As more and more people and communities are jumping on, the Town of Fountain Hills has held its spot on the big “green” bandwagon for two years.

It was early in 2007 when the Town Council established its Environmental Work Group to work on a formal environmental policy for the town. In May 2008 the council adopted its first set of environmental policies setting a tone for the future.

A year later and many of those policies had demonstrated a substantial measure of success.

The study group is comprised of two council members, town staff members and representatives from the Fountain Hills Unified School District, Fountain Hills Sanitary District and Chaparral City Water Company.

Working with the sanitation company, Waste Management, the town has implemented a community recycling program enabling residents to bring their recycling materials to a central dumpster location in the southwest corner of the library parking lot at the civic center.

That program proved so successful that it took a number of weeks to establish the best configuration of dumpsters to meet the needs.

Volunteers also have been helpful in assisting residents as they drop off items.

The town also continues to study and consider options related to residential trash collection. The town currently allows residents to choose their own trash collection services. There are five companies collecting trash with varying programs for recycling.

The town is interested in establishing a program that provides all residents with the same ability to recycle, preferably with curbside pickup.

The town has received mixed reaction from residents, not so much for recycling service, but people like the ability to choose their own trash collection company.

Also, the town has adopted standards that allow the use of compact fluorescent lighting for exterior fixtures for commercial and multi-family residential projects.

These are just some of the major priorities set by the study group and approved by the council.

Staff has not been letting the environmental initiatives sit idle. Implementation on some of the simpler goals has been under way and quite successful.

The town already has held several shredding/recycling events in conjunction with the Northeast Valley Meth Coalition, and there have been two electronics recycling events held.

Those activities have been so successful the town is asking for additional equipment to be able to serve everyone with materials to turn in.

The town has sponsored both electronic recycling and household hazardous waste recycling events. Those events were extremely successful with participation surpassing estimates by staff.

The hazardous waste recycling allows residents to safely get rid of cleaners, paints, solvents and oils, pesticides and herbicides, pool chemicals, medicines, cosmetics and other items.

Outdated computers, televisions and other equipment are collected to allow for the recycling of the often hazardous materials in the electronic components.

The town also has adopted dust regulations that are consistent with state standards and the Maricopa Association of Governments’ effort to meet federal requirements for air quality. Those regulations went into effect in March 2008.