Howard County to roll out new recycling bins
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After months of discussion and argument, Howard County residents are to begin receiving new recycling bins that county officials hope will increase participation while reducing the amount of trash. All recyclables can be mixed in the bins, which can then be rolled to the curb. County Executive Ken Ulman is to kick off the countywide program Tuesday by distributing the first few blue bins to residents on Jackson Court in North Laurel. Ulman is spending an estimated $3 million in county funds to buy about 71,000 of the bins, which come in three sizes: 64 gallons for detached homes, 35 gallons for townhouses with garages and 18 gallons for townhouses without garages. The county conducted a pilot project on one trash route in the Elkridge area last year and said recycling increased 25 percent as a result. Residents in each neighborhood are to receive information on the program a week before the bins arrive, a spokeswoman said.
Double-deck coaches are delivered to MARC
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The 13 double-deck commuter coaches the state has purchased for its MARC commuter train service have been delivered, the Maryland Transit Administration said yesterday. The cars, which were purchased from Virginia Railway Express for $22 million as part of an effort to relieve crowding on MARC, are expected to be put into service late this fall.
Michael Dresser
State GOP makes a deal to recycle campaign signs
The Maryland Republican Party has announced a solution for getting rid of those campaign signs that tend to linger on lawns after election season, and it is an environmentally friendly proposal at that. The GOP said yesterday that it has negotiated a deal with a recycling company to pick up campaign signs after the presidential election. The party plans to set up drop-off points throughout the state in keeping with its "proud, pro-conservation stance," according to a statement from Chairman Jim Pelura. As for the Democrats, individual campaigns have recycled for years, state party spokesman David Paulson said.
Laura Smitherman
Contraband cigarettes worth $22,000 seized
Salisbury: Agents with the Maryland comptroller's office confiscated about 4,500 packs of contraband cigarettes worth more than $22,000 Tuesday after Wicomico County sheriff's deputies stopped a van during a routine traffic stop. They arrested the driver and passenger, who were from Delaware and Illinois. The comptroller's office has seized more than 46,000 packs of smokes illegally brought across state lines through July of this year, a nearly fourfold increase over the same period in 2007. State officials say a doubling of the tobacco tax to $2 a pack could be a factor in the rise in smuggling.
Laura Smitherman
