KEEP WHITE SETTLEMENT BEAUTIFUL

The National Drug Take Back Day was this past Saturday October 26th at the White Settlement Police department. This program aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public of why proper disposal of medication is important. While there are several reasons to take your expired or unused prescriptions drugs for disposal, we would like to discuss pharmaceutical pollution. Our medications, intended to heal us, can harm us if they aren’t disposed of safely. Active drug compounds can get into our soil, water systems and food sources. The drugs get into the drinking water supply through several routes: some people flush unneeded medication down toilets; other medicine gets into the water supply after people take medication, absorb some, and pass the rest out in urine or feces. Some traces of pharmaceuticals can remain even after wastewater treatments and cleansing by water treatment plants, some investigations have shown.  

Many people were never told that there’s a right and wrong way to dispose of their unused or expired medication and may not realize that they are causing harm by not disposing of medications properly. It’s important to prioritize the proper disposal of medication so it doesn’t end up causing pharmaceutical pollution. If you missed the Drug Take Back this past weekend, there are still plenty of easy ways for you to safely dispose of medications. The White Settlement Police Department has a prescription drug disposal container year round in the front lobby for your unused and expired prescriptions. Pharmacies such as Wal-Mart, CVS, and Walgreens also have disposal containers. 

 If you have a large amount of grease from holiday cooking , please don’t throw your used grease down the drain. When you pour grease down the drain it hardens when it cools off. This accumulates over time causing massive buildup that can block the pipes. It can cause major damages and sometimes it can be bad enough to warrant sewer line replacement. So once grease is used and you do not want to reuse it, we suggest recycling it. Here is how. Drain the food particles using a strainer while still hot. Then place in a leak proof container and store to cool. Once cooled take to the drop off recycling station located at 8212 Albert Street. Protect your home, city, and environment by recycling your grease. We will use the collected cooking oil and grease to create biodiesel or turn it into biogas for energy production. Please note, this is for cooking oil and grease only, not for automotive oil.

Nature’s bounty of beautiful autumn leaves isn’t a problem for your lawn, they can actually help to feed the soil for a healthier lawn. Fallen leaves offer a benefit of a natural mulch and fertilizer. In addition to supplying food, they provide shelter and nesting or bedding for some small wildlife.  

Some other suggestions for dealing with leaves are to rake them off the lawn to use as mulch in garden beds. For finer-textured mulch, shred them first. 

Another way to utilize leaves is to let your leaf piles decompose. The resulting leaf mold can be used as a soil amendment to improve structure and water retention. 

You can also make compost with fallen leaves. Just combine leaves with grass clippings and keep moist and well mixed. 

One thing you need to avoid is blowing or sweeping your leaves into the street. There are three important reasons to keep your leaves out of the streets. 

1.    It is against city code to blow leaves into the streets. 

2.    Storm water causes the leaves to flow into creeks and rivers which is bad for the creatures that live in them. 

 

3.    They can clog storm drains and cause minor flooding. 

Do not burn leaves or put them in the regular garbage! Burning leaves is a fire hazard and can lead to air pollution and health problems.