Big and Small Loads Are Yours for Free!
Maggie Theriot is the Director of Resource Stewardship for Leon County and oversees Sustainability, Solid Waste and Cooperative Extension services. Contact her at Sustainability@LeonCountyFL.gov.
Reduce, reuse, recycle is hard to beat as a guideline for living more sustainably. What?s surprising is how many fabulous reuse materials can be snagged for free. A trip to the Leon County Solid Waste Facility east of town at 7550 Apalachee Parkway can furnish the do-it-yourselfer with basic materials to improve both yard and home. Mulches, ?new to you? paints, and varnishes are among the top treasures there.For your yard, you can haul away as much coarse or fine mulch as needed at no charge. Your choice of mulch has implications for sustainability. The very best materials to mulch your garden and landscape are those that accumulate from your own yard (leaves, pine straw and so forth).
However, if you need a larger supply, consider a trip to County Solid Waste. The County?s mulch consists of ground yard debris collected from curbsides, including logs, limbs, and leaves. Use it to surround your garden and landscaped beds to stifle weed growth, conserve water and create pathways. The more areas you convert to beds with mulch, the less area you have to maintain with watering and other plant care?yep, another sustainability benefit. Borrow a friend?s truck or bring large containers and a shovel to scoop up your freebies. If you call ahead, County workers will help by loading your pickup once per day at no charge.
The County?s fine mulch is a more powdery substance that is simply the smaller particles that filter out from the grinding of the coarse mulch. While the fine mulch does not supply much nitrogen, it is high in the other two essential plant nutrients, potassium and phosphorous. Use it to incorporate into your garden beds as a soil amendment to improve the texture of the soil. This in turn helps hold water. The mulch has been tested by the County to ensure that it does not contain harmful levels of any toxic substances.
So, now that your yard is looking good, what about a fresh coat of paint outdoors or indoors? A visit to the County?s ?Swap Shop? can supply an adventurous handy man or woman with free paint. For big projects, large batches of leftover good quality paint are blended into unique batches of color in five-gallon containers. These are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis on Thursday mornings at 8 a.m.
In addition, the shelves of the Swap Shop are packed with still-useful items that have been turned in to the Hazardous Waste division. These include smaller cans of latex and oil paints and stains of a constantly changing array of hues. You can generally count on obtaining any needed polyurethane or spray paint for small jobs by showing up at the Swap Shop. You never know what you will find when perusing the shelves there?certainly there is enough to stimulate many a creative craft or refinishing project. When you make a trip, be sure to bring any of your own unneeded paints or chemicals that are gathering dust on your shelves, as well as old electronics to help others ?close the loop? of reuse.
So as you plan your next yard or home improvement project, don?t overlook the materials that await you for free. Reusing these will save you money and help you become an active agent in creatively reusing materials that have been generated in our community. The Hazardous Waste Collection Center and Swap Shop are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Self-loading of free mulch is also available those days. For more information, contact Leon County Solid Waste at (850) 606-1800.
?Greening Our Community? is brought to you by the Capital Area Sustainability Council (CASC), a forum organized by Sustainable Tallahassee. The Council rotates the content of these articles among its members. See www.sustainabletallahassee.org for information about CASC, Sustainable Tallahassee, and details about upcoming calendar events.
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