it, etc. Then citizens could get cheap or free compost to put in their gardens; the county could even package some of it and sell it to tourists as Walton County's own gourmet blend.
So far, from what I've been able to pick up, we do have a big chipper shredder at or near the prison/garbage sorting area, and they divert at least some of the plant material from the landfill to put through the shredder. I think that shredded material is more like mulch than compost. The trouble is, hardly anyone knows about it, and the way it's set up, you have to take a truck up there and load it yourself with a shovel, unless you're lucky enough to find someone around who can and will operate the little scooper tractor thingie (word escapes me, sorry). And I'm pretty sure they're closed on weekends, so you'd have to go up during weekday biz hours.
The food and seafood wastes from our households and restaurants is an enormous and mostly wasted source of nitrogen that I really wish we could put back into our gardens! I've talked to restaurant owners, and they say they would like to separate and recycle/compost, but the pickup service would have to be very reliable and foolproof because of pests and the stinko factor. Looks like a fine opportunity for someone to start a new gourmet compost business. Arix Zalace and Jen Kuntz (of Raw & Juicy fame) are already doing this, converting their food wastes into worm compost and worm tea, otherwise known as "brown gold."....
BTW there are ways to compost even animal products. I think it's Sweden where they have very strict regulations about household waste and composting, and every household has to compost all their own kitchen and yard wastes, including bones, fat, etc. They have systems in place where this is done even in dense urban areas at the household level....Japan also has something like this in some areas...
I do a very low tech version of compost - just chuck my uncooked fruit & veggie waste into the yard, but Dwell featured a cute little composter bucket for $50. It had charcoal filters so it didn't smell.
This is one they had on their blog for city folk - not the one I was thinking of but similar:
Compact Composter - Kitchen Blog - dwell.com
This is one they had on their blog for city folk - not the one I was thinking of but similar:
Compact Composter - Kitchen Blog - dwell.com
Compost really doesn't smell that bad if you're doing it correctly. Use a 5 gallon bucket and poke holes in the bottom and lid.
Keep any meats out of your compost. Vegetable / plant matter only. That keeps it from stinkin' up the joint...
Exactly, some people think it's just a trash heap and throw all kinds of junk in there that doesn't belong.
1) It's me, so there will be a learning curve.
2) The super sniffer + bucket o' compost + small house = bad! Hence the charcoal filter!
1) It's me, so there will be a learning curve.
2) The super sniffer + bucket o' compost + small house = bad! Hence the charcoal filter!
Step one is to leave it outside. ;-)
Recycling update
I wanted to update this thread because I have been under a serious misconception for I guess years. I thought that electronic waste in Walton County was recycled. I have found out, from personal experience, that this is not the case. Last week I went to clean out my shop of old abandoned computers that people had told us to discard. We dutifully went through and removed all the hard drives so that there was no chance of personal data being compromised and then loaded them all up on my trailer and went to the landfill. 640 pounds of waste is what it ended up being. I went to the back building to find out where they stacked their electronic stuff for pickup. The guy there told me to just stack in a clear spot, seemed strange to me, but we unloaded it all in a pile for them. I asked him if that was not going to be in the way until the recycler got there and that is when I was shocked. What recycler? We are going to dig a hole and put it all in there.
So now I am on the hunt for a way to recycle stuff in the future. I have told people for years to just send their junk to the landfill and it would get recycled, now I find out that is not the case so I guess a solution is going to have to be found by the public. Anyone with any ideas, let me know. I am already on the trail of a guy in Marianna that does this stuff, just trying to find contact info.
I wanted to update this thread because I have been under a serious misconception for I guess years. I thought that electronic waste in Walton County was recycled. I have found out, from personal experience, that this is not the case. Last week I went to clean out my shop of old abandoned computers that people had told us to discard. We dutifully went through and removed all the hard drives so that there was no chance of personal data being compromised and then loaded them all up on my trailer and went to the landfill. 640 pounds of waste is what it ended up being. I went to the back building to find out where they stacked their electronic stuff for pickup. The guy there told me to just stack in a clear spot, seemed strange to me, but we unloaded it all in a pile for them. I asked him if that was not going to be in the way until the recycler got there and that is when I was shocked. What recycler? We are going to dig a hole and put it all in there.
So now I am on the hunt for a way to recycle stuff in the future. I have told people for years to just send their junk to the landfill and it would get recycled, now I find out that is not the case so I guess a solution is going to have to be found by the public. Anyone with any ideas, let me know. I am already on the trail of a guy in Marianna that does this stuff, just trying to find contact info.