Welcome everyone to Midday Magazine for this December 7th, 2023.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here, and joining us in studio
our great friend Kayla Rumbalski, Community Development Educator with Extension Wood
County. Kayla, good to see you. Hi, good to see you, James. Thanks so much for taking the time.
I have to, I have to say right out the gate, I know we have a lot to talk about today,
but I cannot help myself. I love that. Is that a blazers? What do they got?
Yeah, it's a fancy blazer. I did that. Extension branded. I want to work at Extension just to get
what it looks. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. It is really cool.
What I love the most about it is it's very cozy, so it looks nice and it's kind of like a sweatshirt.
Yeah, yeah, perfect. Perfect this time of year, perfect this time of year. That is really nice,
though. That's very cool. Kayla, I know that we're here today to, our main focus is going to be
Clean Sweep. And I want to get into that to start off for those that may not know why Clean Sweep,
what is Clean Sweep? That's a great question. So Clean Sweep is a DATCAP. There's an acronym,
the first of I'm sure many. DATCAP is the the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Protection. So it's a DATCAP funded program. It exists in communities across the state.
Wood County's program is for agricultural and household hazardous waste. So when we talk
about Clean Sweep, we're talking about that, you know, shelf in your garage that has the roundup
on it, the garden chemicals. Maybe it's got some some paint that you, you know, repainted your
kitchen years ago and you still have the primer and the latex paint left from that. Maybe it's,
it's, you know, you've got a little bit of a shop on the side. And so you've got some automotive
chemicals, those types of things. Or even just household. So, you know, nail polish remover.
A lot of times that stuff ends up in the garbage. And that's really not the best for the environment.
It's not the best for the workers at the the dump or at the the waste facility where that's
arriving because it really those those chemicals are hazardous and can cause some issues when
they're mixed in with all of the regular trash. I'm guessing all of our Wisconsin listeners are
pretty tired of hearing about PFAS. Yeah, we've been talking a lot about this for quite a while
about everything. Yeah. If you really want that conversation to stop, there's a couple of things
you can do. And we've talked about them many times. But one of them is being a part of clean sweep
and making sure that these things go into are disposed of in the right places. We're not putting
them back into the earth. And if you're doing that, you are individually you are at contributing not
only to the planet hurting and all those things. Right. But then I understand that not everybody cares
about that. But how about our ag industry? How about our farmers? How about that? I imagine 99% if not
100% of the audience cares about that. You're hurting them. You're hurting our industry. How about
you know, entertainment visitors, people that come to this state and spend tax their money and add
to the you know, the overall economy of the state and everything. Right. That doesn't happen if
we don't have a state that's beautiful. The people want to come to that. Exactly. We we tout so
much that we have great recreational areas and a beautiful state that people travel to. I mean,
think about the craziness that's just ended with the fall colors and people trying to come to
Central Wisconsin and North Central Wisconsin to see the fall colors. They come from all over.
That wouldn't be the case if we didn't have, you know, great environment. We keep polluting our
planet. That's what we're going to end up with. You get what you put in and we got to put these
things in the proper places. Exactly. And I think it's it's kind of ironic that this program falls
under me. I am not a conservationist. I don't have a background in conservation or solid waste
management recycling, but it's in it's a I'll call it a legacy in quotes program that has always
fallen under the community development position at extension, but it also makes sense because it's
a it's a community improvement project, right. Right. And I think about it. It sometimes makes me think
of my first year in Central Wisconsin. I came for college at UWSP. I lived in the dorms and I remember
I had a soda bottle. I'll never forget this. I had a soda bottle that I went and I was throwing
out in the garbage in the the middle of the hallway in like the shared space in the residence halls.
And some like big burly guy who to me, I mean, he probably was just a year older than me, but to me
as like a intimidated college freshman, right. First time in a in a communal living situation.
I was very intimidated by him. And he comes over and he's like, uh, no, you need to take that out of
there. You can't put that in the trash. You need to recycle it. It's it's needs to be recycled. It's
just what has to happen. And I of course very shyly plucked the soda can out of the garbage,
put it in the right receptacle. And that's has stayed with me, you know, now years later.
Because it's something that's important for everyone. We all have to do our part, right.
Regardless of whether you're in this case a natural resources major at the university or your,
you know, you have no background in conservation. You can still do your part to help the environment.
Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. That was a great story. That's a good one. And it speaks
to some I think that's very similar to a lot of people out there that have other stories like
that. I I always I always mentioned this because any chance to brag about my mom I'm going to take.
My mom was really ahead on this stuff and had us recycling long before it was something we
nationally did. And even then she was like that old that burly guy. Yeah. My version of that is
my mother. Sure. And it's just Jimmy. That doesn't go in there. The same amount of intimidation.
He absolutely absolutely. Jewish guilt is real. It is heavy. It is. That woman has never had to
lay a finger on me. Just looks at me. And I'm okay. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And that's something that we
all as a country as a nation kind of had to get used to. Even those like my mother that understood
a lot of this stuff. Over the decades we have gotten better and better to a point where now
we just do this. We don't even really think much about it. We okay that plastic goes in the green.
But this goes in that or something. Nowadays every we know we understand. Okay.
Garbage goes out this week. What week does recycling go out? Do the neighbors have their recycling?
Yeah. Pretty much. I want to know. We do the same thing at my house. Yeah. Who's that one family
that actually does know? Right. The whole rest of the neighborhood's following their leaves.
We've we've gotten so into a routine of this that we have little inside jokes like that that we
all get. But that also brings me to the point of with everything we know I think we kind of like
shuffle. Oh, I already know everything about recycling. Right. I'm certain that I know all this
and everything. That's where I think another thing they clean sweep is so vital for.
I'm informing people of what is recyclable and what you can throw away at your home and what you
can't. Right. I don't expect people to have this as common knowledge. I don't and I don't
imagine most people do. So clean sweep is not only a chance to get rid of these items but to bring
awareness and attention to how serious it is that we get rid of these dispose of these items in
the proper way. Exactly. So for wood county our clean sweep event historically has been one Saturday
a year. And we have realized that that's not enough. Often we would get phone calls in the spring
from folks who are cleaning out their their garages or their residences and feeling like I have all
this extra stuff. Where can I take it? And we, you know, maybe it's it's April at that time. And
we'd say, well, the recycling event isn't until September and on top of that it sounds like
you're a Marshfield resident and it's in Wisconsin Rapids this year. And then we would often be met with
I don't want to hang on to it that long and I don't want to have to drive to
Rapids to get rid of this items. And so we have had a lot of conversation behind the scenes and are
proud to announce that we are doing two events next year. So we're going to be able to have it in
Marshfield and in Wisconsin Rapids. So in 2024 it'll be Saturday May 25th and that will be at
the Marshfield Agricultural Research Station off of Yellowstone Drive in Marshfield
from 8 to noon. And then if you miss that or if you have more waste that you have acquired or
need to dispose of, we will be back at the town of Saratoga in September September 7th 2024
for our our Wisconsin Rapids recycle day. So you can bring, you know, I mentioned some of them
earlier things like nail polish remover or, you know, pesticides that you would spray on the
garden or for agricultural use. All of those things are welcome to be brought to clean sweep for
recycling. Kayla, I mentioned before that most of us have a pretty good understanding of recycling
and what can be recycled on that. But there are great there is great areas. Would you say if you're
questioning of something that that right there that tells you that this is probably something you
should ask it can be donated to the clean sweep or that should be disposed of a different way.
Exactly. If you're questioning it, that's, yeah, that's the best, that's the best thing to go by,
right? If you're thinking in your gut, like, I don't know if I should drain, put this down the drain,
if I should throw it in the trash. Most likely you probably should, if your brain is telling you,
this might be caustic, this might be corrosive, it's some sort of chemical. And so in those cases,
what our request to to listeners and to residences is don't ignore that little
feeling, take a little bit of time and figure out what to do with it, don't just put it in the trash.
And in many cases, you know, we have these clean sweep events, but there are also recyclers across
our county, private recyclers, the waste disposal program that you work with for your residential
waste disposal. And then we also have two solid, we don't have a solid waste department,
necessarily in Wood County that is open year round, but Marathon County does and Portage County does.
So if you have items to dispose of, you can take them there as well in terms of, you know,
chemical or hazardous waste. And then also we've seen a number of electronics recycling
programs as well. So it's giving you an opportunity and maybe some encouragement to clean out your
basement, clean out your garage, get rid of that stuff you've been hanging on to and get rid of
it in a safe way. It's the end of the year. We do a lot of that cleaning anyway and a lot of that
stuff. And you're going to be having new items coming in. You want to make room for new items.
Get rid of the old stuff for cycle live at the proper way. And then you got room for new stuff.
There you go. Kayla Rumbalski joining us from the extension Wood County and Kayla,
before we get into more of the dates in the 2024 schedule, can we rewind a little bit and look
at the 2023 results? Yes. Awesome. Great. Segway James, thank you so much. So I wanted to share because
I was on in advance of the event promoting it, wanted to share how we did. So in 2023, we had 115
vehicles that participated and dropped off items. Whoa. It was an average of
49.27 pounds per vehicle. Whoa. So we took in over 5,000 pounds of household hazardous waste
and agricultural waste. That's over 5,000 pounds of material that's not ending up in a landfill
that's not ending up, you know, bogging down the system in the waste facilities. That's huge.
Literally. Yeah, it is. So a huge thank you goes out to those residents who took the time to
come in to drop off their materials to all these. Every one of you out there that does that and
participates in that one or the ones in the future and everything, you're adding to our future.
You're enhancing our future through these acts. Exactly. That's really cool to hear. That's
some great numbers. Wow. Yeah. I can dive a little deeper and share what was collected. So
1900 pounds of pesticides and poisons, 1300 pounds of solvents or paint thinners,
692 pounds of lead or oil-based paint. Costics and corrosives was 435 pounds and the rest was made
up of mercury, reactives, aerosol cans and other. So, you know, you just think about the
fact that all of that stuff is not not ending up in the landfill and that's huge.
If one vehicle had decided not to show up that day, you know, that's that's a vehicle of 50,
you know, average 50 pounds worth of material in there that's going right into our planet. That's
no night light thing to take. I mean, a big thank you to everybody that did do this donation
and we're a part of that and chances are you've got some more stuff, you know, so be looking to 2024.
We've got those events coming up. Kayla touched on those a little bit already but can we get a little
more in the details of this Kayla? If I want to be a part of Clean Sweep, is this something I need
to register for or should I register for? Great question. No registration is needed. We have just
this year. We started asking for zip codes just because we were curious to see where folks were
coming from. We are not going to turn anyone away. I had when I was talking to residents at this
years event, I had a couple of people that like very shyly took out their drivers license and
were showing me. I was like, I don't need that level of formality. Like, I'm not here to, you know,
gate check you. I just am curious to know where people are coming from and it was indeed the case
that just about 70% of our 115 vehicles that came through were coming from Wisconsin Rapids
for the Wisconsin Rapids event, makes sense. There was also about 12% that came from Marshfield and
then the rest was a wide variety across the county. So no need to register when you come to the event,
what you're going to do is, so taking the May event is in Marshfield, so it'll be at the agricultural
research station. I will say that Mars for some reason has some difficulty when you plug it into
GPS. If you plug it into GPS, and I know this from experience, if you plug it into GPS, it puts you
in the middle of a cornfield and you look over and you're like, I don't think that's where I'm
supposed to be. There's a road with nowhere around. So I will tell you if you're using a GPS and
it does it to you, just continue down Yellowstone Drive until you see Civilization and you'll see a
big building that has a UW-Madison logo on it. That is where you need to go. We have been running
it. Well, not as much anymore, but we still run into that problem a little bit because of the old
building. If you search for some Google, it sends a lot of people to the old building still.
Thanks a lot, Google. We run into that a little bit. One of those things to double check out
before you just throw it into the GPS. Exactly. That's a good idea. There are a lot of people who
know where that location is. I think it's pretty popular because of its history in the community,
but it's just funny when someone new, like myself, tries to plug it in and you're like, no,
this is not what I want to be. But once you get there, finding it is probably the hardest part
of the entire process. You'll pull into the parking lot. We usually have it set, so there's
one way traffic, so you're going to pull in and exit at a different location. So you'll pull in,
you'll be greeted by myself or by some staffers from the Health Department, from their environmental
services office at the Health Department. We'll say, hey, we'll ask you for your zip code, again,
not to turn anyone away just to have for analytic purposes, yeah, the data. And then you'll pull
on ahead. Veolia is our waste disposal contractor. So they have set up, it's really kind of cool.
They set up like a portable, fully mobile unit for for disposal. So they'll have a number of
different drums. They know what goes where they know how to properly store things so they're not
going to combust in transit. And there they wear the full hazmat suit. So all you need to do is
put your items in your trunk or in the bed of your truck, whatever it is. And they will take it
from there. So you pull up, you pop your trunk, they'll take the items out and they'll send you on
your way. Usually you are in and out. There's, so it's eight to noon is typically the event. I would say
usually right at 8 a.m. There's a bit of a line. This year we had some diehards that were there
really early. They were afraid that we were going to have the same challenges that the loving
recycling electronics recycling did. So people were like, I got here early because I thought I
would have to wait in a long line. There was a woman there. We started eight and there was a
woman there at like 645. She was like, no, I kept asking, can I get you anything? Do you want to
come back? She was like, no, I'm fine. I'm listening to a book. It's all good. So maybe she
just needed that time to venture out. I get it. Oh, yeah, I can never relate to that and big
shout out to her to the people like that that did that. I mean, that's that's above and beyond.
You're adding to our future right there. You were helping out so much doing those things.
I want to get to the dates again of the event. And I want to certainly get to volunteering about
the event as well. But before we do Kayla, these are great events. And we appreciate you guys
bringing in a second one and then bringing in different locations and all that. But save
somebody's out there listening and then wondering, how do I dispose of blank outside of those two
events, whatever that blank item might be? That is a great question. So there's such a thing I've
learned this recently in the disposal world at called wish cycling. So it's when you think that
something is recyclable, but it really is not. So for example, in our household, an argument would
always come from those clamshell bakery containers or like the containers, the plastic ones and
the containers that like strawberries come in or fruits come in. Those are not recyclable
because there's there's not a market for it, right? So we live in this society where
in order for something to be recyclable, it's not just about it should be just about the good
of the environment, but it's also about who's going to who's going to pay to recycle that product.
And so a lot of things really depend on what there's a market for. So a couple of great resources.
We have a clean sweep website. It's not actually up right now, but it will be by the end of the
week. So like tomorrow, Monday, that you can go to that'll point you in some good directions.
But I would also encourage there's the central Wisconsin recycling collective that is
primarily it's a Facebook page and it's primarily staffed by Amanda Haffley. She is the
a solid waste director for Portage County and she does like a wish cycling Wednesday and puts
out a number of tips on what is recyclable and what is not. So that's a great place to get some
information. Appreciate her doing that. Yeah, information on those things that you might not
realize are not recyclable. In terms of the other part of that question, if you have an item and
you're wondering what to do with it and maybe it's not like a physical item, like a clamshell container,
it's a jar of something or one of those chemicals. If you go to the datcap website and just search
for Clean Sweep, that'll come up and give you some tips on what can be disposed of and how.
Or you can always call extension. We'll take your question and look it up for you.
We'll get that information to you before we wrap up with the website she's touching on there.
I had up for research and looking into the conversation today and that is datcp.wi.gov.
That's datcap.wi.gov. Not only has the things that Kayla was saying there but also wherever you're
listening to us, there is a way to find a clean sweep near you. Yes, exactly. It's in several counties
across the state and there's a list of all of those counties and then I believe it actually
lists the phone number for the office that coordinates it. The team at UW Extension are awesome.
They do great work and we appreciate them very, very much. An event like this doesn't happen
without the community doing volunteers and we greatly appreciate those volunteers and different
people that help out with this event. Kayla, if people want to volunteer, if they want to help out,
they want to maybe know more about some of these things that we've been talking about today.
How can they reach you? How can they find out more? That's a great question. Folks can
email me. So it's the first initial of my first name, K. Last name, Rumbalski. R-O-M is in
Mary B-A-L-S-K-I at W-I-S-C as in Wisconsin.edu. That's probably the best way or you can, as we've
said, Google Extension. I won't give the website over the air because that's always challenging
but we'll come up and then you can reach out to me that way. In terms of volunteer need,
this event runs pretty smoothly so we don't actually have a lot of volunteers that are needed
on-site, but we certainly need volunteers to hit the pavement and really promote and share
the event and tell neighbors and friends to bring out their hazardous waste. What are the
dates again for the Cleanseweed Peer in Wood County? Saturday, May 25th, 2024 in Marshfield at Mars
where I said, you know, it's difficult to get your GPS to take you there. And then so that's kind
of the spring ones. If you're doing spring cleaning, that would be the one to come too. We'll also
have one in the fall and that will be Saturday, September 7th at the Town of Saratoga, Garage,
and Town Hall. Again, next, next fall. Yeah, things to keep in mind, dates to mark on your calendar
as you're collecting these items and especially in the winter and you maybe doing some cleaning.
I got to get rid of that. Well, we got time for you to get those collected and to bring them to
Cleanseweed. And certainly as we get closer to these dates, we'll be talking about them on our
morning shows and that and spreading the word about these events. That's great. Thank you.
Thank you for helping us do that, Kayla. We appreciate you to say hi to the team over there
at Extension Forest. We'll talk to you real soon. Oh, if I don't see you, have a great holiday.
Same to you. Happy holidays to you and yours. Happy holidays. We'll get out of here on this.
We'll have more Midday Magazine for you tomorrow right here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR. We are locally grown
radio.
