By serving as guinea pigs in a Carroll County pilot program, residents of Eldersburg's Woodsyde Estate hope they can encourage others to take recycling more seriously.

"We're trying to help the county figure out how to make people change their habits," said Nancy Dunn, an officer and board member of the Woodsyde Estate Community Association.

The county recently provided households in the community with extra-large, 65-gallon recycling "toter cans," and community members have taken on the challenge of keeping them filled.

The community was chosen because it already has a high per-household recycling rate and because Dunn and other members lobbied the county.

"One of the reasons Woodsyde Estate was selected is that they have a very aggressive homeowner's board whose members understand the importance of keeping recyclables out of the waste stream and actively encourage homeowners to recycle," said Maria Myers, the Carroll County Bureau of Solid Waste's recently hired recycling manager.

Cliff Engle, chief of the Bureau of Solid Waste, says studies done in other communities have shown that providing homeowners with larger recycle containers that can be wheeled instead of carried to the curb can result in higher recycling rates.

"The board at Woodsyde Estate estimates right now that they have about 65 percent participation" in terms of households that actively recycle, Engle said. "We're trying to demonstrate that with larger, easier-to-use containers, that rate will go higher."

Nancy Dunn, a retired army reserve colonel and former army civilian communications specialist, said education is a key factor in ensuring the program succeeds.

To that end, the association has launched an effort via its newsletter, Web site and homeowners' meetings to energize residents. They have even reached out to children with a program, Recycle Detectives, to get them involved by helping to sort items in their household.

Woodsyde resident Mary McMahon has been instrumental in getting the pilot going, and her two young children are both "detectives."

"I'm big on recycling and I get excited about having less stuff in our garbage can," McMahon said. "And I feel it's important to get my kids started young in learning about recycling and the need to minimize the garbage we produce. They do recycling in school and they know it's good for our world."

Engle and Maria Myers attended a meeting earlier this year to answer questions and go over the county's recently expanded list of items that can be recycled.

Dunn is quick to point out that the program is voluntary.

"We have no intention of beating people over the head about this," she said. "We are giving them larger bins and giving them all the information and letting them know that if this works, it could lead to lower homeowners' fees."

Dunn said it's possible that if the 124-household community can increase its recycling rate and decrease the amount of trash it generates, it could help offset the community's trash hauling costs, which will inevitably be impacted as landfill tipping fees paid by trash haulers continue to rise. Since residents pay for trash service as part of homeowner fees, it could keep those fees from rising.

When Dunn moved to Carroll in 1998, she was shocked by the lack of attention paid to recycling by county government.

She began attending hearings and, when she heard the county was looking for a neighborhood to participate in a pilot program, she seized the initiative and volunteered Woodsyde Estates.

On a separate track, Bob and Karen Leatherwood, owners of the Eldersburg-based Carroll County Waste Services, were already providing trash service for Woodsyde, and also recommended the neighborhood for the pilot program.

To measure the effectiveness of the pilot, Carroll County Waste Services will weigh recyclables generated by Woodsyde Estate to keep tabs on how it's working.

Dunn believes Carroll County has miles to go in order to get up to speed on recycling. Still, she's more optimistic than she was a few years ago.

"I really thought we were going to be all alone in this pilot program, but it's turned out to be a happy confluence of people," Dunn added. "Bob and Karen Leatherwood have a long history of supporting recycling, and by bringing in people like Cliff Engle and Maria Myers, the county is also really moving forward."

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