There are two ways every household in Scarborough, or any of our cohort communities, can help themselves, their community and the environment: recycling and composting. Our household has done both for 30 years since we lived in Japan, where it is the law. I cannot imagine the tons of recyclables and organic garbage we have kept out of the environment.

Recycling in Scarborough is extremely easy. The yellow-lidded curbside container is the key ingredient. All recyclable plastics now have the recycle triangle on them. The tubes for toilet tissue and paper towels, newspapers, most magazines and office paper are recyclable. Paper towels and tissues are better composted.

Most recycling curbside containers now have a sticker to help identify which items should go in and which should not. Please use this guide. When you throw your trash in your recycling container, you are adding to the “garbage,” which we pay $70 per ton to get rid of. It doesn’t take many containers to reach one ton. It gets very expensive very quickly. Just look at your town budget.

Composting is easy. Almost anything can be composted, but it is best to keep meat and things that attract scavengers out of the compost bin. Vegetable matter, mulched leaves in the fall, a few grass clippings, any weeds pulled from the garden, tubes from tissue paper and paper towels, tissues themselves and egg cartons all compost. Turn and water it once a month. A simple screen sifter yields a beautiful compost after a few months. When the process is complete, the compost smells like tea leaves.

If you cannot, or don’t want to, compost, buy a small bucket, or a 5-gallon one. Put your compostable materiel in there. Once a week or so, drive by one of the three compost stations called toters. These are at the Veteran’s Home on U.S. Route 1, Wal Mart, and Pine Tree Waste. They are serviced by Garden to Garden. Since May 2015, these toters have diverted approximately seven tons of compostable material from the solid waste stream. That seven tons is now on its way to fertilizing something good instead of adding to our waste stream.

Please separate your garbage and recyclables. Please compost. Ask your neighbors to do the same. It takes so little effort and it helps everyone. It’s a real win-win.

Michael B. Turek
Scarborough