There will be NO garbage/recycling collection in Burien Saturday or Sunday (12/27-28), with up to triple amounts of stuff accepted during the next pickup.

Here’s the latest update from Waste Management (more info available at their website here):

Saturday, December 27, 8:00 AM: Unsafe road conditions have unfortunately required Waste Management to once again postpone residential curbside collection in Snohomish County and most of King County, including Burien, Renton, and all East King County areas.

No residential collection will be provided on Sunday, as previously reported. Waste Management needs to preserve driver time for long work hours next week as we clean up the accumulated material resulting from numerous collection delays.

King County residents outside the City of Seattle may take garbage and recycling to King County transfer stations, including:

• Bow Lake in Tukwila
• Enumclaw
• Renton
• Factoria
• Houghton
• Shoreline

Call 206-296-4466 or visit http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/facilities/transfer.asp for addresses and hours.

Remove Snow Accumulation. To keep containers accessible, please remove snow and extra material from around or on top of them.

Clear Storm Drains to Prevent Street Flooding: As snow melts, water run-off can result in flooding, which further impedes collection. Please clear storm drains of snow and debris to prevent flooding.

Tips for Extra Material Storage and Set Out: Waste Management suggests that residents use the following options for storing and setting out extra materials:

Extra garbage: Place next to garbage container in:

• Securely tied plastic bags labeled “Garbage” or
• 32-gal can with handle and lid (65 lb limit) labeled “Garbage”

Extra recycling: Place next to recycling cart in:

• Plastic recycling bins or
• Cardboard boxes (2x2x2 ft. limit) labeled “Recycling”
• No recycling in plastic bags

Extra yard trimmings (No food scraps or plastic): Place next to yard cart in:

• Heavy paper yard bags (available at hardware stores) or
• Reusable polywoven yard bags (available at hardware stores) or
• 32-gal cans with handles & lids (65 lb limit) labeled “Yard” or

Bundles tied with sisal twine (4′x2′ limit)

Here’s an update from Allied Waste/Republic Services:

Allied Waste/Republic Services Emergency Service Alternative for Normandy Park

In recognition that the extended inclement weather has created storage issues for garbage and recycle commodities, the Bellevue Division is offering a temporary solution:

Today Normandy Park has agreed to provide access to two community sites where residents who wish to utilize this opportunity to dispose of their recyclables and garbage may do so. These sites are cleared of snow and will allow Allied Waste /Republic Services to spot attended vehicles so residents can dispose of household recyclables and garbage.

• This service will be available from 9 AM till 3:30 PM, Tuesday Wed., December 24, 2008
• One vehicle will collect garbage only and another will collect recycle only
• Waste Service employees will monitor for contamination and customer compliance

Site 1 is the loop drive and parking lot area in front of City Hall, just off of SW 174th where we placed the container after the windstorm two years ago.

Site 2 is the parking lot at Marvista Park next to the Public Works shop at 19900 4th Avenue SW.

Just got some info from Jenn Ramirez-Robson of the City of Burien, who forwards us this update from Waste Management on Burien-area garbage and recycling pickup (missed again today but scheduled for another try next week, when you can put out TRIPLE the amount of garbage and recycling as usual):

Monday, December 22 – Due to inclement weather, Waste Management has cancelled collection services for their customers in King, Snohomish, Kitsap and Skagit Counties.

Please note that our call center will not be open until it’s safe for our employees to return to the office.

For the most up to date status of your service we urge you to go to our website: www.wmnorthwest.com/weatherboard.html.

Residential customers: Twice the regular amount of garbage, recycling and/or yard waste will be accepted at no additional charge on the next regularly scheduled collection day for each container. If your next regularly scheduled collection falls on a holiday, Waste Management will collect the following day. For example, due to Christmas, this week’s Thursday customers will be serviced on Friday and Friday customers will be serviced on Saturday.

Residential customers in the City of Seattle: If inclement weather causes missed collections for one day, missed customers will be picked up the following day and all other residential collection will be pushed back one day. If two consecutive collection days are cancelled due to inclement weather, customers may set out a double load on their next scheduled collection day.

Commercial customers. Priority service is given to locations such as hospitals and restaurants where public health is a high priority. All other commercial customers will be serviced as soon as conditions allow for safe collection.

Waste Management is committed to providing reliable collection for all customers. However, in the event that circumstances such as unsafe roads interfere with service schedules, we appreciate customer understanding and cooperation as we manage collection on emergency scheduling.

Waste Management customers are strongly encourages to visit our website for up-to-the-minute collection updates www.wmnorthwest.com/weatherboard.html.

If garbage is missed twice, residents may put out three times as much on the third scheduled collection day.  We certainly will do all we can to keep that eventuality to a minimum!

We are also using outdial phone calls to help keep residents as well informed as possible.

Reminders about how to package extras:

If recycling or yard waste is regularly collected every other week, the missed material will be collected on the next scheduled day for that container (two weeks from the missed collection), unless residents are otherwise notified by telephone or on this site.

Extra garbage: Place next to garbage container in:

• Securely tied plastic bags labeled “Garbage” or
• 32-gal can with handle and lid (65 lb limit) labeled “Garbage”

Extra recycling: Place next to recycling cart in:

• Plastic recycling bins or
• Cardboard boxes (2x2x2 ft. limit) labeled “Recycling”
• No recycling in plastic bags

Extra yard trimmings (No food scraps or plastic): Place next to yard cart in:

• Heavy paper yard bags (available at hardware stores) or
• Reusable polywoven yard bags (available at hardware stores) or
• 32-gal cans with handles & lids (65 lb limit) labeled “Yard” or
• Bundles tied with sisal twine (4′x2′ limit)

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Personally, we hadn’t heard of “gleaning” relating to food before (pardon our ignorance folks but hey, at least we’re honest) so we looked it up; here’s how Wikipedia defines it:

Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. Some ancient cultures promoted gleaning as an early form of a welfare system. For example, ancient Jewish communities required that farmers not reap all the way to the edges of a field so as to leave some for the poor and for strangers.

As for this particular gleaning, it’s a large apple tree with lots of apples, and is located near SW 128th and SR-509.

According to Suzanne Greive of Sustainable Burien:

One of our goals was to identify fruit-bearing trees that could be gleaned and donated to local food banks.

I have been working with the West Seattle gleanit.org group since we don’t have an organized group for Burien yet.

We had one successful gleaning experience in Burien and gathered 232 lbs of apples from one of my neighbors.

I did start a blog just for our small food pod group and here is the link if you want to check it out: http://sustainableburienfoodpod.blogspot.com/

I also am a extreme couponer and take advantage of free or nearly free items for the food banks with the use of coupons and local sales. You can check my blog out out at http://suzdeals.blogspot.com/ In particular the post about couponing basics. It’s a rewarding hobby and contributes to our food banks and community.

I am a big fan of both the B-Town Blog and the White Center Blog (I live right between the two).

To volunteer or get more info, please email Suzanne Greive: suzgreive@yahoo.com

Today’s shot is of a photo of the old Hi-Line Tin Shop’s tool collection, and was taken Friday night around 11:30pm inside The Tin Room Bar in Olde Burien:

Have an interesting photo you’d like posted?

Please email it to B-Town Editor Scott Schaefer.

Thanks!