Oh Christmas Tree!

The holidays have come and gone so quickly! New Year’s Eve is just around the corner, and before we know it, all of our holiday cheer will be packed away once again. If you have a real Christmas tree this year, consider recycling it so it can become mulch, wood chips or compost and help future Christmas trees grow! According to the National Christmas Tree Association, there are approximately 25-30 million real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. every year. Imagine if all of those trees are recycled! Close to 350 million Christmas trees currently grow on tree farms in the U.S. alone and for every Christmas tree harvested, 1 to 3 seedlings are planted the following spring. There are more than 4,000 local Christmas tree recycling programs throughout the United States, including the following throughout southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky. Make sure your tree is free of any lights, ornaments, other decorations, nails and wire before dropping them off or setting them at the curb. If you do not live in Southwest Ohio or Northern Kentucky, check with your local solid waste district to find out how/where you can recycle your Christmas trees.

OHIO
Butler County:
City of Hamilton – Call 785-7580 for more information.
City of Fairfield – from Dec. 26-Jan. 13, Waterworks Park on Groh Land will be accepting trees. Call 867-5348 for more information.
City of Oxford – Residents may leave trees at the curb from Dec. 17 - Jan. 11. For more information, call 523-8412.
City of Monroe – Residents may leave trees at the curb on Tuesdays & Thursdays during the month of January. Call 539-7374 for more information.
West Chester Township – Residents can drop off trees at Keehner Park near the tennis courts and at Beckett Park at the entrance off of Union Centre Blvd. Call 777-8765 for more information. Mulch Plus will accept live Christmas trees for fee from Dec. 26 - Jan. 25. Call 423-8723 for more information.

City of Cincinnati:
Because there isn't a separate yard waste collection program, there won't be a special Christmas tree collection this year. Trees left at the curb will be picked up and handled as regular garbage. However, they can still be recycled. Take it to one of the Hamilton County locations, or the following location:
West Fork Solid Waste Facility (Cincinnati Residents Only) – 3320 Mill Creek Road, Cincinnati, OH 45225.This location is accessible off of Spring Grove Avenue and off Beekman Street. Open year-round, Monday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. (except holidays).

Clermont County:
Amelia – Curbside pick-up is available Tuesday, December 27, 2010 and January 3, 2011
Loveland – City residents can call Public Works Department for disposal drop off options, or call 683-0150, ext. 1439 for pick-up. Trees will be collected from December 19 through January 9.
Miami Township – Bring to either Paxton Ramsey Park or Miami Meadows for chipping. Trees can be dropped off seven days a week during daylight hours from December 26 through January 31. Call (513) 248-3728 with questions.
Milford – Christmas tree collection will be held every Wednesday in January, 2011. Place trees free of decorations and lights at the curb. If you have any questions, please call Michael Haight at (513) 831-7018.
Pierce Township – Residents may bring trees to the Pierce Township Hall any time after Christmas. The last day of drop off availability is TBD. The drop-off area will be in the parking lot closest to the ball fields and will be clearly marked.
Stonelick Township – Residents may drop trees off at the Clermont County Fairgrounds near the horse barns from December 26 – January 25. Signs will be posted. The drop off area will be roped off. Please call (513) 732-3299 with any questions.
Union Township – Residents can drop off trees behind the Service Department Complex, 4312 Glen Este-Withamsville Road. The drop-off days are January 1 through January 31. The Township will have someone at this location to assist residents Monday through Friday during this period, and the drop-off area will be clearly marked. If you have any questions, please contact the Service Department at (513) 753-2221.
Pattison Park, Clermont County Park District – County residents can drop off trees lakeside at Pattison Park, December 27 through January 15.

Hamilton County:
Saturday, January 7, and Saturday, January 14, from noon-3pm, the following sites will be open to receive holiday greenery:
East – Bzak Landscaping, 3295 Turpin Lane (off Rt. 32), Anderson Township
West – Kuliga Park, 6717 Bridgetown Road, Green Township
North – Rumpke Landfill, Struble Road and Colerain Avenue, Colerain Township
Residents can also visit the curbside collection website for more information about their specific neighborhoods.

Ohio Mulch Landscape Supply:
Any resident may drop off yard waste free of charge at any one of these five Greater Cincinnati locations during normal business hours: Mid-March thru Labor Day, Monday - Saturday 8 am - 7 pm and Sunday 10 am - 5 pm. Acceptable Material Include: Brush, Logs (Up to 12 inches in diameter and cut to 6 feet in length), prunings, branches, leaves, grass trimmings. Please no trash, sod, soil, rocks, treated lumber, railroad ties or construction debris. Note: The customer is responsible for unloading material; plastic bags are not acceptable. These Drop-Off Sites Are Sponsored by Ohio Mulch and Not Affiliated With Hamilton County. Call 513-677-2066 with questions.
• Symmes Township: 12054 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45249, (513) 677-2066
• Tri-County: 72 West Crescentville Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45246, (513) 671-8770
• Sharonville: 3739 Hauck Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45241, (513) 733-5800
• Burlington, KY: 5519 Northbend Road (Rte 237), Burlington, Ky. 41005 (859) 586-1173
• Mt. Carmel: 4065 Mt. Carmel Tobasco Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45255, (513) 528-4110
 
KENTUCKY
Boone County and the City of Florence:
Pick up service – Wednesday, January 4, 2012 between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Boone County Public Works and City of Florence Public Services will run their snow routes to pick up your Christmas tree curbside. Please have your tree set out no later than 7:00 a.m. The trees will be taken to a collection point and mulched. If their crews must run snow routes to treat roads that day, tree pickup will occur the day after the roads have been cleared.
Drop-off locations – Saturday, January 7, 2012
• Farmer’s Market on KY 18 and Camp Ernst - Drop trees off before 8:00 a.m.
• Stringtown Park (one block west of Boone County High School) - Drop trees off before 10:00 a.m.
• Ryle High School behind stadium (Union) - Drop trees off before NOON
• Walton Park near back ball field - Drop trees off before 2:00 p.m.
• Kroger parking lot at Tanner’s Station (on North Bend & Tanners) - Drop trees off before 4:00 p.m.
For more information, call Kelly Chapman with Boone County (334-3151) and Jeremy Kleier with the City of Florence (647-5416). If you would like mulch from the program please contact Kelly Chapman.

Campbell County, NKU & Cities:
The following cities will be hosting a site to collect Christmas Trees for their residences for recycling from December 26th - January 7th at the following locations:

Alexandria – 865 Gilbert Ridge Road, Alexandria Maintenance Garage (859) 635-4125
Bellevue – Colfax Avenue, Public Works Garage (859) 261-0260
Cold Springs – Public Works Storage Yard (off Weavers Lane, by Soccer Fields) (859) 441-9604
Dayton – 900 7th Street, City Garage (859) 491-1600
Ft. Thomas –Tower Park, behind the old Daycare (859) 441-1055
Highland Heights – City Building on John’s Hill Road (859) 441-8575
Newport – 1020 East 9th Street, Newport Public Works(859) 292-3686
Southgate – Place at curb for Southgate Public Works collection (859) 441-0075
Wilder – 114 Center Street, Place in front of salt storage. (859) 393-3318

Please look for signs indicating the drop-off sites. For more information, please contact your city of residence at the numbers above. All participating locations will have their trees chipped and reused by NKU for use on their campus.

Erlanger:
The drop off hours at the Public Works Facility at 3516 Jack Scheben Drive are from 7:30am-4pm, Monday-Friday starting Tuesday, December 27th through Tuesday, January 12th. Please place your trees in the designated collection area at the Public Works Facility. We ask that the trees be free of lights, ornaments, and not bagged in any manner. Trees will be mulched on Wednesday 1/11/12. If you have any questions concerning the program or would like some of the tree mulch, please contact Rick Bogard Public Works Director at rmbogard@ci.erlanger.ky.us or by phone at (859) 727-3893 or (859) 727-2525.

Backyard Compost Bin & Rain Barrel SALE!!! One Day Only!

The Hamilton County Recycling & Solid Waste District is having their annual, one day only backyard compost sale! For Hamilton County Residents only, the sale is THIS Saturday, May 14th from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. The sale will be at two locations:

Village Crossings
10400 Reading Rd.
Evendale, Ohio 45241
(Corner of Reading Rd. and Glendale-Milford Rd.)

Green Township Administration Complex
6303 Harrison Ave.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45247
(1 mile south of I-74)

The bins are in limited quantities, so get to the sale early! They are easy to assemble, and cost only $35 (typically they retail $100)! The compost bins are 33” h x 31” w. Compost turners, kitchen collection pails and compost thermometers will also be available for purchase. The popular “I heart compost” magnets will be available with a purchase of a bin or supplies, while they last.

Also this year, discount rain barrels will be available for purchase at $50, thanks to a partnership with the Metropolitan Sewer District. Join us in conserving water and diverting water from the storm water system! The rain barrel offered at this sale is 34” h x 24” w and can hold up to 55 gallons of water. Using a rain barrel to harvest rain water and reusing it outside on lawns and gardens can save a homeowner up to 1,300 gallons of water. Please note that rain barrels installed in the City of Cincinnati are required to direct rain barrel overflow back into the existing storm drain systems on the rain barrel owner’s property.

So come on out to the sale this Saturday and turn your yard into a "green" one. Supplies run out quickly, so get there early!

Yard Waste Collection Event

Hey All you Cincinnatians! One day only - blue skies and shining sun! As the skies have cleared today and the sun graces us with her presence, take the opportunity to clean out your garden beds and cut that lawn! The City of Cincinnati is having a yard waste pick up the week of May 9 only. This is a great opportunity to ensure all of that yard waste is going to a compost pile, not the landfill! The following press release has all the info you need, but if you want more visit their website.

"A special yard waste collection week for City residents has been scheduled for May 9 – 13, 2011. This one-time collection is designed to assist citizens by providing a convenient method to dispose of accumulated yard waste. During this week, citizens are encouraged to properly prepare and set out yard waste they may have on their regular garbage collection day. This special yard waste collection week does not include special items such as tires, appliances, and sofa beds. To schedule a special pickup of any of these items, please call 591-6000. Citizens can help spread the word about this one-time special collection. More details to follow regarding the long-term Yard Waste program.

When preparing yard waste:
- Brush and branches should be put into bundles no larger than 4’x2’.
- Individual tree limbs should be no larger than 6” in diameter.
- Leaves and lawn clipping should be an appropriate container such as a bag or can.
- When possible, consider composting or yard waste drop-off sites as an earth friendly alternative to disposing of yard waste with their regular garbage."

So collect and organize that yard waste, and help divert more material from enterting the landfill!

And Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Earth Month, Day #3: Stay Hydrated

Last night I was fortunate enough to see one of my favorite bands live right here in Cincinnati. I have seen Guster perform at least ten times, if not more, and every time I am impressed with the great, green messages they send their fans. For example, they have a ride board set up so you can find out who else is going to the show and would want to carpool. One tour season they fueled their tour bus with biodiesel made with french fry oil collected from local restaurants. Last night's concert featured Brita water filters, and Nalgene water bottles.



The second sign says "Americans send 38 billion water bottles a year to landfills, enough to travel from Earth to the Moon and back 10 times if laid end to end. I didn't investigate as much as I should have, since I already have a water bottle, but I am pretty sure if you signed a pledge at the concert to reduce bottled water waste, they gave you a free Nalgene water bottle.

Using refillable water bottles, rather than bottle water, is a great way to save money, reduce pollution, reduce our dependence on plastic, and could be better for your health. I always have my Kleen Kanteen with me, and love that instead of using bottled water, or even the paper cups at a restaurant, I am helping to reduce solid waste from entering the landfill, or being recycled. Resuable water bottles are made in so many different sizes, shapes, colors, but I would recommend investing in a bottle that is made out of food grade stainless steel. The water tastes better, and harmful chemicals won't leach into your refreshing water.

I drink a lot of water, and imagining how many bottles of water I would be using if I didn't have a resuable bottle breaks my heart. After a hot trip through the Gobi Desert last summer in Mongolia, I promised myself I would never take advantage of water again! And I haven't, with my trusty Kleen Kanteen by my side.

Earth Month, Day #2: No More Plastic Bags

Plastic bags are everywhere. Just count how many you see whenever you are out in your car driving. I am willing to bet you see at least 5, maybe even 10. Watch this "mockumentary" on plastic bags. Being an nature lover, this gave me a good laugh. But it is also hauntingly true, seeing where all of these plastic bags end up most likely to stay forever.



Daniel and I are try as hard as we can to eliminate plastic bags from our everyday life. The easiest way to start was to invest in a few strong, lightweight, durable, easy to clean, and very easy to use bags. We logged onto one of my favorite "green" websites, Reuseit.Com to find the best bags for us. We settled on some dual handle bags made out of 98% recycled PET. Each one of these bags saves 10 plastic bottles from going into the landfill. The dual handle makes it easier to carry different sized loads, and they are great for all different kinds of shopping. These bags are so strong and durable that they can hold up to 1.5x the volume a typical plastic bag could hold. This was our choice of bag, but invest in whatever you feel fits your lifestyle the best. I would just recommend investing in bags that will last a very long time, as opposed to the free bags that are given out at different events. These bags work for a few months, maybe even a year, but eventually start to tear and will end up in the landfill anyways.

By reducing the use of plastic bags and switching to a more reuse lifestyle, we are reducing pollution and having a better impact on wildlife and their habitats, and moving away from a use and toss culture. Check out the "learn" pages on Reuseit.Com's website, include facts on how many plastic bags are used every minute (1 million) and how many pieces of floating plastic cover every one square mile of the ocean (46,000).

It may take a little bit to remember to bring your reusable bags to the store, but once you get in the habit it becomes second nature. If you happen to forget, always remember there are many ways you can reuse the plastic or paper bags the store gives out. Once you switch from plastic grocery bags to reusable ones, you can slowly start to make other changes. These changes could include using reusable produce bags (or not using produce bags at all). Happy (green) shopping!

[Photo from Reuseit.Com]

Household Hazardous Waste

Spring is here! For many, that means spring cleaning time. In our house, we plan to open up the windows and clean every room from top to bottom. This includes clearing out cabinets, closets and drawers. With the new upgrades Daniel and I have been making to the house, we will probably have old paint, solvents, medicines and other waste that I would think twice about before throwing it in the trash. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention, the average home can accumulate as much as 100 pounds of hazardous waste. Luckily, there is a place to bring these items that will be disposed of properly! By getting rid of your household hazardous waste in an eco-friendly way, you are ensuring the safety of our waste haulers, avoiding accidental poisonings and preventing hazardous waste from being poured down the drain, which could eventually get into our clean water supply.

Residents of Hamilton County can take advantage of their Household Hazardous Drop-Off Program that runs from April 10-October 16, 2010. Participants much show proof of residency when dropping these items off.

Household hazardous waste can be dropped off at:
Clean Harbors
4879 Spring Grove Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45232
Tuesdays - 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Saturdays - 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Closed the following Saturdays: May 29, July 3, September 4

Acceptable items include:

• Pesticides/Fertilizers
• Solvents/Thinners
• Lawn/Pool Chemicals
• Cleaners
• Household/Auto Batteries
• Fire Extinguishers
• Propane Tanks
• Oil-based paint
• Mercury
• Fluorescent Bulbs
• Driveway Sealer
• Gasoline/Motor Oil
• Antifreeze
• Thermostats

Please note that latex paint is not accepted in this program. It is safe to throw away with regular trash as long as it is in solid form. Dry out the paint by mixing it with kitty litter, saw dust or sand and leave the lid off to show your waste hauler that it is dry.

Butler County Residents, your drop-off program will resume in June. Please visit Butler County Recycling and Solid Waste District for more information.

Do your part and dispose of these materials in an environmentally responsible way!

Reycling Basics

Remember learning about the 3 R's way back when? Reduce, reuse, and recycle! Those three words are still just as important, if not more important, than they were years ago when we first started hearing them. Every day, the average American throws away 4.5 lbs of garbage. Add that up over the course of a week, a month, a year, and you have a whole heck of a lot of garbage. Believe it or not, residential waste makes up 55-65% of the municipal waste stream.Thankfully, this means that consumers and households can make a significant difference in reducing our everyday waste. What's one of the easiest ways to combat all this trash? Create less of it. You can do this by consuming less, reusing more, and of course, recycling.

It's getting easier and easier to recycle these days. Check out your local solid waste district to find out how and what specifically can be recycled in your county. In general, you can assume to recycle all paper, aluminum, glass and plastic bottles/jugs #1-7. These items can go directly in your curbside recycling bin, or in any drop off location throughout the city, without having to be sorted. Many area schools collect paper or aluminum cans, and receive a certain amount of money for the amount of paper or cans they collect. Help support your city schools while being environmentally responsible at the same time!

Recycling is a win win situation for all involved. Check out some of the benefits of recycling -

• reduces the release of greenhouse gases
• conserves energy
• protects trees
• saves natural resources
• curbs landfill growth
• creates jobs

Where Can I Recycle?
Visit your county’s solid waste management website to find out how and where to
recycle in your county.

OHIO:
Hamilton County
Butler County
Warren County
Clermont and Adams Counties

KENTUCKY:
Boone, Campbell and Kenton
Campbell County

INDIANA:
Dearborn County
Southeast Indiana Counties