Walton county residents take advantage of County’s recycling programs
With more and more interest and concern for our environment, more people than ever have decided to become a part of a greener planet by recycling their household waste.
Walton County does not have a forced recycling program. However, many are taking advantage of what options are available, and taking the time to recycle.
Local resident Chandra Hartman and her household have reduced the amount of trash 
tremendously by being conscience about usage and disposal of their trash.
“I typically have one small garbage bag of waste a week and one bag of recyclables for a family of three. I’m working on reducing this even further because if we don’t make the trash in the first place, we don’t have to worry about how to dispose of it later,” Chandra stated.
“I compost and vermicompost all food scraps, shredded office paper, and newspaper. All non-shiny cardboard is used in the garden for sheet mulching. Glass, plastic, and cans are put in the recycle bin. I typically have one small garbage bag of waste a week and one bag of recyclables,” Chandra explains.
With a little effort, most of our waste can be recycled, and some can be turned into a high grade fertilizer for the garden.
Below is a rundown of programs and locations the County has available:
Blue Bag program
By placing recyclable household waste into a County-supplied blue plastic garbage bag, you can have the following items picked up with your regular trash. You can combine the items below together in one bag. When the garbage truck arrives at the landfill, inmates from the state prison identify the blue bags, retrieve and sort the items.
Acceptable items for Blue Bags:
• Clean dry paper and newspaper
The Walton County Blue Bag trash is placed on this conveyor belt called "Dirty Murph," where inmates pick through for recyclables and blue bags. Photo by Chris Mitchell,Walton county PIO
• Plastics (please rinse)
• Glass (please rinse)
• Tin/steel/aluminum cans
• Corrugated cardboard
Where to find Blue Bags in Walton:
South:
• Coastal Branch Library
• Government Annex lobby
• Tourist Development Council Welcome Center
• South Walton Fire District Fire Houses
• For the Health of It, Blue Mountain
• Amavida Coffee, Seaside
North:
• DeFuniak Springs Library
• County Administrator’s Office
• Courthouse Lobby
• DeFuniak Springs City Hall
• DeFuniak Springs Library
• Mossy Head – Commissioner Larry Jones’s Office, 892-8474
• Glendale – Commissioner Kenneth Pridgen’s Office, 834-6328
• Freeport – Commissioner Sara Comander’s Office, 835-4834 – Commissioner Scott Brannon’s Office, 835-4860
Recycle Trailers
Throughout Walton County residents can take their sorted recyclable waste to trailers located throughout the county. Aaron Warren, Recycling Program Coordinator, for Walton County says this is the preferred method for recycling, because it is already separated. For more information contact 850-951-0551
Items accepted at trailers:
Once the trash is picked through for recyclables, like aluminum cans, they are bundled up and sold to recyclers (or those who need metals, glass, and other types of materials.) - Photo by Christopher Mitchell, Walton County PIO
• Newspaper
• Plastics (please rinse)
• Glass (please rinse)
• Tin/steel/aluminum cans
• Corrugated cardboard
Large household items
For larger household items like furniture, white goods (dryers, refrigerators), tires and other materials, residents can either bring the items to the County Landfill or wait for publicly announced community clean up days and amnesty days that are at specified locations around the county. Check with WaltonOutdoors.com for upcoming dates and locations.
Landfill
- The County Landfill is located at 1118 Institution Road, DeFuniak Springs 32433. The landfill is open Mon. – Fri. 6 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and Sat. 7 a.m. – 1 pm.
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Yard debris
The County has an agreement with Waste Management on the south side of the Choctawhatchee Bay, and with Dayco on the north side to pick up yard debris.
Yard Trash means vegetation matter resulting from landscaping maintenance, including accumulation of lawn, grass, shrubbery cuttings or clippings and dry leaf rakings, palm fronds, small tree branches (which shall not exceed four feet in length and three inches in diameter), bushes or shrubs, green leaf cuttings, fruits, or other matter usually created as refuse in the routine care of lawns and yards. Yard Trash does not include large branches, trees, or bulky non-containerized material not susceptible to normal loading and collection in loader packer type sanitation equipment used for regular collections from domestic households. Yard Trash does not include any form or matter or debris resulting from tree removal, land clearing, land development, home improvement, or waste generated by tree surgeons or landscapers. Yard trash does not include hazardous waste, and cannot be commingled with other waste.
Used motor oil
Used motor oil waste locations are available for residents. There are waste oil
Waste oil container. Photo courtesy Walton County.
containers available at several locations for easy disposal.
Here are the safety tips for recycling:
Put used motor oil in a clean plastic container with a tight lid. Do not store the oil in a container that once held chemicals, food or beverages.
Do not mix the oil with any other liquids such as antifreeze, solvent or paint.
For more information, contact the Walton County Landfill 850-892-8180
Locations:
South:
District 5 Road Department (behind Walton County Courthouse Annex)
North:
Paxton Fire Station
DeFuniak Springs – Woodyard Road (next to County Public Works Dept), Walton County Landfill
Freeport old City Hall location
Did you know?
• Used oil from one oil change can contaminate 1 million gallons of fresh water – a years’ supply for 50 people!
• If all the oil from American do-it-yourself oil changers were recycled, it would be enough motor oil for more than 50 million cars a year. Imagine how much foreign oil that would eliminate.
Information courtesy epa.gov
If it ain’t broke
If you have large household items you want to get rid of that are still in working order, consider giving it away to someone else in need. There is a local Yahoo online group you can join and post items wanted as well as items to discard. For more information email: WaltonCountyFreecycle-owner@yahoogroups.com
Posted under Home/Garden
This post was written by Walton Outdoors on December 17, 2008
