Date: Fri 24-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SUZANN

Quick Words:

recycling-Hurley

Full Text:

Town Maintains Its Good Record For Recycling

BY SUZANNA NYBERG

With some adjustments, Newtown's recycling program has remained constant over

the years. Public Works Director Fred Hurley reports that the two components

to the program, the weekly curbside pickup and drop-off at the transfer

center, recycle more materials than other towns in the area. "We have the most

aggressive program in the state," he said.

Newtown's recycling efforts are profitable for the town. "We remove the freon,

a gas used in the transfer of heat and cold, from old refrigerators and air

conditioners," Mr Hurley said. "Schiavone Scrap Metal in New Haven pays us for

this by the ton; it is one of the materials on which we make money."

Yet Newtown's recycling efforts do not end with metal; they extend to waste

oil, old tires and burned-out batteries. "The bad particles are filtered out

of waste oil, and it is then reused or burned as fuel," Mr Hurley said. "The

ph level in antifreeze is rebalanced for commercial reuse."

Tires, recycled free in Newtown, are shipped to a New Jersey plant where they

are melted down and used as components in other products. Lead in car

batteries is captured and melted down for reuse; nickel, mercury, and cadmium

is removed from dry cell batteries and sent back to the individual

manufacturer for recycling.

"It is very important, in terms of keeping air pollution levels low, that

these substances are kept out of the waste stream and away from incinerators,"

Mr Hurley said. Junk mail and catalogues, which Mr Hurley reports Newtown

residents are very good about recycling, are shipped to Marcal products in New

Jersey to make toilet tissue and hand towels. Newsprint, he reported, is also

shipped out for recycling.

Two components of recycling, however, no longer have or have yet to find a

place in town. The Stamford market for certain plastics such as styrofoam has

died, and shipping costs to Long Island are prohibitive.

Also, nature, not Newtown, must do the job of composting leaves and twigs.

"Newtown is 60 square miles," Mr Hurley said. "As a practical matter, we would

have no place to put it." Yet the town, for a fee, will make wood chips, chips

that may be used by homeowners for landscaping or at the town's now closed

landfill to prevent erosion.

Mr Hurley attributes the recycling program's success to education, awareness,

and the rural atmosphere that still persists in town. "The surroundings call

attention to nature," he said.