Composting When a town provides a composting facility, this is a type of recycling because it has to be managed by the town. Conversely, if a household composts in their backyard, this is considered waste reduction as there is no municipal management and accompanying costs to the town. See the Waste Reduction and Reuse page.  Several towns provide composting at municipal facilities. These programs typically cannot accept food wastes such as the rotten vegetables from your garden. Municipal composting programs typically accept yard waste such as grass clippings and leaves and possibly animal manure and wood chips.
Facilities that incorporate select food waste or other solid wastes into the compost pile need a special permit from the NH Department of Environmental Services.
Chittenden County Composting Facility - September 2009 Tour Recycling Most towns provide some type of recycling (link to where?). The materials accepted often change according to the market. Some towns will keep what they take constant even when there are no markets for the materials. They may feel it’s worth stockpiling a material until the market changes so they don’t have to re-educate their residents to stop bringing a certain item for a short period of time and then teaching them again to bring later.
Recycling turns materials that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources. In 2007, it cost New Hampshire towns and cities $116 million to dispose of waste, yet every 1 percent increase in the recycling rate represents at least a savings of $1 million! Recent news reports, however, have indicated that there is no market for recyclables—these reports are wrong! Recyclables are still a valuable commodity, despite their lower market prices. We should not forget the environmental benefits of recycling vs. landfilling our wastes. With an average cost of $75 per ton for disposal, not including transportation, the cost avoidance is still substantial and makes recycling still attractive. (NH DES)
 Benefits of Recycling:
Bales of Recycled Materials, Charlestown Transfer Station Buy Recycled Products Collecting used bottles, cans, and newspapers and taking them to the curb or to a collection facility is just the first in a series of steps that generates a host of financial, environmental, and social returns. Some of these benefits accrue locally as well as globally. The next step is to manufacture products from the collected materials. The final step is critical—and it’s up to us: we must buy products that are made from recycled materials. Read labels on paper products and look for something like, “contains post-consumer paper.” The higher the percentage of post-consumer paper, the more you’re supporting recycling programs. It’s important to look for “post-consumer” as this is materials used by us and not simply scrap materials on the manufacturer’s floor that would have been recycled anyway. Most paperboard (egg cartons, food boxes—if they tear brown or gray), glass, steel cans, and aluminum cans are made from post-consumer recycled materials. Many plastics cannot be recycled for reuse. Offices can make a difference by inserting a recycled content clause into their purchasing policy. Other considerations include looking at the vendor and manufacturer location to save energy costs including pollution from long-distance transport. See the EPA Buy Recycled web page for more information. |