Recycling Center

Reynolds Aluminum Recycling Co. has moved its Joppa recycling center to the Giant Food Store, 1901 Pulaski Highway, in Joppa. The center operates from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For information, call (800)228-2525.

Some people count down the days to a major holiday, or a vacation. I'm counting down the days to my next recycling pickup. I've lived in Baltimore County a long time - long enough to remember the recycling center at the Owings Mills Metro on the weekends. But as recycling, and the greening of America, became more important, we saw many improvements: first to curbside pickup, which ultimately reduced our trash collection to weekly; and eventually to single-stream, where we could mix all our recycling together, no longer having to bin the paper, glass, metal and plastic separately.

GTS Duratek Inc., a Columbia-based technology company better known for converting nuclear waste into glass for safe storage, has moved into the oil industry with a $1 investment in a Texas-based petroleum waste recycling center.For that nominal fee, Duratek acquired 80 percent interest in a now-closed plant established by Bird Corp. of Norwood, Mass., to recycle oil from sludge left over from the refining process, the company said yesterday.Bird, a manufacturer of asphalt shingles and other roofing products, has decided to abandon its move into the oil recycling industry, said Frank Anthony, the company's general counsel.

It is spring glorious spring (da do ron ron ron da do ron ron), and our gallant president has rallied his fractious forces against wacko demagoguery, the crocuses are up, and birds are returning from the South, preferring to raise their children here in Minnesota where we pull our pants on one leg at a time and not all at once. Some people in Washington haven't managed to get their pants on in years. Slowly, slowly, the simple fact dawns on the electorate that the Democrats have passed a moderate Republican health care reform.

Baltimore County opened its first permanent electronics recycling center yesterday at the Baltimore County Resource Recovery Facility on Warren Road in Cockeysville. Electronics can be dropped off Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Acceptable items include TVs, VCRs, DVD players, cell phones, stereos, computer monitors and computer equipment (CPUs, mice, keyboards, speakers, printers, laptops, power supplies, scanners, cables and cords). No microwaves or other household appliances or business or institutional material will be accepted.

Some 18 months ago, it was moved from a parking lot off Belair Road because it was attracting such large crowds.Last fall, Gov. William Donald Schaefer visited personally to praise it and the volunteers who run it.But at noon tomorrow, the Overlea Recycling Center will shut down for good.John Stewart, president of the Overlea Community Association, said the group decided about a month ago to close the recycling center it operates each Saturday in the Overlea High School parking lot."Our organization just can't do it anymore," Mr. Stewart said.

TANEYTOWN - When construction ended last month on the city's $11,000 recycling center, nobody thought the facility could become obsolete in less than a year.The 900-square-foot recycling center in the middle of Taneytown Memorial Park is a first for this rapidly growing North Carroll city, one that has been discussed and anticipated for months on end.When the center opens early next month, residents will be able to drop off newspapers, cans, bottles and plastics, keeping them out of the county landfills.

Harford government officials are lobbying Reynolds Aluminum to assist the county's recycling effort when the company doubles the size of its Joppa aluminum processing plant."

The Howard County Board of Appeals has again postponed a public hearing scheduled tonighton a variance request for a recycling center that was built in Elkridge without a permit or county approval.The hearing, which had first been scheduled Aug. 19, has been rescheduled for Nov. 10 at the George Howard Building in Ellicott City.Richard B. Talkin, a Columbia attorney representing Partners Quality Recycling Services, asked the board for the postponement for unspecified reasons, said Robin Regner, an administrative assistant to the board.

The Howard County Board of Appeals has postponed tonight's public hearing on a variance request for a recycling center that was built in Elkridge without a permit or county approval.The hearing has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 3.Richard B. Talkin, a lawyer representing Partners Quality Recycling Services, which owns the center, asked for the delay to collect new information to support his client's request for a reduction in setbacks from a public right of way, said Joseph W. Rutter Jr., the director of the Department of Planning and Zoning.

Efforts to boost recycling collections are getting extra emphasis in Howard and Anne Arundel counties as officials contemplate the looming end of their bargain-price trash disposal contracts. Both jurisdictions have shipped most of their residential trash by train from Annapolis Junction on their common border to a private commercial landfill in Virginia for $33 a ton since the mid-1990s. That contract with Waste Management Inc. will expire in five years, and the cost of any new agreement is expected to more than double.

Although she sells a lot of bottled water and soft drinks at Sofi's Crepes, her smaller-than-small shop on Charles Street, Ann Costlow couldn't find room for a recycling bin to process the empties. She couldn't, that is, until she began getting complaints from her customers. "I was like, `Yeah-yeah-yeah, that's great for others, but I don't have the space.' " Costlow said. "But, more and more people started asking me, `Do you recycle?' It became this nagging, ankle-biting thing, until finally, I realized I was beginning to look like I didn't care about the Earth."

Sewage amendment hearing on Aug. 28 County staff recently presented to the county commissioners a proposed amendment to Chapter 223 to make the existing zoning text amendment for the storage of sewage sludge (biosolids) permanent. Currently, the storage of dried, pelletized sewage sludge of a Class A grade or equivalent is allowed under specific conditions, but the current text amendment expires Nov. 4. The proposed amendment would make this provision permanent. A public hearing will be held on the proposed amendments at 10 a.m. Aug. 28 in Room 311 of the County Office Building.

As part of Howard County's Discover County Government Week activities, to be held through Saturday, tours of several facilities -- the landfill, the recycling center, the water reclamation plant and the new Glenwood Community Center -- are being offered to showcase the county's environmental initiatives. The Department of Public Works will hold tours of the recycling center in Elkridge at 1 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday. Tours of the Alpha Ridge Landfill in Marriottsville will be offered at 3 p.m. Landfill tours are open to all ages, but anyone younger than 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

The Sykesville Police Department has noticed a recent increase in minor crimes. Officials encourage residents to secure their homes and vehicles, and report any suspicious activity, individuals or vehicles in their areas. Residents can call Sykesville Police at 410-795-0757, or 911 in an emergency. Cards made for `Wounded Warriors' Members of the Westminster Rotary Club recently provided Christmas cards for "Wounded Warriors," military personnel recovering from injuries at Walter Reed Army and Bethesda Naval medical centers.

Baltimore County opened its first permanent electronics recycling center yesterday at the Baltimore County Resource Recovery Facility on Warren Road in Cockeysville. Electronics can be dropped off Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Acceptable items include TVs, VCRs, DVD players, cell phones, stereos, computer monitors and computer equipment (CPUs, mice, keyboards, speakers, printers, laptops, power supplies, scanners, cables and cords). No microwaves or other household appliances or business or institutional material will be accepted.

Code home rule is focus of hearings The county commissioners have scheduled two public hearings on whether Carroll should consider adopting code home rule. All residents are welcome to comment on the proposal to have the voters decide whether Carroll should change its form of government. Information on code home rule may be found online at http:--ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/codehom e. Comments also may be sent to the county attorney's office, 225 N. Center St., Westminster 21157. Public hearings will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Oklahoma Road Middle School on Oklahoma Road off Liberty Road, Eldersburg; and Aug. 1 at the County Office Building, 225 N. Center St., Westminster.

Six years after trying to close a recycling center in Pasadena, the Anne Arundel County Council is poised to approve a zoning change that would put that plant into legal compliance. The change is included in the Pasadena-Lake Shore zoning maps, part of the county's most comprehensive zoning makeover in three decades. It would allow A-A Recycle & Sand, a natural wood waste recycling center, to legally operate in a residential area along Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard, near Lake Waterford Park.