The Rutland County Solid Waste District offers a variety of solid waste, recycling, waste education, household hazardous waste, composting and administrative support programs for our seventeen member municipalities. Some services are also available to non-District communities on a fee for service basis. In addition, the District operates a regional drop-off center and transfer station at Gleason Road in Rutland City. District program, facility and rate information is now available on our web site, www.rcswd.com.

Waste Disposal: During 2007, residents and businesses in our member municipalities disposed of approximately 40,000 tons of municipal solid waste, nearly all of this was through the District’s master disposal contract with Casella Waste Management. The cost of disposal, handling and transportation from the District Transfer Station at Gleason Road to the landfill was $72.94 per ton. State taxes, district surcharge and the Rutland City Host Community Fee totaled $23.97, for a final disposal cost of $96.91 per ton.

Recycling: The District owns a Material Recovery Facility (MRF), or recycling center, off West Street in Rutland City that is leased by Casella Waste Management for their operations. The MRF accepts seventeen recyclable commodities from transfer stations, commercial haulers and large generators for processing and sale for re-use. The facility currently receives approximately 19,000 tons of recyclables a year. Casella Waste Management has been making upgrade improvements to the facility with the anticipation of converting the collection and processing to a single-stream system in the near future.

Household Hazardous Waste: Rutland County Solid Waste District operates an extensive Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) program for district residents. The program operates year-round from the Gleason Road facility, and scheduled collections at twenty town transfer stations through the spring, summer and fall. The HHW program collects and safely disposes of dozens of hazardous, flammable and toxic materials, anti-freeze, pesticides, used motor oil, asbestos, fluorescent tubes, computers and electronics. For 2007 the District collected and disposed of approximately 126,000 lbs of electronics, televisions and computers; 43,707 linear feet of florescent lamps (plus 1360 other pieces); Sixty-seven, 55 gallon drums of paints, etc., 90 gallons of Household pesticides plus misc. and other HHW; Thirteen, 55 gallon drums of business waste; 623 refrigerators, air conditioners and other freon based units and disposed of 1957 lbs of ballast/batteries. This program had over 380 households (Tues – Thursday), and 499 households from Saturday programs including SWAC towns, and 125 businesses participate in 2007.

Other Programs: The District also offered other waste management, education and reduction programs, including construction and demolition waste, clean wood and composting. The District is continuing with its “Merry Mulch” program in collecting and processing over 1,200 Christmas trees annually. The District continued its “clean sheetrock” waste drywall recycle program for contractors and homeowners. This program originally started from a grant from the Agency of Natural Resources. The District also has been working with and providing recycling materials or information to various local organizations including the Rutland Master Gardener’s Club, the Rutland Dismas House, Rutland Neighborhood Program, Vermont Southwestern Council on Aging, Rutland Hospital and Women’s Network & Shelter.

This past year the District has been able to continue making some improvements at the Gleason Road facility to make it more user-friendly to all our customers. This included the paving done at the Recycling Center and repairs to the HHW facility.

Another significant event this past year was the Town of Mt. Holly deciding to rejoin the District. We are glad to have them back as a member town and are working hard to help them as well as all our member towns in trying to achieve many of the goals and state requirements in the running of their facility and encouraging more people to recycle.

This past year also had its share of events that tested the resolve of District staff and city residents including the snowstorms of Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day but more notable the windstorm of April 16th. The April 2007 storm generated almost 4,000 tons of yard debris. After processing the material the city had the equivalent of 1085 tons which is equal to 40 tractor trailer loads. The contractor we used to process the material hauled over 1620 tons or 81 tractor trailer loads from the transfer station and we still had hauled over 1221 tons or 53 tractor trailer loads of the ground material to the McNeil Electric Plant in Burlington. I again want to express my gratitude to the number of organizations and people who helped to make the progress in the clean up efforts as smooth as possible but most importantly the staff of the Rutland County Solid Waste District for providing such superior service while working under such adverse conditions.

James O’Gorman
District Manager