Q: WHAT DO I DO WITH MY OLD COMPUTER AND OLD PAINT AND CHEMICALS I DONT NEED ANYMORE?
The Fort Bend Recycling facility at 1200 Blume Road in Rosenberg in addition to weekdays is open each Saturday of the month. Starting January 4, 2003, the Fort Bend Environmental Center, co-located with the Recycling facility, will be open the first Saturday of each month from 9 AM until 2 PM for Household Hazardous Waste collection. This additional day will allow residents one Saturday per month to dispose of home chemicals. The Envirnomental Center is open each Monday from 9 AM until 6 PM, except County holidays, for Household Hazardous Waste collection.
Household Hazardous Wastes are those home chemicals that you have under the kitchen sink, in the bathroom, garage, workshop, or shed. They can be Flammable gasoline, paint thinner, oil based paint, stains; Toxic pesticides, weed killers, fungicides; Reactive - bleach, strong fertilizers, pool chemicals, or Caustic acids or bases, cleaners and degreasers. The facility is limited to wastes from households ONLY; therefore business, commercial or agricultural wastes can not be accepted. Chemicals must be in 5 gallon containers or smaller. The facility does not accept garbage, trash, dead animals, medical waste, radioactive waste, explosives, gunpowder, ammunition or compressed gas cylinders. Your drivers license or other proof of residency in Fort Bend County is required. This service is open to all Fort Bend County residents. There is a charge of $5 per 5 gallon container equivalent of waste; e.g., 5 one gallon paint cans equal a 5 gallon container or 20 spray cans equal a 5 gallon container.
In addition to Household Hazardous Waste collection the Recycling facility accepts Recyclables, Electronic Scrap, Scrap Tires (passenger and truck tires) and BOPA materials. Items accepted for recycling are - newspaper, cardboard, white paper, junk mail, phone books, magazines, brown and clear food and beverage glass containers, number 1 and 2 plastic and aluminum cans.
The following items are considered Electronic Scrap for recycling computers, monitors, computer mice, keyboards, scanners, printers, fax machines, computer components, tvs, digital and video cameras, vcr, cd and dvd players, stereos, record players, tape recorders, cellular phones, and microwave ovens. Electronic Scrap will be accepted during the regular operational hours of the Recycling facility which are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 AM until 4 PM. The facility is closed to the public on Wednesdays for collection of county materials.
There is a limit of three computers and monitors per household. No business computers can be taken. There is a $5.00 charge per item or $5.00 for a computer and monitor pair to help defray the cost of recycling. A grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Houston-Galveston Area Council of governments will cover the remainder of the cost. The cost to recycle a computer and monitor ranges from $20 - $30.
Scrap Tires (passenger and truck tires) are accepted during the regular operational hours of the Recycling facility. There is a limit of 8 tires per visit. Tires must be off the rim and less than 22.5 inches. Your drivers license is required as proof of residency. There is a $1.00 fee for each passenger and light truck tire and a $5.00 fee for each tractor truck (eighteen wheeler) tire.
BOPA stands for Batteries, motor Oil and filters, latex Paint and Anti-freeze. These materials are easily recycled in the Houston area and make up the majority of materials that are collected at a Household Hazardous Waste event. BOPA materials are accepted during regular operational hours of the Recycling facility. Quantities are limited to 5 gallons of motor oil, 5 oil filters, 10 gallons of latex paint and 5 gallons of anti-freeze per visit. Cooking Oil is also be accepted for recycling. No business or commercial waste is accepted
For additional information call the Recycling and Household Hazardous Waste phone line at 281-633-7527, or visit us on the internet at
www.co.fort-bend.tx.us/county_services/Engineering/recycle_default.htm
The Recycling and Environmental Center construction and operation is funded in part with grant funds from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Houston Galveston Area Council.
Q: What can I do about my junk mail? ---
Unsure what to do with the growing pile of catalogs, credit card offers, and sweepstakes entry forms arriving in your mailbox? Whether you call it junk mail, advertising mail, or even if you use the official term standard mail -it still comes. How do I get rid of this stuff? Can I recycle it? Can I avoid getting it in the first place? According to the Direct Marketing Association, if you have ordered from a catalog, contributed to a charity, used a credit card, or subscribed to a magazine, then your name probably was added to various marketing lists.
First-Class Solutions to Reducing Unwanted Mail
Here are some ways to reduce the amount of unsolicited mail that comes
to your household:
-When ordering a product or service, ask the company not to share your name and address with other marketers.
-If you make a donation to a charity, be sure to ask that it not rent
your name and address to other organizations or businesses.
-Write to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and ask it to remove your name and home mailing address from advertiser's mailing lists. For more information, visit the DMA's Web site at
www.the-dma.org/cgi/offmailinglistdave or mail your signed request to: Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, P. O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, New York, 11735-9008. It may take several months before you see a difference the amount of junk mail you get from national advertisers.
-Send a letter to ADVO/Mailbox Values asking it to remove your name from its mailing lists. The company distributes its ShopWise branded mailings to over 60 million households weekly and is the single largest private customer of the U.S. Postal Ser-vice.(USPS) Mail your request to: List Service Department, ADVO/Mailbox Values, 239 W Service Rd, Hart-ford, CT, 06120-1205
- Contact Val-Pak to stop the company's familiar blue envelope from arriving at your home. Ask the company to remove your name
from its mailing list by sending an e-mail to
valerie@valpak.com or
by mailing the actual addressed piece of mail to: Val-Pak Direct
Marketing Systems, Address In-formation, 8605 Largo Lakes Drive, Largo, FL 33773.
-If you get duplicates, call the 1-800 number on your catalogs, and ask them to stop mailing the duplicates. If you are not interested in the catalog, ask to be re-moved from the mailing list.
-Respond to privacy notices from financial institutions by choosing to "opt out" or say "no" to information sharing with affiliates and unaffiliated third parties.
-Refuse unwanted mail. According to the U.S. Postal Service, you can control delivery of mail by marking "REFUSED" on the mail and returning it unopened to the post office.
-Call the credit bureau's toll-free number for "opting-out" of pre-approved credit offers sent to you. For more information, call 1-888-5-OPTOUT (567-8688).
Reusing and Recycling Your Mail
For other mail or the mail you are unable to stop before it reaches your
home, try the following:
-Share your magazines with family, coworkers, and charities. If you never seem to get around to reading some of the magazines you subscribe to, consider canceling the subscription.
-See if local used bookstores will buy your magazines.
-Call 1-800-CLEANUP or visit
www.cleanup.org to find the nearest recycling center that accepts junk mail or mixed paper. Locally paper is accepted at 110 Gillingham Drive, off of Highway 90A next to Macco Park, large yellow and green bins are for refuse paper.
-Take leftover packing peanuts (fill) to a local mailing business for reuse. Call the Peanut Hotline at 1-800-828-2214 to find the nearest location that accepts loose fill for reuse. You could also reuse them when
mailing packages.
-Send the fronts of your old holiday and greeting cards to the St Jude's Ranch for Children Recycled Card Program. The card fronts are reused to make recycled greeting cards by the children. Mail only the card fronts
to: St. Jude's Ranch for Children, 100 St. Jude's Street, Boulder City, NV, 89005-1618. For more information, check out their Web site at:
www.stjudesranch.org/Content/cardprogram.shtml.
Sources: Direct Marketing Association, United States Postal Service, Federal Trade Commission, Plastic Loose Fill Council, Federal De-posit Insurance Corporation, St Jude's Ranch for Children, Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC)
DMA Mail Preference Service
Complete this form and return it to the DMA to reduce the amount of unsolicited national advertising mail you receive at home. Your name will remain on its Mail Preference Service for five years.
Name: __________________________________________________________________________
Street: _____________________________________________________________________ Apt#: ______________
City: _____________________________________________ State: _______________ Zip: _______________
Signature: _____________________________________________
If there is a problem with my registration, I can be contacted at:
Telephone: __________________________________________________________________________
E-mail: __________________________________________________________________________
Mail this form to:
Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 9008, Farmingdale, New York, 11735-9008.
Q: Should I use paper or plastic bags? ---
Paper Bags - Pro's
......
..Plastic Bags - Pro's
-Made from trees, a renewable resource
.-Require less energy to manufacture
-Recyclable
..-Recyclable
-Recycled more often than plastic
-Manufacturing produces less air pollution
-Biodegradable
and industrial waste
-Holds more groceries
. -Takes up less space in landfills
Paper Bags - Con's
.....
..Plastic Bags - Con's
-Trees grown for paper displace natural forests
..-Made from petroleum or natural gas,
-Chemicals used in the manufacturing process
..nonrenewable resources
pollute air and water
-Toxic chemicals used in manufacturing
-Herbicides and other pesticides are used
Not accepted by all recycling programs
on trees
-Nonbiodegradable bags contaminate oceans
Answer: The best solution is to take cloth bags with you to the store
and use them over and over again. If that is not always feasible, then choose the bag you're most likely to reuse or recycle.
For help with your questions email us at
KSLB@infohwy.com 
