The North Brookfield Board of Health has recently approved the collection of wood pellet bags at the transfer station on East Brookfield Road, which is great news for people in the area who use wood pellets for heat and who want to reduce the amount of their trash.  This recycling opportunity will be available to anyone who has a 2013 North Brookfield Transfer Station Permit, but plans are in the works to hold a collection day for everyone in the spring. 
Bring your pellet bags up to the recycling area and the transfer station staff will show you where to put them.   You can also bring the large cover bags in which each ton of pellets is delivered.  Any plastic that has a recycling symbol with a Number 4 on it will be accepted.  Please do not bring other types of plastic with your bags before first checking with the transfer station staff.  For your information, the plastic bags you get at grocery and other retail stores can be brought to the bottle recycling area of your grocery store.  They have a bin there for plastic bags.

Pellet Bag Recycling is a trial program at the North Brookfield Transfer Station and there are a few factors that can make it succeed or fail:

1. Cleanliness.  If the bags are dirty, have pellets or other debris, and have other non-compatible plastics mixed in, they could be rejected.  Loads that are rejected cost extra money to clean up or to dispose.  Please keep your bags clean and organized.
2. Cost.  Some recycled products have value and will actually earn money for the town but many cost the town money.   Materials that cost money to recycle can still save the town money when weighed against the disposal costs.  It is not yet known whether recycling pellet bags will pay or cost less than disposal but the North Brookfield Board of Health is willing to take the chance, due to the large number of local people who use wood pellets.
3. Volume.  What is hoped for recycling wood pellet bags is to collect enough to bale.  These bales can then be stored until a full load can be shipped to the recycling facility.  This is the most cost effective way to handle any plastic or paper material.  The North Brookfield Board of Health would like nothing better than to take all of the plastic wood pellet bags out of the waste steam, so please pass the word along to your friends and family.  If you have family members who do not have a transfer station sticker they can give the bags to someone who does or save them for the collection day in the spring.

Those of us who know the Three R's of Recycling know that the best thing to do is to reuse rather than recycle a material, and better than that is to reduce the amount of material that is used for packaging or storing.  There are companies now who will deliver pellets in bulk which means no bags to handle or to recycle.  We are planning to offer bulk delivery to our customers who have large storage bins.  Please check out our website or www.pellergy.com for information about central pellet heating systems and bulk storage.
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