Committee sponsors two competitions to promote recycling
Angela Greiner Community Reporter

Marlborough - With Earth Day only a few weeks away, the Marlborough Recycling Committee has announced two competitions to get the community thinking about recycling. This year the committee has decided to host a two-part competition, with winners being announced during the annual Earth Day celebration to be held Saturday May 3 at Ghiloni Park.

The goal of the competition is to raise awareness about the importance of recycling, explained Peggy Ayers, the chair of the Recycling Committee.

According to Ayers, many residents do not realize that items made of plastic, glass and cardboard are all banned from the waste stream, making it illegal to put the objects in the trash.

The first competition sponsored by the committee is a poster contest open to any school-age child in the Marlborough community.

There will be first-, secondand

third-place cash prizes in three age groups. Submitted posters will be used in public buildings around the city to promote recycling. Posters can be no larger than 24 inches by 36 inches. Participants can use any medium of art. The message should be simple

"We need to get the message across about recycling and how easy it is to do it," Ayers said.

The second competition will begin in May and carry on throughout the year. The goal of this is also to encourage people to recycle. Each month, the committee will randomly pick a residential city address. The committee will then drive to that par- ticular house on recycling day and if the homeowners are recycling, they will win a gift certificate.

"It's easy and who would not want a gift certificate?" Ayers said.

According to Ayres, the community has increased the amount it recycles, but more needs to be done. Marlborough actually composts a large portion of the city's collected trash at the We Care Facility. After the rubbish is collected, Ayers explained, the city attempts to sort the trash separating the recyclables and the nonrecycled trash that can be composted from the rest.

"If you take a tour of the We Care Facility and see how we process the trash, you will go home and recycle," Ayers said.

Unfortunately, the city does not have enough manpower to pull all of the recycling out of the collected trash.

"One glass mayonnaise jar will ruin a whole load of compost," Ayers said.

Mayor Nancy Stevens recently asked Ayers to collect data on how other communities encourage recycling. Some of the options that Ayers has examined include methods like "pay as you throw" trash charges and mandatory recycling.

For "pay as you throw," residents must purchase trash bags from the city. Mandatory recycling would mean that if a resident did not have a recycling bin out on trash collection day, then the city would not pick up the trash.

The city currently has a comprehensive curbside pick-up method in place for residents to dispose of recyclables.

"We need to get more people to participate in recycling a greater level," Ayers said.

With regulations of the amount of trash communities can generate and fines becoming stiff er for throwing out items banned from the waste stream, there is a growing need for communities to find ways to get citizens to recycle.

Marlborough's Department of Public Works (DPW) off ers both curbside recycling pick-up and an incity drop-off center. Some of the items that should be recycled include glass containers, plastics labeled 1 through 7, metal food containers, paper and tires.

For more information about what can be recycled, visit the website at www. Marlborough-Ma.gov/ home/, or call the DPW at 508-624-6910.

For more information about the recycling competitions, contact Peggy Ayers at 508-786-3040.