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Hello all,
I hope everyone had a great Independence Day celebration earlier this week. It was more than a little warm on the 4th but that didn't stop our normal Independence Day events, from the parade all the way to a great fireworks show.
For this newsletter, let's first cover some VDOT news:
- Lakeside Drive: With the resurfacing project appearing to be complete, I reached out to VDOT to ask about the following:
- Cleaning up the left-over gravel/sand/grit on the road. The good news is that they have scheduled to sweep the road clean later next week.
- The rough road surface and if they are planning on coming back to smooth the asphalt more. Unfortunately they do not have plans to perform any additional surface work at this time. Though I was told we should expect the roughness to lessen as the product cures with use.
- In addition to the sweeping, there are two remaining action items the contractor will be performing:
- Stop bar, turn arrow and bike symbol installation.
- School symbol installation.
- I'm also going to contact VDOT again to see if they can give the asphalt that was put down at the entrances to some of the side roads some better attention.
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Intersection work at Victory Blvd. and Route 17 (by GI Joes): For those curious about that work, VDOT is installing an additional left turn lane for traffic heading south on 17..
- For residents in Brandywine: VDOT is performing a drainage ditch rehabilitation project. Basically they are re-establishing the ditch and grade from pipe to pipe. They expect to be complete later this summer. Since VDOT has begun this project, I contacted our Public Works department and asked them to plan on following-up VDOT's work by performing maintenance on the portion of the drainage system the county is responsible for. That way the Brandywine neighborhood should see good stormwater flow throughout the subdivision.
Second, I received an excellent question regarding what types of plastic materials the transfer station will accept for recycling. So I turned to Laurie Halperin of our Waste Management Division and she provided a wealth of information that you might find useful. Copied below is what she shared:
At this time we only take plastic bottles and jugs. A key to knowing if an item in this category is recyclable is if the bottle or jug has a “narrow neck” that you can pour out of. The other items you mentioned, i.e. the egg cartons, fruit containers, sour cream, cottage cheese, and yogurt containers, etc. are not accepted in our program at this time because there is no processing infrastructure for those items in our area. Each type of plastic is different and requires a different process for recycling – i.e. some have multiple layers of different materials, some require different degree of heat to melt down the materials – there are many variables that make recycling all plastics challenging. So unfortunately, the extra material that you are placing into your container makes the process more difficult and is considered residual or as it is not part of the program, it is a contaminant.
To further explain, here is some information from an article by Judith Enck and Jan Dell: “Recycling in general can be an effective way to reclaim natural material resources. The U.S.’s high recycling rate of paper, 68 percent, proves this point. The problem with recycling plastic lies not with the concept or process but with the material itself. The first problem is that there are thousands of different plastics, each with its own composition and characteristics. They all include different chemical additives and colorants that cannot be recycled together, making it impossible to sort the trillions of pieces of plastics into separate types for processing. For example, polyethylene terephthalate (PET#1) bottles cannot be recycled with PET#1 clamshells, which are a different PET#1 material, and green PET#1 bottles cannot be recycled with clear PET#1 bottles (which is why South Korea has outlawed colored PET#1 bottles.) High-density polyethylene (HDPE#2), polyvinyl chloride (PVC#3), low-density polyethylene (LDPE#4), polypropylene (PP#5), and polystyrene (PS#6) all must be separated for recycling. Just one fast-food meal can involve many different types of single-use plastic, including PET#1, HDPE#2, LDPE#4, PP#5, and PS#6 cups, lids, clamshells, trays, bags, and cutlery, which cannot be recycled together. This is one of several reasons why plastic fast-food service items cannot be legitimately claimed as recyclable in the U.S. So what I typically tell people is the PET and HDPE is easily collected, sorted, processed and has good value and they can move it quickly.”
To address this, many of the major manufacturers and retail organizations (i.e. Nestle, Walmart, Target, etc.) are working on plans to accept more responsibility for the items they make and/or sell by creating a “closed loop” or “circular economy” by taking on the responsibility of collecting and recycling the various items they generate. This is a National discussion that has been taking place over the past decade and is now gaining traction.
Also, she shared information about TFC Recycling and that she could arrange tours of their facilities if anyone is interested:
For additional information about our program and specifically TFC Recycling, below are several links and/or information I pulled from their website and ours. If you are ever interested in taking a tour of the TFC processing plant in Chesapeake or Chester, VA, I’m happy to make arrangements to do that also!
Start Smart, Recycle Right Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1sv6F3_vjI
TFC Recycling Plant Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktw5IV025Hg
TFC Recycling Frequently Asked Questions: https://tfcrecycling.com/faqs/#:~:text=What%20happens%20to%20my%20recyclables,a%20paper%20mill%20for%20recycling.
Finally, here are two links with additional details of materials that can be dropped off at the transfer station:
Best regards,
Stephen
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