New Trash System 'Keeps Animals Out,' Streamlines Recycling

In three weeks, the city will get a new waste collection program, streamlining the collection of trash and recycling. 

Currently, residents have trash collected on each day of the work week and recycling must be hand sorted before it is collected.

Starting July 13, the city will be divided into two zones and all trash will be picked up on Fridays. With around 10 trucks, the entire city’s trash will be collected in one day. The recycling will be collected at each residence every other Friday, necessitating the two zones of the city.

In addition, residents will be issued for both trash and recycling which fit into the new automatic lever arm of the truck, said Thomas Temple, Marlborough's assistant commissioner of operations.

Residents who've been testing the program have been satisfied, Temple said.

"I think it's a win-win," he said.

With the new automatic system, residents will no longer have to sort recyclables into different bags; rather, all recyclable materials can be placed in the same bin, Temple said. That bin will be collected every other week.

The department has received more than 300 emails and several hundred letters requesting the new system, which is “a significant amount,” Temple said.

Everything gets to stay outside and the large bins keep all the animals out, said Tom Lashmit, a resident who participated in a pilot program that allowed some residents to test the new program for possible problems. “The system is great,” he said.

“We have always recycled anyway,” but this will make it easier, said Arthur Josephson, another resident who tested the new program.