The Next Dumpster Day and Secure Document Shredding Event
SATURDAY APRIL 1, 2017 -- beginning at 8:30 AM
from Cassandra Hostetler, WLCA vice president
Back By Popular Demand
Start planning your spring housecleaning now, as this spring’s Dumpster Day will be on Saturday, April 1st (no
joke!), courtesy of the West Laurel Civic Association and the Prince George's County Waste Management Division. The dumpsters will be available from 8:30 AM until 11:30 AM (or earlier if the dumpsters fill sooner) in the
parking lot of the West Laurel Community Building. As usual, we will have three dumpsters.
What is Accepted and Not Accepted at Dumpster Day:
*** THIS Contains NEW INFORMATION FROM THE COUNTY, SO PLEASE READ CAREFULLY ***
NOT ACCEPTED [new additions are in bold]:
1- Tree stumps and trunks, yard waste, auto parts, car tires, construction materials (including drywall, wood,
metal beams, PVC pipe, metal pipes, etc.), carpeting, sheds, fences, hazardous waste, household trash, glass,
mirrors and wood, electronics. Hazardous materials includes oil, oil-based paint, any liquid paint at all (latex or oil)
and propane tanks. Electronics includes computer monitors and anything else that has computer parts in it.
2- Large pieces of furniture (sofa, bureau, high boy): Instead, call for a bulky trash pick-up (see FAQs below)
and then haul it to your curb on the appointed day -- which is easier than loading it into your truck and bringing it
to the dumpsters anyway. The exception is for seniors – we know you can’t just “carry it to the curb” so we’ll do the
lifting and take it to dumpster day. But all others, don’t bring it to dumpster day, as that one large piece means 5 or
6 people will be turned away with their smaller items that bulky trash will NOT come to pick up.
3- Professional contractors who are dumping their construction materials. We have turned away a truck
completely filled with three toilets, an entire kitchen, etc. If you are a contractor, you must go directly to Brown
Station. Dumpster Day is for individuals who did their own work and have one toilet or a few counter tops, etc.
GLADLY ACCEPTED [new additions are in bold]:
Furniture (but not huge sofas; see above), refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, water heaters, lawn mowers,
broken toys. Please remove doors from refrigerator, gas tanks from lawn mowers, and drain all oils. Latex house
paint can be accepted only if it is dried up, not liquid. You may either leave it out for weeks to dry or purchase
something to dry the liquid paint (e.g., from Ace Hardware or online), or just put in kitty litter to dry it up.
FAQs:
Q: How do I schedule bulky trash pickup?
A: Call 3-1-1 or 301-883-4748 M-F 7:30 AM-4 PM, or anytime at <http://bulkytrash.princegeorgescountymd.gov/>
complete a schedule form online. Please only take the stuff to the curb by your house the day before the pick-up.
Q: But why can’t I bring tree stumps? Yard waste? I just cleaned out my yard after winter and have all this stuff.
A: Lawn/yard trash (grass clippings, leaves, stumps, tree limbs, old plants, etc) is picked up weekly from West
Laurel on Mondays. If you have larger items that cannot fit in your lawn trash container, you can wrap them with
twine and bundle them (up to 4 feet long) OR contact the county for a bulky trash pickup (see above).
Q: But I’ve always brought my carpets! I’ve always brought that huge fence that fell over! Why the change?
A: The county's new regulations require items such as tree stumps, fences and carpets to be separated into
different locations at the county's trash and composting facility; the dumpsters from our dumpster day are
dumped only with their trash. For such items, call bulky trash (above) or to take them to the Brown Station facility.
Q: Where can I get rid of liquid latex paint or oil paint?
A: Bring it to Brown Station -- but check their website for which days, as they do not accept paint all days.
Q: Why can’t construction companies use this dumpster day?
A: Construction companies who remodel bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens, etc. must pay to dump their trash.
They typically pass this charge onto the customer, which is customary and fair. But Dumpster Day is for the
homeowner in West Laurel, not to give relief to a construction company whose owner happens to live in West
Laurel but doesn’t wish to drive his company's wastes to Brown Station.
[continued on next page]
Winter 2017
Hotline – The Neighborhood Newspaper of West Laurel
page 7
Upcoming Dumpster Day & Shredding Event - 4/1/17 -- continued from page 6
from Cassandra Hostetler
OTHER INFORMATION:
You Are Welcome To Take Home "Treasures" You Find At Dumpster Day: Whatever someone
disposes of that you might like for yourself, you are most welcome to take it home with you. To best survey the
assortment that arrives, come and volunteer to help load the dumpsters (see below). There are often lumber and
metal pipes in really good condition, and lots of other useful stuff, so if you need something for a project, come by
to volunteer and take it away before it ends up in the dumpsters!
Please Separate Out Reusable Items That You Bring To Dumpster Day And We Will Take
Them To A Local Charity: They say that “one man’s trash is another’s treasure” (especially tables, chairs and
children’s toys) so this April we will continue to donate items that are in good condition to a local charity. We ask you
to help us in this effort by separating your “good as new” trash in your car so you can place it in the trailer we will
have available for repurposable items.
Electronics Recycling: We will not have an electronics dumpster this spring. When we previously devoted
to electronics one of the three dumpsters that the county allows us to have, that left only two for household stuff,
and they were filled before dumpster day was over. So since it is so easy to take used computers, etc. to Staples, or
to call bulky trash (above) for large TVs, we decided to devote all three dumpsters to household trash. However, we
want your input on this – please let us know if you would prefer to again devote one of the dumpsters to
electronics at the Fall 2017 Dumpster Day.
SECURE DOCUMENT SHREDDING EVENT AT DUMPSTER DAY
Given the popularity of the secure document shredder event, we will again offer it at the April 1 Dumpster Day.
Like mentioned above, it will be by Clean Cut Shredding, who use "rotary grinder/Hammermill" technology, which
is approved for use by government agencies on classified documents. Because WLCA has to pay for this service, it
again will only be available for our dues-paying WLCA members, but you can join on the spot (do bring your $15!).
So before April, go through your old files to collect documents to bring to shred. Please note:
-- This shredder accepts all types of papers (financial and legal documents, receipts, taxes and medical records),
even envelopes with plastic windows, as well as papers joined with staples or paper clips. -- However, the shredder cannot accept binder clips, 3-ring binders, spiral notebooks, folder organizers with
metal inserts, or plastic or electronic items (such as credit cards, CDs, or computer disks). People with such
material will have to step out of line to remove the metal and return to the end of the line, to not hold up others.
-- To have a manageable line, we will again limit each delivery to what fits in a very large (100 gallon) recycle toter.
If you have more, you can go to the end of the line to deliver a second toter's worth.
WE PICK UP FROM YOUR HOME IF YOU ARE A SENIOR OR DISABLED!
If your household has only seniors and/or disabled citizens, WLCA volunteers will once again pick up
materials from your house and dispose of them for you. To schedule the pick-up, please contact Jason Float at
443-765-5300 or <[email protected]>. Calls/emails should be made at least a week in advance of Dumpster
Day, and please be patient if he takes a few days to get back to you, given his busy work schedule.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Come and join us, it’s really a lot of fun!
We need three types of volunteers: (a) volunteers with pickup trucks, (b) volunteers who are strong and
willing to be the 2nd person in a truck, and (c) volunteers to direct cars and lend assistance filling the
dumpsters at the Community building. Having two people in each truck is needed to carry the stuff out of
people's houses to load the truck. Trucks and pickup volunteers -- folks (a) and (b) -- will rally at the Community
Building at 7:45 AM. Volunteers at the Community Building – in group (c) -- take 2 hour shifts between 8 AM and
noon. High school students may volunteer and receive community service credit hours.
TO VOLUNTEER: Please contact Cassandra Hostetler at home (<[email protected]> or 301-498-0894) to
volunteer. Please make sure to leave your name, telephone number, and what you are volunteering for, and I will
get back to you ASAP.
Winter 2017
www.wlcaweb.org
page 8
More on Disposal of Items
Please refer to the May and October 2016 Hotlines for the kinds of items not accepted by the county's trash,
recycling, and yard waste facilities and for suggestions on how to dispose of them. Please remember that:
-- Plastic bags from newspaper and produce, Saran Wrap, etc. are not accepted by the county's recycling, as they
clog up the single-stream sorting machines (while hard plastic is fine for those machines). Such plastic bags should
be disposed by recycling at the dedicated plastic bag recycling bin provided at any grocery store.
-- Yard waste can NOT be put out in plastic bags, as they screw up the composting. It can be in paper bags or
directly in a large toter – either a dedicated yard waste toter or you can borrow your normal trash or recycling toter
for only yard wastes that day and hang on its outside obvious papers saying "YARD WASTE" in enormous letters.
-- Styrofoam packing boxes and peanuts are unfortunately no longer being accepted at MOM's Market, as had
been announced in last May's Hotline. Instead, to recycle styrofoam, take it to the Alliance of Foam Packaging
Recyclers, 1298 Cronson Blvd., Ste 201, Crofton, MD (phone: 410-451-8340) any time of the day or night, as they
have a large dumpster out back, clearly labeled for the styrofoam recycling. I use this service and it works very well.
-- Unwanted prescription medications should NOT be flushed down the toilet or thrown in the trash,
where they become environmental toxins. Instead, for safe disposal, simply take them to the Laurel Police (811
5th Street, Laurel, MD) anytime at your convenience. It is easy and quick, and too few people know about this!
-- Large Trash (anything over 4 feet long) gets disposed of using "Bulky Trash" pick-up. To arrange, see FAQ #1 on
page 6. DO NOT JUST DUMP LARGE STUFF ON THE CURB AND EXPECT IT TO MAGICALLY DISAPPEAR! Without
a pre-scheduled bulky trash pick-up, it will just stay there, marring the appearance of our neighborhood. And
please show this info to any neighbor who has uncollected large "stuff" at their curb.
Get Involved With Bond Mill Elementary School
from Melissa Daston
Many of us living in West Laurel don’t have children in the school system but are more than willing to lend a
hand, attend a special event, or make a donation of time or materials. Principal Justin FitzGerald and his staff at
Bond Mill sent a list of upcoming events:
February 6th Cultural Arts Performances 8 AM and 9 AM
March 11th
Drama Club Performance
2 PM
th
nd
February 16 2 Grade Concert “Flakes” 8:15 AM & 6:30 PM
March 14th
PTO Chick Fil-A Night
4-9 PM
(this event is at the Contee Road Chick Fil-A)
March 4th
Rising Stars & Destination Imagination Competition
March 28th
Science Fair
6:30 PM
Also, if you have high quality office goods (notebooks,
paper, pens) and/or art materials (construction paper, colored
pencils, crayons), the teachers at Bond Mill will gladly put them
to use. Just drop them by the front office on a school day.
Police Beat -- Community Officer "V" is back
Bond Mill Elementary School
from Melissa Daston
Over the past several months, many of you have inquired on our Yahoo discussion board about our Community
Police Officer, Mike Velasquez (Officer "V"), and the Fall (2016) Hotline reported that he was out on medical leave.
Thanks to Cpl. Hibbert and Cpl. Woody for covering West Laurel in his absence. Happily, Mike Velasquez is now
officially back on duty after an extended layoff after knee surgery to repair a rugby injury. Not only has he been
through rehab but he also got married at the end of his medical leave. So, please welcome Officer V's return to West
Laurel. He is back on patrol and reading our discussion board, so don’t hesitate to reach out to him there or at his
district VI police office (phone number: 301-937-0910). But if it’s an emergency, call 9-1-1.
Winter 2017
Hotline – The Neighborhood Newspaper of West Laurel
page 9