Wellfleet offers firewood recycling program, other ideas for the changing season

Fall brings color, compost and warm opportunities to Wellfleet

Town offers unique wood recycling program

While Fall on the Cape is a beautiful season of change, this does not mean that you should change your commitment to recycling. This colorful time of fallen leaves gives us the opportunity to recycle that color into next year’s flowers and vegetables by composting at home. Autumn is a great time to build compost piles in your yard that will be available for use next year.

Composting at home is simple, and requires little more than grass clippings, fallen leaves, and the occasional turning of a compost pile. You can mix different types of dead plant matter into a pile and let it sit. Your compost pile should be turned with a shovel or pitchfork once or twice a month.

Recycled firewood fuel, known as biomass, “is a renewable energy resource that releases carbon dioxide which is often balanced by the carbon dioxide captured in its growth. Using biomass fuel decreases our dependence on expensive foreign oil and has the potential to decrease household heating costs.” - Hillary Greenberg, Wellfleet’s Health and Conservation Agent

This Fall also brings the first winter chills, which can be remedied by burning of recycled firewood. This year Wellfleet residents can again enjoy the warmth of free firewood which is usually available at our transfer station. Contractors and other people and businesses that create excess wood can drop off their waste at the transfer station so it can be reused as firewood. Saving money and staying warm this Fall and Winter will be easy if you utilize this great program.

Hillary Greenberg, Wellfleet’s Health and Conservation Agent, says that the recycled firewood fuel, known as biomass, “is a renewable energy resource that releases carbon dioxide which is often balanced by the carbon dioxide captured in its growth. Using biomass fuel decreases our dependence on expensive foreign oil and has the potential to decrease household heating costs.”   

Everyone is encouraged to participate in the firewood recycling program so that it can be successful. If you bring waste wood, it can only be accepted for the program if it is not treated or pressurized. Town Selectman Ira Wood says “It is important to burn clean wood, because there are significant health risks from burning treated or pressurized wood in your home.”

As the leaves fall and our town prepares for winter, it is important to continue reducing, reusing, and recycling your household and business wastes. Selectman Jerry Houk says “Recycling is the primary way to lower the cost of the town’s transfer station by offsetting disposal costs.” Recycling at Wellfleet’s transfer station is increasingly very important to ensure the sustainability of our town, state, and planet.

Courtesy of the Town of Wellfleet.  

For more information, visit Wellfleet’s website www.wellfleetma.org and click on the recycling tab, or email Dan Fister at dan.fister@wellfleet-ma.gov.