The news I needed to get started in the backyard

I’m so excited (and relieved) about a piece of news I got yesterday.

DC runs a facility near us called the Ft. Totten Waste Transfer Center, which is like a dump, only they don’t keep anything there — they just sort it and send it elsewhere. It’s a fantastic, magical place where you can take nearly any trash from your house, even hazardous materials or old electronics, and have them destroyed or recycled for free. I’ve probably taken 6-8 truckloads there since we started in November. (Ugh, plaster removal!!) And got some nice porch chairs for free.

But I had long heard that Ft. Totten doesn’t take concrete. Which was going to make our backyard project quite complicated. We’ve got remnants of an old driveway (we’ll never use) that run into a one-car garage (we’ll never need). We’re planning to take it all up and replace part of it with pervious pavers (from the DDOE Riversmart program — more about that in another post.)

I had been dreading starting this project because a) it’s going to be a bear to get it all smashed up and out of the ground and b) I didn’t know how I was going to get rid of the concrete.

I heard earlier this week that DPW was having an online chat about the Ft. Totten transfer center, so I dropped by to ask about the concrete.

Needless to say, I printed this out and will be taking it with me when I go. Great news. Now I just need to completely clear the backyard of concrete, stumps and the nasty privet hedges. But at least I know where the concrete is going. And for free.