The department had offered weekly disposal service at its Fort Totten Transfer Station, but will instead accept and process such materials once a month, every first Saturday, starting this week.

The weekly service at Fort Totten was implemented to replace the semi-annual household hazardous waste and e-cycling events at Carter Barron Amphitheatre. The District was the first jurisdiction in the region to offer weekly document shredding for residents.

So, if you have an old television set, a substance that can "[d]estroy living tissue on contact," or other object or material that should be disposed of properly (complete list here), be sure to mark off the first Saturday of the month. Also, if you have a substance that can destroy living tissue on contact, you may have some other logistical problems to worry about.

The Fort Totten Transfer Station also gets high marks on Yelp—4.5 stars to be exact: "The folks here are always there to greet you with a smile—and they truly have one of the worst jobs—for what most people would prefer to do. Easy to navigate—nice people—convenient hours. Excellent customer service!!!!"

Well, not as convenient as it once was. Still, better than the Department of Motor Vehicles inspection station! From Yelp: "[R]est assured that any trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles is likely to end with you feeling more violated than your average Abu Ghraib torture victim." Ouch.

Barry watchers, we know, are deep into reading the Bennett report and all of its revelations. There's a lot to sift through there, so we've done a lot of the heavy lifting for you: Read here, for instance, to find out how Barry allegedly took kickbacks, here to find out how he allegedly pressured ex-girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt to impede Robert S. Bennett's investigation, and here to find out how many times he allegedly requested sexual favors from a nonprofit worker (hint: the answer involves the number 562).

Barry resents the allegations.

"I have been in office 55 years, and even my public enemies, my political enemies, my other enemies have never implied that I ever took a penny that wasn't owed to me," the former mayor said from the D.C. Council dais yesterday.

Is this one of those things where it depends what the definition of "owed" is? Just wondering.

Also: Isn't that a lot of enemies?

But back to being in a bad mood. Let's play a good news-bad news game. Ready?

*The good news is all (most? many?) of our cars are now dug out from the snowstorms. The bad news is you can't drive them anywhere!

*The good news is the Metro is running. The bad news is it and its six-car trains at the peak of rush on the Red Line suck! Also, I realize it takes a long time for people to get off packed trains at busy stops, but wouldn't it be more helpful if you actually let people get on, too, before you start yelling about how you are now closing the doors? Just wondering.

*The good news is the city has started to empty the overflowing public trash cans. The bad news is all the trash that already overflowed is now making the city look like a shithole. A little poll: Would you throw trash in a can that's already full? If you answered yes, you suck like Metro!

*The good news is it's already Wednesday! The bad news is it's only Wednesday!

Go off and have your day now, go on.

Photo by Erika Niedowski

Grant cautions that District trash haulers won't be able to do any alley pickups. If you want your trash collected, Grant says, residents must place the trash in front of their dwellings. She adds that residents must place the trash in dark-colored plastic bags. But will they get to everyone's trash? Not a chance.

"We're going to do our absolute best," Grant says. "There are many side streets that have snow....We've got some narrow streets because there was so much snow. But we will do our best."

Grant adds that recycling pick-up has been suspended.

And, well, if you live in a building that uses a private hauler, you are probably out of luck.

(Darrow Montgomery)

Awhile ago, we brought you a story about recycling that routinely gets tossed out with the trash. Well, as you can imagine, we thought this was pretty surprising news: that loads of plastics, paper, bottles and cans dutifully dumped into recycling bins around the city were still ending up at the landfill. The culprits? Some private haulers, who apparently f0und it too expensive and too much of a hassle to take the goods to out-of-town recycling centers.

After the story ran last November, we asked Department of Public Works officials if they planned to do anything about the problem. This week DPW got back to us, which is convenient since DPW recycling chief Bill Easley and I are all going to be on the Kojo Nnamdi Show this afternoon talking about the city's recycling travails.

But, for starters, here's DPW's response to our follow up questions:

"In response to your follow-up question, DPW is working to step up its enforcement efforts by expanding the numbers of personnel who will be inspecting for commercial recycling violations. We plan to augment the number of inspectors by training some of the inspectors with our Solid Waste Education and Enforcement Program (SWEEP) on what to look for. I don't have an exact number of how many additional inspectors will be added but we currently have only three recycling inspectors compared to 35-40 SWEEP inspectors.

"We'll start looking at some of the smaller haulers to see what their ratio of trash to recycling vehicles are.

"Finally, DPW is seeking legislation to increase the amount of fines for violators. We feel like this will make businesses more likely to stay in compliance. We expect Council to hold a hearing on this sometime in the Spring."

Later, Nancee Lyons sent another email saying the following:

"I'd like to expand on what I sent earlier with regard to increasing our commercial recycling fines:

"The Department is working on revisions to the recycling regulations that include increased fines for many initial offenses and that establish graduated increased penalties for repeat offenses.  We expect to move forward with the regulations soon."

I'd still like to know if DPW is investigating the five companies we caught trashing recyclables and whether the planned new legislation will go far enough to close loopholes in the law. I've already sent in my follow up to the department's follow up.  Maybe we'll get some answers this afternoon on the radio! (ADVERTISEMENT: tune in at 1:15 p.m.)

This is a topic near and dear to City Paper's heart, which is why we bring it up. MacDonald wrote a cover story for the paper in November cataloging multiple instances of private D.C. haulers mixing recycling and trash on their rounds. She also criticized DPW for failing to crack down on violators.

Cue the dramatic music: A few weeks later, City Paper itself received a recycling violation in the mail. Inspector Kayanda Jones had discovered trash mixed in with the recycling-only Dumpster behind 2390 Champlain Street NW and written a $50 ticket. There was even a picture!

The timing of this seemed curious. Was it retribution, City Paper asked DPW at the time? (DPW's response: "Of course not.")

Since then, DPW has provided answers to a few questions we asked about how the whole thing went down.

For instance, were there other violations written on the same day in the same area? Turns out, there were: The department provided copies of five other violations observed by the same inspector on the same day, Nov. 16. The 7-Eleven on Mount Pleasant Street was cited for "failure to have sufficient number of containers for separated recyclables," and Queen's Cafe & Hookah on 18th Street was cited for "failure to separate recycling from other solid waste," the same violation issued to City Paper.

Did someone make a complaint to prompt the inspection? Often, DPW spokesperson Nancee Lyons said at the time, that is how inspections come about. "No complaint was filed about the dumpsters behind 2390 Champlain Street. The investigator is assigned to Ward 1 and was working in that section of the ward," Christine V. Davis, the department's general counsel, wrote.

And why was the citation written to Washington City Paper, which does not own the building, but rather is one of several tenants in it? "The materials in the dumpster had the City Paper's name on it."

We wonder what else DPW learned going through our trash.

The Issue: A handful of Dumpsters are wreaking a disproportionate amount of havoc near Logan Circle. The six offenders live near Claridge Towers at 12th and M Streets NW. Neighbors complain not only that the garbage is picked up at ungodly hours but that the Dumpsters are overflowing, forcing residents of the apartment building to walk around—and smell—the resulting mess.

What’s That Smell? Some residents are fed up with the lack of maintenance and are putting together a petition for the building management. Dorothy Settles, who has tried to get city politicians interested in the issue, to no avail, told City Desk: “They dump the trash at four or five in the morning, and leave the Dumpsters uncovered on the sidewalk. Kids and the elderly have to walk in the street, and the odor is horrendous. I’ve been complaining for years. Who wants to live in a trash dump?” According to DPW, trash collection hours are not supposed to start until 6:30 a.m.

Our Trash Runneth Over: Who wants to step up to defend overflowing trash? It’s the apartment building’s responsibility for Dumpster upkeep. But the problem hasn’t exactly become a headliner: The item failed to make the agenda at the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting.

Next Step: Come on, people, take some pride in your Dumpsters.

Photo of non-relevant Dumpster by MBK, Creative Commons Attribution License

Did you know that much of the city’s trash is trucked to Fairfax County, where it is incinerated and turned into electricity? According to the Department of Public Works and the “waste-to-energy” industry, it's a "win-win" scenario; the trash disappears and the country reduces its dependence on foreign oil. What could be more patriotic, especially since officials say filters on the smokestacks keep nasty pollutants from escaping into the air around the Lorton plant.

Well, in a report released today, environmentalists take aim at those claims. Clean Water Action, the Toxics Action Center and six other groups from around the country are seeking to debunk the growing buzz around waste-to-energy plants as sources of clean “alternative” fuel. Their conclusion: an incinerator is an incinerator is an incinerator. 

"The core impacts of all types of incinerators remain the same: They are toxic to public health, harmful to the economy, environment and climate, and undermine recycling and waste reduction programs,” according to the report, “An Industry Blowing Smoke."

In a retro zero-tolerance move, the D.C. Police announced today that it will start ticketing litter bugs. The move follows the D.C. Council passing an anti-littering law last year. Don't worry, you probably can go ahead and throw your McDonald's wrappers out of your car window. There's a month-long grace period. And do you really see D.C. cops ticketing for this?

The police write in its release:

"Starting April 10, 2009 (today), the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) will begin a 30-day warning period to alert motorists of the littering violation and associated fines. Following the warning period, police will begin issuing actual Notices of Infraction (NOIs) to motorists caught littering from their vehicles. The fine for a traffic littering violation is $100 per violation.

"Litter poses health risks, harms water quality and wildlife habitat, and is an offense against communities.  Neighborhoods with a lot of litter are at risk of more serious crime and disorder."