Cleanup

Volunteers are needed for Belmont Neighborhood Cleanup, Saturday, January 24, 8:30 to 11:30 am, at New Jerusalem Church, 1003 Colleton Street.

Join the City of Columbia and Keep the Midlands Beautiful to help make the Belmont Neighborhood in Eau Claire/North Columbia a cleaner, safer, and better place to live by removing litter.

Lunch will be provided for volunteers at noon at New Jerusalem Church.

For additional information, contact Charmaine Clark at 545-3403.

Recycling phone books

Between February 1 and March 15, Midlands residents can drop off phone books for recycling at 24 locations throughout Lexington and Richland Counties. For a list of the drop off sites, please visit: http://www.keepthemidlandsbeautiful. org/Calendar/ phonebookrecycling09. asp

Litter

City Center Partnership (CCP) and Keep the Midlands Beautiful (KMB) announce that four cigarette butt receptacles have been placed along Main Street in Columbia in an effort to continue to keep downtown clean and litterfree. In June of this year, CCP also received 1,000 pocket ashtrays from Keep America Beautiful that are being distributed by members of CCP's Clean Team.

The purchase of the cigarette butt receptacles was supported by a grant through Keep America Beautiful's Cigarette Litter Prevention Program, which was developed after identifying cigarette litter (cigarettes, packaging, and lighting material) as the most commonly littered items found in cleanups around the country. Recycling office paper

The Congaree Vista Guild in partnership with the City of Columbia has received two grants totaling $50,000 from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) to implement an office paper and cardboard recycling program. The recycling center is now open and available to the public at the intersection of Wayne Street and Washington Street adjacent to Veteran's Memorial Park. Please see http://www.vistacolumbia. com/recycle/ for a map.

Columbia businesses and residents are welcome to bring their office paper and cardboard to the site between dawn and dusk seven days a week. For all other recyclables, please visit the drop- off recycling center located at the back end of the DHEC parking lot at 2600 Bull Street. Compost bins

Keep the Midlands Beautiful is selling Earth Machine compost bins for $45. Call 803-733-1139 to schedule a time to pick up a bin.

Free shredding

Sonoco Recycling now offers free shredding to any resident or business, Monday through Friday from 8 am to 4 pm. Sonoco Recycling is located in Columbia at 1132 Idlewilde Boulevard, off of Bluff Road.

Rain barrels

The Richland Conservation District is selling rain barrel systems for $90 each. To purchase a rain barrel, email Charlie Fisher or call 803-576-2080.

To learn more, visit http://www.keepthemidlandsbeautiful. org/pdf/Ric h_Co_Rain_Barrel.pdf