Saturday, May 21st is Household Hazardous Waste Day. Bring it down to the D.P.W.

This is not the place for leftover wood finish. Ever. Wood finish is a hazardous waste and storm drains lead to the beach. Take all your hazardous waste to the Lynn Household Hazardous Waste Day

Got old oil paint, brake fluid, motor oil, pesticides you have decided not to use anymore?  Bring them all down to D.P.W on Saturday, May 21--about a week away.  You can get rid of 3gallons or up to 3 lbs for only $20.00 or up to 25 gallons for only $47.00, thanks to the City of Lynn and Clean Harbors Environmental Services subsidizing the disposal cost.  See the flier attached for all the types of waste you can and cannot bring, and how to bring them to us.

The City of Lynn holds two per year, and the next Household Hazardous Waste Day won't be until October 22 , 2016.  So, lighten your load, clean out that cellar and garage and get the toxins out.

 

Lynn D.P.W. 

250 Commercial Street

Lynn, MA 01905

Right off the Lynnway, on the ocean side by the wind turbine.

This Saturday, September 26, is National Drug Take Back Day

 

There are lots of reasons to clean out your medicine cabinet this Saturday; but did you know that protecting the environment is one of them? 

 

 

 

 

 

Medications Impact the Environment*

Prescription and over-the-counter medications are a source of pollution when they are flushed down the toilet or drain. Waste-water facilities and septic systems are not currently designed to process pharmaceutical products. Compounds passing through these systems can impact surface waters, groundwater, and drinking water supplies. Pharmaceuticals can also be released into waterways via stormwater run-off from fields applied with manure or biosolids.

Modern technology can detect more substances, at lower levels, than ever before.   Fortunately, tests done in the spring of 2008 detected no compounds in Boston's source drinking water that comes from the Wachusett and Quabbin Reservoirs. According to the American Water Works Association, research has not demonstrated an impact on human health from pharmaceuticals at the very low levels reported nationally in some drinking water supplies. Studies have shown, however, that medicines that reach streams, rivers, and lakes do affect wildlife, as fish and wildfowl face continuous exposure to the drugs. Medications thrown haphazardly in the trash can also be eaten by wildlife that frequent landfills.

* This information is from MA DEP and DCR.

Reduce Water Pollution & Promote a Healthy Environment by Properly Disposing of Unneeded or Expired Medications

Lucky for the people of Lynn, The Lynn Police Department has a drop-off Kiosk available everyday at their headquarters at 300 Washington Street for the drop-off of unneeded or expired drugs.  September 26 is a reminder that we should get it done, and  keep these medications from getting into the environment, the hands of a child or someone else who doesn't need them.

National Drug Take Back Day

September 26, 2015

10 am - 2 pm

Lynn Police Department

300 Washington Street

First 50 People to Bring Medications Will Receive a $10 Gift Card. 

Lynn Saves Big if Everyone Recycles.

Incinerator in Saugus, where Lynn paid $2 million to burn trash (& recyclables) last year.

I had a friend call me tonight and she mentioned that her 64 gallon trash cart was not big enough for her two-person household.  I said "How could that be?"  She told me that she recycled but not anything that was contaminated by food waste.  She was certainly not going to spend her time washing out a tuna fish can or anything else that contained food.  I told her "Then, you are not recycling".  She then told me that she paid taxes and expected the City of Lynn to provide her trash services.  I then proceeded to tell her that she was getting trash services, and more than most communities provide in Massachusetts, even with the new system.  She didn't want to hear it and ended the call, too busy to change her thinking about the best use of her time and her tax dollars.  This, from a woman who considers herself a civic minded member of the community.

Well, Here ye, Here ye, citizens of Lynn.  Last year the City spent $2 million paying to dump it's trash at the Incinerator in Saugus, MA.  Most of that trash contained recyclables and if they had been separated out, Lynn could have saved about $1.7 million.  Of course, that would be in a perfect world.  In 2014 Lynn ended the year with a recycling rate of only 7%.  If we could get that recycling rate up to just 25%, we could save in the ballpark of $500,000; no small amount of money for a city always strapped for cash.  I hope the fiscal conservatives are paying attention.

So, one way for Lynn to save is to recycle more but the other way is to trash less.  According to a recent article in Commonwealth Magazine Seriously, Is this the best we can do?   Lynn's trash problems are discussed and it is noted that although Lynn citizens may be alarmed by a limit of 64 gallons of trash per household per week, we are still trashing too much.  The writer points out that "(In Lynn), a family putting out one cart of trash per week could still generate an estimated 2,330 pounds of trash per year, or about 863 pounds for each person in a typical Lynn home. That’s 45 percent more trash than the average Massachusetts resident generates".  What's in that trash?  Probably unwashed tuna fish cans and other recyclables. 

Other things that may be in the trash but should come out are things like textiles--clothes and sheets and old curtains, all can be donated to places like the Salvation Army, St, Vincent dePaul and Goodwill.  Donated textiles are likely to be 100% reused or recycled.  Think how light all those 64 gallon carts would be with all the textiles out of them.  Then there are books, and lights, and computers and equipment and so many things that can be donated or diverted outside the trash cart.  We just need to change our thinking about trash and recycling, about washing out a tuna can instead of tossing it in the trash, about whether its better to spend $500,000 at the incinerator or on fixing pot holes and beautifying our streets.  The choice is really ours.