1. science
2. ecology
3. waste management
4. recycling

MATTERS
SPRING 2015
Saturday, May 16, 2015
The City of Fort Wayne’s annual spring cleaning event – The Great American
Cleanup – will be held Saturday, May 16, at locations all over our City.
Register by Monday, April 13, so that supplies will be ready for you and
your group. Supplies, including T-shirts, gloves, and garbage bags, will be
available for pickup only Monday through Wednesday, May 11–13, from 8
a.m. to 6 p.m. Supplies can be picked up at Street Light Operations, 335 East
Murray Street.
On May 16, after the cleanup, all Great American
Cleanup volunteers are invited to a celebration at
Headwaters Park West. The gates will open at 11:30 a.m.
There will be food, drinks, games, music, and a prize raffle.
During our 2014 cleanup, 5,250 volunteers contributed
15,750 hours to this one-day event! Here’s what those
volunteers accomplished:
• Collected 183,180 pounds of litter and debris
• Picked up 930 illegally dumped tires
• Cleaned 71 miles of roads, streets, and highways, 1,414
acres of parks and public lands, 17 miles of river banks,
and 33 miles of hiking, biking, and nature trails
Learn more and register NOW at http://www.cityoffortwayne.org/greatamericancleanup. You
can also email [email protected] or call 427-2715 with questions.
Recycling Matters
1
Spring 2015
Plan a neighborhood cleanup
The City of Fort Wayne offers each Neighborhood Association one FREE cleanup
per year. Neighbors can organize volunteers to clean up vacant lots, common areas,
roadsides, and alleyways. During your neighborhood cleanup, the City will provide a
40-yard roll-off container (dumpster) or a rear-load garbage truck. The cleanup must
be held on a Saturday morning between 8 a.m. and noon. If the association opts for the
garbage truck, neighborhood volunteers must walk behind the truck and assist the driver
in loading materials. If your association chooses a roll-off container, we ask that you
have volunteers monitor the container so that it is not overfilled. Roll-offs will be picked
up between noon and 2 p.m. on the day of your cleanup. No containers will be left
overnight to avoid illegal dumping, as well as scavenging.
During neighborhood cleanups, residents can dispose of brush, limbs, litter, and similar items. Absolutely NO
hazardous waste, tires, concrete, liquids, or explosives are accepted. If unacceptable items are placed into the container,
the neighborhood association will be responsible to remove and properly dispose of them.
Neighborhood cleanups are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. Because we have a limited number of rolloff containers and garbage trucks, we encourage your neighborhood association to request a Saturday in April through
October other than the date of the Great
American Cleanup event on May 16.
We will not be able to pick up
containers and deliver them on another
day if it is raining. If there is thunder
We do accept shredded paper in recycle carts. However, sometimes the shreds
and lightning, DO NOT, under any
get mixed with glass at the processing center and then contaminate the glass
circumstances, try to do your cleanup.
For more information or to schedule for recycling. To help ensure that your shredded paper is recycled and that our
glass is clean and reusable, follow these guidelines:
a cleanup, please contact Matt Gratz at
• Know what to shred. You don’t need to shred every document that
[email protected] or
contains your name and address. You only need to shred confidential
427-2474.
materials, such as bank statements, medical records, tax records,
and anything that contains your Social Security Number or banking,
investment, or
credit card
account
numbers.
•Consider
tearing off and
shredding only
the confidential
information from
statements and
This container is overfilled and
other documents.
can’t be hauled away until the
• Bag all shreds
neighborhood association levels
in PAPER bags,
off the container for pickup.
folding the top
Debris must not hang over the
down to keep
sides or stick up above the top,
them contained
in your cart.
and doors must be able to close!
What to do with shreds?
CITY OF FORT WAYNE
www.RecycleFortWayne.org
Recycling Matters
2
Spring 2015
Spring cleaning generates more garbage
Each year, we send more garbage to the
2014 Garbage Tons Collected from Ft. Wayne Residents
landfill in the spring and summer months.
As the weather warms, residents open
12,000
windows and clear out the winter’s clutter.
Outdoors, yards, garages, and sheds get
10,000
cleaned up after the long winter. All of this
seems to result in more trash.
8,000
In Fort Wayne, yard waste makes up
13.4% of residential garbage. As residents
6,000
begin to mow and garden in the spring,
clippings, trimmings, and leaves find
4,000
their way to the curb. Rather than feeding
the landfill, feed your lawn and garden.
2,000
Leaving grass clippings on your lawn
when you mow, called “grasscycling,”
0
returns nitrogen and moisture to your soil.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
With backyard composting, you can turn
trimmings, leaves, and clippings into a
healthy soil amendment or homemade
mulch. For more tips on greener landscaping, visit www.cityoffortwayne.org/publicworks/solid-waste-management/247green-landscaping-practices.html.
If you do set yard waste at the curb for collection, please remember to prepare
it properly. Except for leaves, yard waste can be placed with the garbage. Grass
clippings can be bagged in plastic bags or placed loose in the 96-gallon cart. Branches
must be no longer than 3 feet in length and no larger than 3 inches in diameter.
Branches need to be bundled and/or placed inside a container and cannot exceed 60
pounds. If you put branches into your trash cart, remember that they should NOT be
sticking out the top.
After spring cleaning, we also see more furniture
and appliances at the curb for collection. Both
furniture and non-Freon-containing appliances
are considered bulk items and are accepted at the
curb. However, large items are picked up by a different truck the day after your regular
garbage collection. You do not need to call 311 to schedule a pickup. Remember—no
electronics will be collected at the curb. If you have old electronics for recycling, you
must drop them off at OmniSource, 1430 Meyer Road. For more details about free
electronics recycling, visit www.acwastewatcher.org/recycle/electronics-recycling.
Judging by the trash our drivers see, it seems that everyone starts some sort of house
project during the warmer months. Please remember that there is a limit of 60 pounds
of construction debris per week that can be set out with
your garbage. All materials must be in containers or in bundled 3-foot sections. Glass
windows must be taped to help prevent breakage. Carpet must be cut into 3-foot sections,
rolled up, and tied. No bricks, cement, rocks, or dirt will be collected because these
materials can ruin the blades that compact waste inside the trucks. If you have a large
project planned, you can rent a dumpster. The dumpster rental will include a container
that you can load with waste and debris and the hauling and disposal of that material.
For more information about curbside garbage collection, visit www.cityoffortwayne.
org/publicworks/solid-waste-management/garbage-collection-requirements.html. For
details about recycling, visit www.RecycleFortWayne.org. If you have questions about
curbside service, please call 311.
Recycling Matters
3
Spring 2015
The Word on Wipes
Rethinking “Flushable”
Just because a package claims that a product is “flushable” doesn’t mean that pre-moistened personal wipes or diaper
wipes should be sent down the toilet. These wipes don’t break down in the sewer system as toilet paper does. As a result,
even the wipes that are labeled as flushable clog sewer lines, wrap around pumps, and shorten the life of equipment in the
sewer system, costing ratepayers money and potentially causing sewer backups.
In addition to wipes, other items that don’t belong in our sewers also get flushed every day. These include disposable
diapers, dental floss, paper towels, and pop-off scrubbers on toilet cleaning wands. All of these items need to go into the
trash—not the toilet!
Be sharps smart
© iStock.com | scanrail
Recently, during garbage collection, one of our drivers was stuck with a needle that was poking through a
bag. In this case, the worker is fine. However, whenever this happens, it creates anxiety and typically several
months of regular blood tests to ensure that the worker hasn’t contracted any diseases from the needle stick.
Many people have medical conditions that require the home use of “sharps,” such as hypodermic needles, syringes,
lancets, and scalpel blades. But when these items are improperly disposed, they put trash haulers and recycling facility
workers at risk. Loose sharps do NOT belong in curbside trash carts and NO sharps ever belong in recycle carts.
To properly dispose of sharps, keep them separate from all other trash in your home. You can purchase a sharps
disposal container at a pharmacy or you can create a sharps container at home. Use heavy-duty plastic jugs, such as empty
bleach bottles, or an empty coffee can. With a permanent marker, clearly mark the container “Sharps Only.” Dispose of all
items with sharp points or edges directly into that container and close the lid each time. Keep the container out of reach of
children and away from pets. When the container is three-quarters full, put on the lid and seal it tightly with strong tape.
You can place the sealed container into your garbage cart for pickup. Please, NEVER place a sharps container into your
recycle cart.
To learn more about safe sharps disposal:
• Safe Community Needle Disposal, 1-800-643-1643, www.safeneedledisposal.org
• Stericycle, 1-800-MEDWASTE, www.stericycle.com
If you have unneeded or outdated medications for disposal, visit www.acwastewatcher.org/household-hazardouswaste/unwanted-medication-disposal.
Don’t delay! Get
our app today!
The City of Fort Wayne has a mobile app for
smartphones, including iPhones and Android
devices. Using the app, you will be able to:
• Determine your recycle day and week.
• Set a reminder to your calendar.
• Get instant information about what can be
placed in your recycle cart.
• Learn where to recycle items that cannot go in your recycle
cart.
• Receive notifications about holiday collection, leaf collection,
and more.
RecycleFW is free and easy to install! To download the app,
go to the iTunes App Store or the Google Play Store and search
for “RecycleFW.” Visit http://cityoffortwayne.org/publicworks/
recyclefw-mobile-app.html for details.
Recycling Matters
4
Mayor Tom Henry
City of Fort Wayne
Solid Waste Department
200 East Berry St., Suite 210
Fort Wayne, IN 46802-1804
427-8311
www.RecycleFortWayne.org
Spring 2015