Thinking about repurposing an unused bedroom and need a place to get rid of the mattress?  Using the February cold weather time to clean out your basement and need to find a place for accumulated items you no longer use?  Growing your collection of old electronic devices and burned o
ut compact fluorescent bulbs and want to free up that space?  Tired of paying the increased fees for curbside disposal of your weekly trash and recyclables? Finally decided to part with that old lawn mower in your shed that hasn’t worked for a long time?

Need wood chips for your yard?  Want some top-grade mulch from food scraps for your garden?  Looking for salt/sand for your driveway this winter?

New Fairfield’s Drop Off Center may provide the answer you are looking for.  Located at 33 Bigelow Road, the Drop Off Center is a safe, convenient, low-cost facility to get rid of trash, brush, and items you no longer want or use.  To use the Drop Off Center, apply for a disposal permit at the New Fairfield Department of Health, either online ($12.00) or in person ($10/$5 for seniors) at Town Hall.  The Health Department also monitors the water quality in the area.

With the permit in hand, some items can be disposed of free of charge, but most items carry a small charge, paid at the time of disposal.  For example, a 13 gallon bag of household waste can be disposed of for $1.50/bag and a 30 gallon bag for $3.00.  To encourage recycling, the charge for a 13 gallon bag contained recyclable material is $1.00/bag with a 30 gallon bag costing $2.00.  Recycling is done on a single stream basis, meaning you can mix paper, plastics, metals, cardboard, etc. together in a single bag.  But be mindful of what cannot be recycled.  Guidance from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2718&q=325496 ) may be helpful.

Among the items the Drop Off Center will take are the following:

• Mattresses — recycled through a state program (free)
• Electronics – broken down with valuable components removed for recycling (free)
• Textiles (free)
• Compact florescent bulbs
• Tires without rims, empty car batteries,
• Empty propane tanks, empty aerosol cans, empty fire extinguishers
• Brush under 3.5 inches in diameter
• Old appliances, mowers, metal
• Used motor oil and anti-freeze
• Demolition materials

A full list of the types of materials the Drop Off Center will take – and the charges for them — is available on the town website (Newfairfield.org->Center of front page under News and Events).  To comply with Town financial requirements, all payments are cashless.

Chris Loudon, who runs the Drop Off Center, emphasizes that they try to repurpose as much as possible for items that are still in working order and says they do “have shoppers.”

The Drop Off Center also has an organics recycling program, which it runs in conjunction with The Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority.  You can sign up at the Drop Off Center and pick up the bucket there to store your food scraps.  Cost to participate is $1 per bucket disposed at the Drop Off Center. The food scraps are sent offsite and turned into mulch.  Participation in the program entitles you to free mulch once a year from the Drop Off Center – one of the best kinds of mulch to use on a vegetable garden.

Further information on this program is also available through the link on the front page of the town website, www.newfairfield.org.

The Drop Off Center will not accept any fire arms.   Contact the Police Department for disposal guidance for fire arms.  Nor will the Drop Off Center accept hazardous wastes such as solvents, gasoline, aerosols with material still in them, paint in liquid form, propane tanks with gas in them, or battery acid.

These materials can be disposed of at one of the area’s Household Hazardous Waste Days, which are held two to three times a year and advertised.  (Village Hardware will also take unused paint as long as the cans have a lid and a label and propane ta
nks that are not empty.)

With a permit from the Town, New Fairfielders can also pick up wood chips (created from the brush accepted at the Center) and a sand and salt mixture (no more than 2 five-gallon buckets at a time) for use on your property in the winter.

We are interested in increasing the usage of the Drop Off Center.  We have recently changed the days it is open and are considering having it open one evening a week to make it more convenient.  The hours now are 8:00AM – 3:45 Saturdays and Tuesdays.  Chris Loudon emphasizes that questions are free and encourages you to call if you need more information.  The phone number is 203-312-5677

– Khris Hall, Selectman