Recycling Education Headlines Green Committee’s Agenda

Members of the 's Green Committee met on Tuesday to discuss ways to achieve their goals of supporting and encouraging sustainable living for area residents and businesses.

Led by committee co-chair Diana Coldren, much of the group's discussion focused on promoting recycling in the community. And throughout the meeting, members were clearly in agreement on the method for increasing recycling activity. In Coldren's words: "It's got to start with education."

Measures Put in Place to Educate Residents about Recycling

To that end, the committee has begun working with area realtors, encouraging them to distribute the Civic Association's Beacon Hill Neighborhood Guide. While no formal arrangement is yet in place, the guide already includes key information, like when to leave out garbage (between midnight and 7 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and recyclables (Friday), and how to properly dispose of recyclables (place it in clear plastic bags).

The guide also includes information about disposing of hazardous materials. For example, at 56 Charles St. accepts rechargeable batteries. At the meeting, Committee member Jordan Bray was tasked with providing a fully updated list of drop-off points for various materials.

Help Make Recycling Affordable for Businesses

Next up, the committee will be formulating a plan to make recycling more affordable for Beacon Hill's small business community. The first step might be pooling the recyclables of several businesses within close proximity of each other to reduce hauling costs.

A Long-Standing Debate

Recycling and trash pickup -- the chief domains of the Green Committee -- are topics of long-standing debates on Beacon Hill. Some Civic Association board members and residents are in favor of replacing one of the three trash pickup days with a second recycling pickup day due to the increase in volume of household recyclables.

But others say it's a bad idea to give a trash day when the densely-packed neighborhood already struggles to control rodent problems. Read last month's for his take on the issue.