Recycling & Solid Waste
Bulky Waste Day
First Saturday in June and October,
10 am to 2 pm
Highway Department Yard, Leverett Road
(Roadside Swap Week precedes each Bulky Waste Day)
Twice a year, in June and October, we offer the Bulky Waste program to all residents. This is an opportunity to recycle or dispose of items which will not fit into the weekly yellow trash bags, or are not allowed in the bags under the Recycling and Solid Waste guidelines.
We begin with Shutesbury Swap Week. During the week preceding Bulky Waste Days, residents are encouraged to place their unwanted household items at roadside, with a "free" sign. Usable furniture, toys, athletic equipment, flower pots, building materials, books, clothing, paint… anything that would be of use to others... gain an extended life with new owners. Many savvy recyclers successfully use this option throughout the year, but the designated week becomes a Town-wide event. People take a ride around town, check out the offerings, and help to recycle and reuse those cast-off gems along the roadsides.
Your unclaimed reusable items can be brought to the end cap of the week — Bulky Waste Day.
This is your chance to dispose of large items not accepted in weekly curbside trash collection. "White goods" — enameled metals such as stoves, washers, dryers, etc; scrap metal, tires and furniture can be brought to the Highway Department yard on Leverett Road between 10am and 2pm, without appointment. There will be fees assessed to cover the cost of the roll-off containers and dumping fees.(Space is limited, so large loads may not be accepted.)
Pesticides, oil-based paints and thinners, and other hazardous materials are not accepted. You must bring those items to the joint Household Hazardous Waste days run through the Town of Amherst at their landfill. Further info on this process can be found here.
As you arrive at the Highway Department yard on Leverett Road, the Recycling and Solid Waste Committee members with guide you through the process. Traffic is routed through from the east entrance, with a one-way loop to keep everyone safe. You'll pass by the swap and donation area, then the check-in/payment stations, where you can buy bags or "blue boxes", then pass by the metals and trash rolloff containers, electronics collection and exit.
First stop in the gate is the swap and donation area. Residents leave or take items, and at the end of the day, the remainding gems are donated to the Amherst Survival Center. The general concept on acceptable swap or donation items of furniture, toys and clothing, is to judge the items as something you would give to family or friends to reuse.
You may still be charged the disposal cost of some swap/donation items, such as large furniture or CFC appliances, because there are no guarantees that they will be taken away by someone else. If they do remain at the end of the day, and are not suitable for Amherst Survival Center donation, the R&SW Committee workers will need to load them for disposal, and those costs need to be covered.
Your load will be checked in, and a disposal cost is assessed. See the general price list for Bulky Waste Days*. The general concept is to cover the cost of the rolloff containers, processing of special items such as refrigerators, humidifiers and propane tanks, and offer the convenience of an in-town site.
After paying the assessed costs, and buying blue boxes or bags if needed, you'll unload your tires with rims, and grill-size propane tanks, first. The next stop is at the forty yard rolloff containers. You'll carry your items up onto the elevated walkway and toss them into the trash container, or the metals container. Large and heavy appliances will be loaded into the containers with a backhoe/loader. Items with CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons - the refrigerant liquid) will be set aside in a designated area. They must be drained of their refrigerant to minimize ozone depletion.
Next stop is the Electronics Collection point. Any items with electronic circuitry are banned from landfills or incineration by Massachusetts law. We collect them, and process them through the Umass Intermediate Processing Facility. We are charged a fee for the associated costs of legal disposal, and residents may not bring their items directly there. We do have to charge for CRT (cathode ray tube) items, such as televisions and computer monitors, but we subsidize the actual cost. The items we commonly see are computers (all parts); televisions; radios; stereos; remote controls, CD players; touch tone and cordless telephones, VCR's, fax machines and answering machines.
We also have a station set up to receive bagged inkjet, laser, fax, copier cartridges, and used cell phones. The cartridges are recycled and refilled, and the sponsors of this station, the Shutesbury Elementary School PTO, receives a modest rebate for each cartridge and phone they send in.
You can also drop off your depleted cartridges or unneeded cell phones at the Town Hall, Post Office, and the school anytime. Please keep your cartridges out of the waste stream, and support the PTO in their ongoing fundraiser. For a list of acceptable cartridges, please go to www.cartridgesforkids.com/prices.html. In general, if there are electrical contact points on the casing, they are recyclable in this program. Please no powder toner bottles, tubes, or printer ribbons — they can't be recycled.
Tips
- We are busiest in the first few hours of the event. As noontime approaches, the rush subsides, then picks up again in the final hour or so.
- Arranging your items in order of removal will make it easier to unload as you go through.
- Plan on unloading your items into the roll-offs without assistance. You got it into your car or truck, and are responsible for getting it out. We do handle some large appliances with Town equipment, but you should be self-sufficient otherwise. If you had help loading up, bring them along to unload. Our volunteers don't need to be injured handling your "stuff".
- Check ahead with Blaire Robey if you have a question on specific items, or know that you'll have a very large item or overall volume.
- Plan ahead... clean out the garage, basement or camp in advance, to minimize your stress on Bulky Waste Days.
- Think about re-use of items you no longer want or need, throughout the year. The longer an item's useful life can be entended, the less natural resources we will use.
- Donations to charitable agencies, posting free items in the school newsletter or on grocery store bulletin boards, or using the free ad section of the Daily Hampshire Gazette and Amherst Bulletin will likely find a new owner for your unwanted items.
- Subscribe to the free Amherst Bulletin. You'll receive notice of events, schedule changes, etc.
- Subscribe to the Town E-mail list for the same info, delivered to your computer.