PRESS RELEASE

Media Contacts:

Daniel Guild, Village Administrator, Weston, WI
715.359.6114 | dguild@westonwi.gov

Meleesa Johnson, Director, Marathon Co. Solid Waste Dept.

715-573-3165 | Meleesa.Johnson@co.marathon.wi.us

 

Todd Mitchell, Area Manager, Advanced Disposal

715-359-6637 | todd.mitchell@advanceddisposal.com

 

Village of Weston Promotes Recycling Through America Recycles Day Contest

 

Weston, WI (October 27, 2014) - Earlier this year Village of Weston residents stopped sorting newspapers from plastics, glass, aluminum, and began placing household recyclables in 95-gallon single-stream recycling carts.  The "One and Done" carts help keep Weston neighborhoods cleaner, are easy to use, promote greater recycling, and help the Village save money on landfill disposal.  After nearly a year of single-stream cart recycling, the Village wants to challenge residents to be the best "One and Done Marathon Recyclers."

 

As a part of the national America Recycles Day, slated for November 15th, the Village is planning a week-long contest to reintroduce the "One and Done" theme.  Village Administrator, Daniel Guild, reports that, "While the Village's recycling rate has increased using the single-stream recycling cart program, unfortunately, so has contamination of recyclables.  We hope the contest will help highlight how important it is to understand the single-stream recycling cart rules" 

 

Contamination occurs when garbage is mistakenly mixed with recycling, or when items like tires, batteries, and large plastic toys end up in the recycling cart   "When a cart full of recyclables is soiled with garbage and hard to recycle items, the viability and value of the entire load is reduced," says Todd Mitchell, General Manager for Advanced Disposal.  Mitchell adds that recyclables too contaminated with garbage may end up in landfills.      

 

During the America Recycles Day contest, Village households will have the opportunity to win prizes for being identified as "One and Done Marathon Recyclers."  In order to identify qualifying households, recycling and waste carts of randomly selected households will be inspected by the route drivers from Advanced Disposal.  A "One and Done Marathon Recycler" household will have a recycling cart without contamination and a waste cart with no recyclables.  Qualifying households will then be entered into a drawing for a number of prizes, including a 32-inch LED HDTV and gift certificates from local businesses. 

 

"The idea behind the contest is to make recycling fun and exciting, while enlisting the help of residents in reducing contamination," says Meleesa Johnson, Director of the Marathon County Solid Waste Department.

 

The Village of Weston, Advanced Disposal, and the Marathon County Solid Waste Department are partnering on this novel project and hope that all Weston residents become "One and Done Marathon Recyclers".  The drawing for prizes will take place at the Weston Municipal Center, on Friday, November 14th, at 4:15PM.    

 

To learn more about what items can go in the single-stream recycling cart, contact either the Village of Weston (www.westonwi.gov) or the Marathon County Solid Waste Department (www.marathoncountysolidwaste.org).

 

# # #
 

This year's Fall Yard Materials Pick-up started on Monday, October 13, 2014. By Friday November 7, 2014 one full pass through the Village should be made.  One final pass will be made to get any material that is still out at the street.  At this time residents should not place more material out as it may not get picked up before snow begins to accumulate.  As pickup progresses an End Loader will be coming through first and the leaf vacuum will be following behind to clean up what the end loader was not able to grab.  This is a slightly different approach than years past in hopes of speeding up the operation.  By utilizing the end loader with the dump trucks the Village can get the majority of the piles and have the loader continuously loading leaves during the day.  In contrast, if only the leaf vacuum were used the crew would end up spending about 1/3 of the day driving back and forth to the yard waste site and when there are large piles, the leaf vacuum can fill up after picking up just 5 or 6 residents.  Unfortunately, the leaf vacuum has had a few breakdowns this year so it hasn't been able to keep up with the end loader per plan. 

 

Pickup started in the neighborhoods that have garbage pickup on Friday and the crew will then progress through the Village sequentially along the garbage routes.  Please note that some routes take multiple days to get through depending on the amount of material to be picked up. The Village will be updating its website and social media platforms daily with the pickup locations. As a way to expedite the pickup process please have leaves, un-bagged thatch, grass clippings, pine needles and brush less than six (6) inches in diameter, placed on the shoulder. If you have curb and gutter please place yard waste in the gutter.

 

As an alternative to raking leaves, the Village encourages homeowners, if you have a mulching lawn mower, to mulch your leaves in place.  This practice shreds the leaves and allows the leaves to decompose and naturally feed your lawn.

Piles are to be placed so as to be clear of power poles, trees and mailboxes for ease of pickup. Brush is to be kept SEPARATE from yard material and placed at roadside with stump ends of limbs placed in same direction, parallel to road. If yard material cannot be reached by the Village's machines it will then be the responsibility of the resident to dispose of the yard material.

After the roadside collection, leaves and all pre-mentioned items can be brought to the Village's yard waste site (free of charge) located at 8200 Ryan Street (1/4 mile south of Weston Avenue on the west side). When bringing items to the yard material site, please remove leaves from bags and dispose of the bags in the provided container.
 

Below is one of our new informational Weston V-Chat videos. This video is all about the Weston yard materials pick-up and our Yard Waste Site. 

 

Weston Yard Materials Site and Pickup

The Village of Weston has started creating informational videos called Weston V-Chat. During the next year we will be posting several short videos to communicate preferred procedures and practices for your services. Services like Spring and Fall Yard Materials Pick-up, the wheres and whys for snow removal process, proper yard maintenance, etc. Please view the video below.

Our videos will be posted on our YouTube page. Please check out our page to view the Weston V-Chat videos and other informational videos as well. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/WestonWI 

The Planning and Development Team has released the first draft of the Zoning Map for 2015 on the Village's website. The Planning Team welcomes you to review the map and the zoning code and give them your feedback using the feedback form provided on the website.

 

The Plan Commission will also be meeting to discuss the proposed zoning code and zoning map at their meeting this coming Monday, November 10th at 6pm at the Village Municipal Center. Residents with questions are encouraged to attend.

 

There is also a set of flashcards to help you better understand each zone and what land uses are compatible in each zone. The team looks forward to hearing from you soon.

• Zoning Code Update Page
• Draft Zoning Code
• Draft Zoning Map 
• Zoning Flash Cards

Just a reminder to Weston residents, please make sure you are recycling the correct items in your 95 gallon cart (the yellow cover cart). For more information, or if you are unsure of what items can be recycled, please watch the video below. If you have any questions please call our office at 715.359.6114 or Advanced Disposal, the garbage company, at 715.359.6637.

The In's & Out's of Weston's New Single Stream Recycling Program