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Barnstable County launches hazardous waste collection and boat shrink wrap recycling programs for 2022

Barnstable County

It's that time of year when a lot of us start to think about spring clean ups, whether in the yard, or the basement, garage, even the boat.

Barnstable County has a variety of collection and recycling program for everything from your expired boat flares, to the oil paints for the hobby you wanted to pick up, but never got around to using.

CAI's Kathryn Eident talked with Kari Parcell, the waste reduction coordinator at the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension for a rundown of available programs.

Eident Each Cape town is going to be having a hazardous waste recycling pick up, but tell us what the towns will be accepting from residents as they do their spring cleanup.

Parcell The hazardous waste events, like you said, they're already in full swing. They go through the year into October. The question of what's acceptable, so...we are a marine commercial fishing recreation-type community here, so things like marine paints go in there, oil-based paints, gasoline, oil and anti-freeze, pool chemicals, fertilizers.

What's not acceptable are items and materials that the transfer stations will take from you. So, you wouldn't bring, say, an air conditioner, even though it has freon in it, to a hazardous waste event, because you can take it to your transfer station, pay that bulky fee and they will take it off of your hands.

I will say things like Mercury, Mercury, Mercury will be accepted any time at these hazardous waste events, as well as your transfer station. Just go up to the gatehouse, tell them "I have mercury, or mercury-based items, and I would like to dispose of it properly," and they will certainly help you manage that.

Eident So, it sounds like if you've got something, you're not quite sure what to do with it, you really should do your homework ahead of time. So, a lot of people, as I mentioned, are getting their boats ready in the coming weeks. And you know, if your boat was shrink wrapped, that's a heck of a lot of plastic. In the past, you've had a recycling program for this shrink wrap. Is that program still available for people this year?

Parcell It is, and it is launched and in full swing. So, it's going to go through April to the end of June. There are four collection depots: The town of Bourne; the town of Chatham; the town of Eastham; and the town of Dennis.

So, if you are a resident of the Cape and you are unwrapping your boat, that wrap probably weighs an average of 15 pounds. You can take it to one of these collection depots. Let them know that you're participating in the shrink wrap program, and they will take it off of your hands. There are specific requirements for recycling that shrink wrap, so you need to remove the strings, the ropes, any type of wood. One other fun fact about shrink wrap is if you have it removed properly, you can actually reuse it for up to three years, so can re-shrink wrap your boat so you don't have to be paying for new wrap and a new process for, you know, winterizing your boat. You can also switch to a canvas tarp, that lasts a lot longer.

Eident Do you know off-hand how much you've been able to divert from the waste stream in years past with this kind of program?

Parcell In 2021, our tonnage was 10 tons, which is 20,000 pounds of boat shrink wrap. Our very first year, we did 3.6 tons, so you can see that over the years, people now know that the program exists. This year, we maintained high importance on keeping the shrink wrap domestic. Cape Cod shrink wrap is actually going to be collected here and then baled in Brockton. And then, Brockton will be shipping the baled shrink wrap to a company called EFS in Canada, and it will be processed and recycled into garbage bags, which will be sold at retailers all over North America.

Eident You mentioned with the hazardous waste collection that people can take different kinds of paints, but you can also recycle some paint as well. Can you talk about that?

Parcell Things that you would see in an art studio, marine paints, you know, the oil-based paints, things like that, those go to the hazardous waste event.... It's too toxic to trash.

But latex, water-based paints are actually recyclable, and they become latex paint all over again. So, if you have, you know, a quart, gallon, or a five-gallon container of paint and it's not frozen, there's no skin, there's no debris, drop it off. Sometime in August, we'll have another pop-up event specifically for the latex paint. We partner with a vendor called Recolor Paints here in the Commonwealth. She collects it and recycles it right back into latex paint. I believe she has 24 or 36 different combinations of colors, and she sells it at wholesale prices. You can find it, I believe, at Re-Stores here on the Cape, in Yarmouth and in Falmouth. Also, some of the towns have paint sheds, and if you really don't have access, you can dry it out and throw it out, which is the least preferable option.

Eident And these services like the shrink wrap collection and the hazardous waste collections, they're free for residents, right?

Parcell So, even though you show up and it's free to you to participate, it's not free on the backend. Somebody somewhere is, you know, offering in-kind time and energy, as well, and there's funding... to make these programs happen for you every single year. Just keep that in mind as you're visiting a hazardous waste collection event, or you're dropping off your latex paint, or your boat shrink wrap. And I just want to preface that services are not free, but we want to keep them up and running and provide accessibility for diversion programs all over the Cape and Islands.

Eident Well, Kari Parcell, thank you so much for talking with us. We really appreciate it.

Parcell Absolutely, Kathryn, thanks for having me. It's good to see you and hear from you again.

To learn more, go to capecodcooperativeextension.org

This interview was lightly edited for grammar and clarity.

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Kathryn Eident was the Morning Edition Host and Senior Producer of News until November 2022.