Beginning July 1st, recycling is now open THURSDAY evenings, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM,
AND Saturday morning 7:30 AM - 11 AM.
As approved at the March 2010 Town Meeting, Monroe has instituted a drop-off recycling program. The drop-off is located at the Municipal Garage on Woodsville Road (between the school and Winchester Drive, behind the ice skating rink.) During the summer, the drop-off will be open every Saturday morning from 7:30 AM - 11 AM, except on holiday weekends. Note, these hours of operation are already a change from the Opening Day hours, after we had a few requests to open earlier (and had a few early birds, as well.) Recycling will now also be open on Big Trash Days. At first, we were concerned there wouldn't be enough space for everything at the same time, but Butch has assured us it's no problem.
After the end of October, it will move to a 'winter schedule', with the drop-off being open every other Saturday. (Why be open less often in winter? Because trash smells less in the wintertime, and no one wants to stand outside that often!)
If you have already been recycling at one of the area's other facilities, such as Littleton or East Ryegate, you should know that there is NO sorting required for Monroe. Casella Waste Management is handling sorting for us at the Williston, VT facility. You will need to empty your recyclables out of your primary container into the dumpster; you can't 'sling' a large plastic trash bag in. Help will be available if you need it. Not sure what you can recycle? Go to the Recycling Guidelines page, where you can view or download a copy of the guidelines being sent out with the May Town Newsletter.
If you have never recycled before, and are wondering whether to start now, we'd love for you to see the artistic pleas of the town's children, like the poster above. Close to 3 dozen children entered the recycling poster contest - that's almost half the school population. But if that's not enough of a reason, we can give you an economic one: contrary to popular belief, our trash is NOT free. We ALL pay for it, in our taxes. Every ton of trash we choose to recycle costs us less than sending it to the landfill. We're not math geniuses, but we think that's pretty simple. Designate one trash can as your recycling container, and start tossing in cans, bottles, junk mail, tin foil, whatever. It's easier than you think. If we all did it, our tax bill for trash pick-up might actually go down, and who knows? The kids in town might see that they can really make a difference!