Air Time: Free compost bins still available in some counties

By Seth Preston, Communications Manager, Air Quality Program

Here’s our news release about several Washington counties that still have some free compost bins to swap for illegal burn barrels.

As the release notes: The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) and several counties are working together to collect and destroy barrels. They want to reduce the risk of wildfires in the counties, along with the harmful smoke that wildfires produce.

Ecology will have a final count in October on the number of burn barrels that were collected. But as of a couple weeks ago, the participating counties had collected a total of nearly 400 barrels.

We’re confident the number will go up as word gets out that more bins are available.

This is the second consecutive summer that Ecology and DNR have worked together on a burn barrel collection program. Last year, the two state agencies cooperated on collections in Okanogan and Stevens counties.

Four events (two in each county) were held; more than 220 burn barrels were collected.

This year, we expanded to include counties on both sides of the Cascades.

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