News Flash

Connect with HCCC in 2020: 

Sign up for web page notifications (news flashes and calendars) at https://hampton.gov/list.aspx.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. For more information, hccc@hampton.gov or 757-727-1130. Or look for Hampton Clean City Commission on each platform.

You can find and sign up for volunteer opportunities with HCCC at https://volunteer.kab.org/.

The HCCC Office is open to the public. We’re limiting the number of people in our reception area for the time being, so call 727-1130 before you come so we can make sure we don’t have a “traffic jam”.

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Declare Your Independence from Litter and Waste This Fourth of July! Don’t let our national birthday become a trashy mess! Resolve to have a waste-free holiday! Here are some quick tips:

Plan your events to be litter-free. Use reusable or recyclable containers and tableware for food-oriented gatherings. Examples are freezer storage containers, reused jars, cloth napkins, sturdy reusable cups or glasses, reusable pitchers for drinks, thrift store tableware, beverages in recyclables containers, disposable aluminum containers (they can be recycled), having a finger-food theme so you don’t need to worry about tableware… want to share your ideas with HCCC?

Take a trash bag along for the leftovers and the little bit of trash you can’t avoid, then tie it up tight and put it in a trash can. Whether you picnic at home or in the park, leaving trash behind is nasty and attracts pests like rats, bugs, and beggar birds (sea gulls and others). Leaving your trash bag untied is an invitation to critters to help themselves and scatter litter all around.

Pack everything you brought back up and carry it out, to a trash can or even to your vehicle. You’ve heard the phrase “pack it in, pack it out”? That means don’t leave any stuff behind. Do a double check before you leave just to make sure you got everything. Ask yourself – if I came here after I left, would I want to picnic here? Be honest. If it was a trash mess, I bet you wouldn’t want to.

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We’re DELIGHTED to let you know we’re back in the cleanup business again! Right now, cleanup groups must be no larger than 50 people, but we provide the usual safety equipment plus a limited quantity of PPE gloves and masks. We encourage participants to help us by using your own if you have it. But we’re sure you’ve seen all the littering going on, and we all need to pitch in as much as possible to get caught up – but SAFELY!

If you’d like to schedule your Adopt-A-Spot cleanup, go ahead and sign up with an equipment request form at http://bit.ly/HCCCEquipmentRequest. Keep in mind that we can only have groups of 50 or less, and you’ll have to agree to follow the rules, which will include social distancing and using proper protective equipment. If you have questions, call 727-1199.

We have rescheduled the Community Cleanups we’ve missed since March. Here’s a schedule for all the summer cleanups, including the rescheduled ones. At this point all cleanups are limited to fewer than 50 people, but we’d love to have a full crew at each site! We’ll update you as things change.

July 11, 10am: Briarfield Park (entrance on E Street to Briarfield Road to Addison Court)

July 17, 9am: Syms Middle School

July 18, 10am: Pembroke (Greenbriar – Aberdeen)

July 31, 9am: Andrews (Mercury to Woodland)

August 1, 10am: Queen Street (LaSalle - Stewart)

August 7, 9am: Kentucky Avenue

August 8, 10am: Nettles Lane

August 14, 9am: Bethel HS/Phenix School

August 15, 10am: Shell Road (Algonquin – Colonial)

To sign up, email hccc@hampton.gov or go to https://volunteer.kab.org/.

In June we held the Old Buckroe Road, Libby Street, and King Street Community Cleanups, and removed 41 bags of trash from those streets!

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The Next Household Chemical & Electronics Collection will be July 18!:  The next household chemical and electronics collection will be held at the Coliseum parking lot, 1000 Coliseum Drive (across from the Embassy Suites), from 8am - noon. Just a reminder, please stay in your vehicle when you take materials to this collection.

Virginia Peninsulas Public Service Authority collects household chemicals and electronics in Hampton, James City, Poquoson, and York County. If you miss the Hampton collection, you can take your materials to the collections in these communities.

This collection keeps chemicals and devices out of our steam plant and landfill, so it’s very important.

You can bring the following items to the collection: paint, stain, solvent, glue, varnish, adhesive, gasoline & other fuel [less than 50 gal], wax, gas/oil mixture, brake fluid, engine cleaner, motor oil, antifreeze, insecticide, weed killer, pesticide, fertilizer, pest strips, oven cleaner, drain cleaner, floor wax & cleaner, metal polish/jewelry cleaner, bleach, degreaser, septic tank cleaner, toilet cleaner, charcoal fluid, dye, kerosene, pool chemical, photofinishing chemical, rechargeable batteries, fluorescent lights, CFLs.

Computer-related items accepted for recycling are: desktop & laptop computers; servers; monitors (both LCD & CRT types); computer wiring; desktop printers including multifunction printers, fax machines; desktop photocopiers/scanners; cell phones.

For more information, contact Hampton’s Customer Call Center at 311 (or 757-727-8311) or call Virginia Peninsulas Public Service Authority at 757-259-9850. You can access additional information at https://www.vppsa.org/services/#chemical.

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Tours de Trash Express! Upcoming Tours de Trash are:

• July 23: Tour de Trash Express to the Composting Facility! 9am-11:30am – one month away!
• August 12: Tour de Trash Express to Goodwill! 9am-11am
• September 24: Tour de Trash Express to Composting Facility! 9am-11:30am
• October 28: Tour de Trash Express to Steam Plant! 9am-11am
• November 13: America Recycles Day Tour de Recycling, 9am-1pm, TFC Recycling Material Recovery Facility

Naturally these dates depend on widespread healthiness! So sign up, and we’ll all cross our fingers that the tours will go on!

To sign up for Tours de Trash Express or Tour de Recycling  go to http://bit.ly/TourdeTrash, where there’s a full list of upcoming tours – you can sign up for all of them if you want to! For information, contact hccc@hampton.gov or call 727-1130.

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Thank you to Keep Buckroe Beach Clean!  Keep Buckroe Beach Clean is a citizens group dedicated to educating people about the absolute necessity of keeping Buckroe Beach and the Chesapeake Bay CLEAN and to trying to keep the beach clean. Unfortunately many people have forgotten how important this is! One very key message – Pack It In, Pack It Out. Whatever you take to the beach with you needs to leave with you. This is the age of coronavirus:

• No one wants to play with the kids toys you’ve left behind
• No one wants your beach shoes
• No one wants to reuse your beach blanket
• No one wants to reuse your beach umbrella
• No one, really NO ONE, wants to pick up your trash

Please help this group and everyone who visits Buckroe Beach (and all our beaches) by being responsible and picking up after yourself.

(Please share this message with people who need to see it? Thanks!)

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Cary Elementary is Still Looking for Garden Help!  Cary Elementary is looking to replant their wonderful garden again to incorporate into their science lessons. They are looking for donations of plants or bulbs to get them started.

From Elizabeth Williams: “The garden has delighted Cary students for several years. In the time that we are in we would love to bring smiles to our student’s faces in any manner we can, while they are learning at the same time.”

We are looking for low maintenance plants and flowers that can take tons of sun (there is absolutely no shade) as well as herbs if possible. We have 10 raised bed garden plots (6 long and 4 smaller).

The Cary Cardinals send you their thanks in advance for your assistance. To donate, contact Elizabeth Williams at hamptonpta.cary@gmail.com.”

Just a note from HCCC – wouldn’t it be wonderful for someone to donate cardinal flowers? They would be so appropriate!

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Recycling Information:

Solid Waste is experiencing very high levels of contaminated recycling, which is household trash mixed in with the recycling. We believe that residents are using the recycle container as an overflow household trash container, partly due to being at home during the COVID. This is NOT good, because it will increase the cost of our solid waste program!

RECYCLING GUIDE:

Recyclable Items - Allowed: Aluminum Cans, Plastic Bottles, Mixed Paper, Steel & Tin Cans, Glass Bottles & Jars, Empty Food Boxes, Card Board, News Paper, Magazines, Food & Beverage Cartons, Junk Mail, and Phone Books.

Non-Recyclables, Not Allowed: Food Waste, Wood, Yard Waste, Plastic Bags, Electronics, Hazardous Waste, Styrofoam, Light Bulbs, Bubble Wrap, Needles, Paint, Toys

The Green Container is for household trash, and the Gray Container is for Recyclables

Would you like someone to come to your group and talk about recycling right when we can gather again? Contact hccc@hampton.gov for a presentation! For quick questions, call 311 or HCCC at 727-1130.

Meanwhile, don’t let social distancing keep you from recycling right.

SIX IMPORTANT RECYCLING TIPS:

1. Place unbagged recyclables in your container. No plastic bags at all, please. None. Not one.

2. The only plastics that can be recycled are bottles and jugs.

3. Flatten cardboard and corrugated boxes to make more room for your other recyclables.

4. Rinse or wipe cans, bottles, and jugs before putting them in your bin.

5. Remember aluminum foil and foil pans (pie pans, baking pans, cookie sheets) can be recycled, just rinse or wipe.

6. ONLY the recyclables listed in the most recent recycling chart can be recycled. Check here to make sure you’re recycling right: https://hampton.gov/DocumentCenter/View/14663/Acceptable-Recyclables-Information?bidId=

Extra Recyclables or Live in an Apartment or Condo? Take them to the Yard Waste Transfer Site, 100 North Park Lane.

The same rules apply for drop-off recycling as for curbside recyclables: paper (boxes, newspapers, mail, food boxes, clean and dry), household-food-beverage plastic bottles and jugs only; glass bottles and jars only; metal cans, foil, and disposable aluminum baking sheets and pans; and milk and food cartons. NO PLASTIC BAGS, dirty diapers, garden hoses, or other trash. Questions? Call 311 (727-8311) or visit this link: https://hampton.gov/DocumentCenter/View/14663/Acceptable-Recyclables-Information?bidId=. Please don’t put anything else in either your home recycling container or the drop-off recycling container. Thanks!

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Please Help Prevent Litter! Here are ways you can help prevent litter:

• Put your trash (NOT RECYCLING) in bags, and tie or twist tie them closed.
• When you wear masks and gloves for safety, please put them in the trash when you’re finished with them. Too many people are littering them in store parking lots. Those masks and gloves are going to clog storm drains and litter the Chesapeake Bay!
• After garbage collection, please go out and pick up any accidentally left-behind garbage (preferably using gloves) and wash your hands thoroughly afterward! If you don’t pick it up, it will wash down our storm drains.
• Now more than ever, it’s important to share your Clean City ethics with family, friends, and neighbors! We can’t do cleanups right now, and every piece of trash that hits the ground has an 80 percent chance of ending up in the Chesapeake Bay. Please help spread the word!
• When you visit any location, but particularly our parks and play areas, practice the Leave No Trace ethic – Pack It In, Pack It Out. If you can carry it somewhere, you certainly can carry it out. That applies to water bottles, candy wrappers, used tissues, small pieces of trash, cigarettes, and anything else that goes with you into public areas.
• While we’re talking about litter… It’s great and essential when people pick up their pet waste. Otherwise IT goes into the Chesapeake Bay, too! But putting it in a bag is only half the job. The other half is getting it into a trash can. Otherwise, it becomes more litter.

Would you believe people are littering all over the place, but most astonishingly in our parks – the places we all love to go to and NEED to go to! Please, please share this litter prevention message with your friends and family?

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Recycle Your Plastic Bags and Other Film Plastics: Hampton Plastic Bags Recycling Sites 2020

Plastic bags and plastic wraps of different kinds ARE recyclable, but they’re not recyclable in your household recycling container. They have to be taken to drop-off sites, most of which are retail locations that you might already be visiting.

Why can’t they be recycled in your recycling container? There are two main reasons:

• The bags and wraps wrap around the equipment that sorts the household containers and papers and brings the sorting system to a halt.
• Plastic bags that are recycled need to be free of grit and other contaminants that would make them unrecyclable, and when they’re mixed in with the household recyclables, they get dirty.

You also might wonder why your household recyclables cannot be put into plastic bags to go into your recycling container. When the recyclables get to TFC Recycling, they need to be free to roll around, be optically and manually sorted, and more. The plastic bags have to be torn away and thrown away. Your recyclables should go into the recycling container loose and unbagged to make the recycling process easier.

It’s easy to recycle plastic bags. All you have to do is keep them in a plastic bag until you’re on your way to your store or another location. Then you take them with you and drop them off. The hardest part is remembering to take them, but you can develop that habit!

What kinds of plastic bags and wraps can you recycle? Here’s a great list from Trex Company, which is a major plastic bag recycler in our state and receives plastic bags and film from many of our local retailers!

• Grocery and other store bags
• Produce bags
• Ice bags
• Ziploc and other reclosable bags
• Cereal box liners
• Case overwrap (think toilet paper and paper towel packaging)
• Bread bags
• Newspaper sleeves
• Dry cleaning bags
• Bubble wrap
• Plastic e-commerce mailers
• Plastics must be clean, dry and free of food and organic residue!

Where can you take your plastic bags and wrap? Here are the locations confirmed as of June 2020. When we are notified of additional locations we will add them to our list. If your business wants to be added to the list, please contact hccc@hampton.gov:

• Food Lion, 1164 Big Bethel Rd
• Food Lion, 21 W Mercury Blvd
• Food Lion, 3855 Kecoughtan Rd
• Food Lion, 85 Coliseum Crossing
• Food Lion, 21 W Mercury Blvd
• Food Lion, 2070 Nickerson Blvd
• Food Lion, 608 E Mercury Blvd
• Hampton Clean City Commission, 1296 Thomas St
• Harris Teeter, 227 Fox Hill Rd
• Kroger, 1050 W Mercury Blvd*
• Little E’s in Buckroe, 313 Buckroe Ave*
• Lowes, 2002 Power Plant Pkwy*
• Walmart Neighborhood Market, 117 Marketplace Dr*
• Walmart Supercenter, 1900 Cunningham Dr*

*Plastic grocery bags only

For more information, contact the Hampton Clean City Commission at hccc@hampton.gov or 757-727-1199.

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You can connect with HCCC via three Facebook options, as well as Instagram and Twitter!  HCCC’s Facebook page serves as an information source for all things “clean city” – beautification, community environment improvement, litter prevention, recycling, the 3Rs, and general environmental education. We share reputable information about these topics and provide information about our programs, activities, and volunteers. If you want a good overview of what’s happening in Hampton and the larger world of our topics of interest, the Hampton Clean City Commission page is a can’t-miss sign-up!

HCCC sponsors two Facebook groups – Hampton Waterways Restoration Project and Bee City USA – Hampton.

The Hampton Waterways Restoration Project Group focuses on the HWRP Committee’s efforts to improve Hampton’s waterways through awareness and action projects. Among the posts you’ll see are reports on committee oyster activities, waterway cleanup announcements, information about various impacts on water quality, and volunteer reports on their various HWRP projects.

The Bee City USA – Hampton Group focuses on building a resilient habitat for bees and other pollinators. You’ll see educational posts about pollinators of various types, the plants they thrive on, how you can support a sustainable pollinator habitat, and occasionally cool educational resources.