Keep your trash from blowing away in windstorms

DEAN KAHN - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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The answer might be blowin' in the wind, but you don't want your garbage chasing after it.

With gusts of 75 mph forecast for today, Tuesday, Nov. 17, here are ways to keep your trash from decorating your neighborhood, instead of being ready for disposal on foul-weather days.

Garbage: Put your garbage in a bag and tie it tight before you put it in the toter.

"Then, even if the wind blows the whole toter over, you don't really have a mess," said Rodd Pemble, recycling manager at Sanitary Service Co.

Putting a heavy object atop the toter might keep the lid from being lifted by the wind, but the toter still might tip over if there isn't much weight inside, he cautioned.

And don't put your toter next to an object, such as your car or your mailbox, thinking it will be safer from the wind, he said. The toter can still blow over, and it might hit your car, or get in the way of your mail carrier.

Recyclables: Put the bin for plastics, cans and glass on the ground, then put the bin with newspapers on top of that. That will prevent the lightweight plastics, such as milk jugs and yogurt containers, from blowing away. To keep the newspapers secure, put a heavy object on top.

To recycle your mixed papers, put them in a paper grocery bag and lay the bag sideways in their bin. Then put that bin on the ground next to the one with plastics, cans and glass.

To further keep the wind at bay, put the front of the mixed-paper bin face-to-face with the bin for plastics, etc.

Don't stack the bins three-high; that invites the wind to topple them. If you are recycling cardboard, put it between the bins, or on the ground with a weight on top.

If you have storage space, consider keeping your recyclables home an extra week, until the wind dies down. You can put out your backlog in an extra bin or box, as long as the extra container isn't larger than the recycling bins, Pemble said.