welcome everyone my name is jeff han so i'm at the belmont media center and you're watching the community set attention panel with our guests from the belmont health department and the department of public works we're going to be talking about a variety of issues about how to stor your garbage and recycling and the conditions around your house that will mitigate in prevent rodents pests and other kinds of pests from being around your house and in the neighborhood that i think you're going to find the information interesting and useful so please stay with us for the next few minutes let me introduce our panel today on the far end of the table is mary beth cowan from the department of public works thanks for being here and angela br and before we take we're going to take a look at several videos that we shot today but before we begin what are we talking about generally speaking mary beth around garbage and recycling well there's a few reasons why residents should put out their trash recycling correctly put it out before seven a day out of it can go out in bags and we should separate i trash from our recycling so tell me what what in general because we're going to talk about some of the specifics what what are we trying to address here one of the problems that people are are finding well some of them that in general you know over filling the air trash mixing their recycling putting in correct things into the recycling putting recycling into the trash so it makes writing so it makes for things like littering along the streets garbage along the streets because yes sort of thing maybe it takes the crews longer to yes and maybe add that also creates a litter on the streets that sort of thing yes yes and it's also what as we're going to talk about the tracks the way people are doing it is that it might be attracting what kinds of let's take a look at some of the videos i think we want to go ahead roll the first one that we shot with you and everybody here with germs are when it went out and went around belmont and took a look at some conditions and i think the first video shows us what  it shows that someone has done a really good job with a lot of recycling but it's mixed recycling they are putting their containers plastic ten in with paper ok and that shouldn't happen what do you want to do know containers in paper bags oh ok paper and paper bags containers go in a bag and to prevent well wait let's take a look at the yes yes look at the second video i think it shows a better  of putting out your recycling this garbage so in this one this is a nice container and has labeled recycling on e sides of the track can easily see it the paper is next to it in paper bags they have some cardboard flattened the right sides and over here here containers are put in bins and they fit in the ground so it doesn't really take longer to do that correctly then it goes to do it in correctly would you say also everyone is male the calendar ok and damn it hasn't struction is on the calendar and the week of when the pickup is ok get great let's talk a little bit about the size of containers and i think you took some video of the right type of container or the wrong type of container right yes ok so this is the correct size this is a thirty two gallon we trash and recycling this is the size we want and we do not want it heavier than fifty pounds we don't want you to run out in now if you have a container but if you are going to purchase one make sure it's thirty two gallons or less and if you have a larger one make sure you don't feel it to have  right now ok so people may not be aware that that that it's right that's really the reason for the one time residents will see that is the schools and when the big sixty five gallon toters and that's why they do it because it cardboard a couple a couple sections on cardboard we may we can just run those together this we want the cardboard flattened and no logic then three feet by three feet so it fits in the truck we do not like you to put things cardboard as well terms of how it was also another great way to to put out the cardboard no separating or ok this is too big and people put trash recycling in it it's just not a good way to do it and hard probably to get out of it it might even fall apart before i get it in the truck and a lot of people also they put out their cardboard and they leave all the packaging inside it has reduce reuse and recycle so you can reduce the amount of cardboard or containers that would be that's the best guess and then reusing always reusing bags boxes etc and then recycle at the end where you going to have anything else you can do with it so recycle ok and then here's another big no no that people aren't aware of it it may be a good reason why people should bring the bags to the grocery store i think we're go see that in the plastic bags of recyclable they do not belong curbside they become entangled in the machinery them are and that causes them to shut down their automated belts so it's very harmful so we would like everyone to if you do as you say reduce use of a usable bag and if you can't do that you should bring your plastic bags or any plastic film to the grocery store they haven't been in the front of the door all they do ok that's great so take your plastic bags back to the grocery store yes i want to say most grocery stores have that  and really it seems like anymore most grocery stores a lot of businesses are giving out bags for you know reasonable bags and people so throw those in the back of your car next time you go to the grocery store you know i shopping right now we're going to take a little bit about when you set out your garbage and recycling that time you never tell us what's important about that i think i mentioned this before that if you're setting out your trash and recycling the night before if you store it in your yard trash should have a container on it because fitting contains something like this can go out at the curb the day of march seventh but if you store this in your have the liners in them so if you could just take that out throw him away it would be great same thing by taking that out of there you're actually taking the temptation away from the potential throw it all to go out it go out yes so  container should get a quick rinse because you don't want to throw something i have a job peanut butter in the recycling bin that's a big tent you know and just a quick rinse and if you if it's really dirty i would say throw it away  day it all blows down the street and it's litter and at that point so if you can get a larger bin and put the two recycling stickers on either side that would rectify that and some people have two bands and sometimes if you have a larger bin it just requires bringing one thing to the curb instead of two or three instant you know that just looks like a recipe for disaster just for  day i know with the holidays coming up too people are going to have more packaging more recycling and i know what i did one year is i just put out what i had and just save the rest the next week and you know you put up with a little bit extra cardboard or packaging for a week until the next week and solve my problem i didn't realize what i just wait you know you can do that yes ok the size of the container we're going to go back to that i think right take a containers but they all have lids which is a good thing and as long as the larger ones not heavier than fifteen pounds it's fine sometimes with the trash though if it's all bag they just open thrown out unfortunately there are styrofoam collections throughout the boston area here and if you want to save them in your home you can call me a call and i will tell you i'll look it up for y we'll have the opportunity to actually also add some of this information to our website and to the channels you know the simple stuff that we've gone over here but we're going to take a look at one one video and then talk a little bit about pests and health department and conditions so let's take a look at that last bit of video i think that we shot that you all shot i think this is a good job of recycling but when we get to the trash part of it this can't be kept out overnight there's a lot of bags and then you'll see that the trash barrels are totally in the lids can't fit on them because of that angela so what are we setting up here to happen with that kind of we're setting up a prime example for a nuisance condition not only can things fly out of the trash and go down the street and be offensive to people and make a mess it can attract unwonted path so in the morning what you see it that like on something no mark arcs in the bags a story animals going by they become familiar with it and they'll keep coming over there so it's important that if you put it out like mary beth indicated if you put it out the night before make sure it has a tight fitting lid some people have a habit of storing on the side of the house and continually put in the trash in there without woods which leads to seeking warmth sometimes so you don't want to read a hole for them now there is an animal we love animals and we want them out there they're part of the ecosystem and they have an important part in the world but we don't want them on our  what i was hearing too you know from somebody a friend of mine who's a who's a hunter you know saying you know the problem isn't the animals so much it's the fact that we're quote you know their habitat and we just have to find ways to  intrepid journey here out of the neighborhood what was it about well how to partment has been seeing a lot we've been receiving a lot of calls on rats this past summer right now we're down to about two a week of calls complaints so the day that we went out to do the filming of the recycling on curbside i also received two calls from one story about rat sighting and and they were pretty upset so trash barrels and not covering them up and they created you could see them in a trail where the rats were taking trash out going into a garden area also so he the occupants of that housing area were creating conditions it's their habits that need to be changed ok they are providing food housing and probably rather somewhere all kinds of all there alternatives they can use i mean don't want to hurt the other wildlife don can talk to you about that not a good idea of what the effect of using poison or that sort of thing well not only will kill the rat rats can chew right through would very easily you know put a little bit ammonia in there from time to time will discovered some from entering that box or chewing on the wood so you can use that they were saying something about putting their money in garbage cans as well is that right yeah i get a lot of calls with the possum stuck in room and trash barrels you know i'm more than happy to come over to put over but residents can obviously do that themselves if they have a raccoon or a possum stuck in there they just tip the barrel over and over go on their merry way but to keep them out a little bit of ammonia in the bottom of the barrel goes a long way it's very strong it irritates or mucous membranes and it just it's an air tent so they're not likely to go in there there's some ammonia in there  eighteen conditions that's an attractant to wildlife now if i see a world like that what should i do as a homeowner i would take a good look at your whole property and your neighbors there's three things beware of the enemy the rat the norway rat and that they're in and around the vicinity we're getting a lot of reports of it and ok that's  ok so there he is he's kind of cute but you don't want to mean your yard ok to do property damage we've gone through that but if you see a of all aglow in your yard look around what are they eating where are they eating talk to your well find burrows people have no idea what's going on in their yard there's a food source across the fence and they're living under their garage sales grudge and they have no idea ok here's a stupid question but if you sirak i mean they're not going to approach you they're not going to you just they're going to run away right now i mean i should be faulting the wildlife has a built in fear people  again are part of the habitat part of the environment john what are we looking at there well you know rats are important food resource for coyotes foxes fishers kept the mange might just you know destroys the hair follicles and also cause an age so if you don't want coyotes or other predators in your backyard you know you start at the lowest level and that's approved source so get rid of the food source which the rats  if you get rid of their food source then you'll get rid of the rats so so really it's goes from the ground up if you have a lot of like we have and my house we've been cleaning out underneath the porch getting all this stuff out of there because we found a possum in there it really has this effect throughout the whole ecosystem whether it rodents or rats coyote's other kinds of animals doing that not only makes your yard look nicer cleaner let's say you can find things but it actually then removes the temptation is that right that's right and it's easier to get turn your yard into a jump start with the clutter so i would encourage think it would be fun because everybody says i got this stuff what do i do with it yeah i want to get rid of that i don't know how to get rid of it and i'm finding that people have been observing a neighbor with a problem right through their fence and they haven't talked about it with them ok with each other we've all worked together and all work out ok that might be a good subject for another program to talk about that a little bit maybe get a couple of neighbors here and talk about how you do that because people might be a little shy or like for it approaching  get i believe amazon dot com how does it get anywhere but it's a motion activated great horror so one symptom walks by it the head will turn you know who i'm sure you've seen the statuettes but they're only good for a day or two but the ones  that actually move a very effective for rocks my skunk's raccoons possums rabbits which sucks because it's a natural predator and it's cheap so it's a good little device to ok great we'll keep that in panel community senate panel today on by media center and join us next time thank you for watching