They’re heeeere!
August 17th, 2010
We were out taking a walk tonight and saw some of the new recycle bins that the town is in the process of delivering to each household.  They’re pretty big but good for picking up every two weeks. The containers pictured above are the larger ones that I believe had to be requested and the standard 64 gallon bin are delivered to everyone else.   In fact, when we got home from our walk the recycle bin fairy had stopped by our house and there was a shiny new bin waiting for us at the end of our driveway!
I think it’ll be fine but my friend Rev. Bob pointed out that this will be more of a challenge for the people who rummage through the bins in search of cans and bottles. I picture seeing legs sticking out of the tops of the bins every pick up day but we’ve been pretty lucky to have neat rummagers who make sure to put everything back so hopefully it’ll stay that way.
The new recycle schedule of picking up ever other week starts Sept 7th. For more infomation, check out the town website.
Fine by me if it makes it harder for the “rummagers” We don’t need them slinking around the neighborhoods anyway. They;ve left things a mes before and sometimes are noisy very early in the morning. One of them drives around in his Mercedes grabbing recycling.
Comment by Boya — August 18, 2010 @ 4:39 pm
Michelle,
I just was driving on Flagg DR and I noticed someone had their TRASH IN PLASTIC BAGS stuffed into their new recycling bin and waiting for pickup!
And, Boya, I really don’t disagree at all, but I suspect the “rummagers” will just make a bigger mess when they’re through going through the big bins!
Comment by Rev. Bob Baril — August 19, 2010 @ 9:03 am
Weird, I had read in the town flyer about them not wanting garbage barrels with attached tops for regular garbage, but now these new recyle ones have them???
Comment by Joker — August 19, 2010 @ 9:45 am
I was surprised how large even the 64-gal. barrel is. I need a bigger garage!
Comment by Matt — August 19, 2010 @ 10:50 pm
Jeepers! They are HUGE!! I agree with Joker - I, too, need a bigger garage!
Comment by Joe — August 20, 2010 @ 10:32 am
Just as you can request larger bins, I have a friend that has requested a smaller barrel…it may take longer to get, but when you are older or disabled you can get one that is less than the 64 gallon barrel you just need to ask.
Comment by Carla — August 22, 2010 @ 2:06 pm
I rent, so maybe the landlord requested them, but our 3-family house received 3 of the giant barrels. Two of the families don’t recycle (yet, hopefully they can be convinced). I live alone and recycle everything I can, but I also try to limit packaging in the first place. As a result, I couldn’t have filled the little blue bin in two weeks. Well this’ll be good when I forget which week is which.
I was surprised that the barrels were not a common recycling color (blue, green, yellow) and that they were not marked either “Recycling” or “Property of Framingham”. I’m not surprised they were misused. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got the multiple phone calls and (after delivery) the letter. As my neighbors don’t recycle, I wouldn’t be surprised if they deleted phone messages that included the word “recycle” and similarly disposed of recycling mail.
And I’m a little concerned about barrel placement on collection days. The letter makes it sound like they’ll be using the automated trucks and if they can’t access the barrel, they’ll have to skip it. Maybe I made that last bit up, ’cause somewhere else I read something that sounded like they didn’t have the trucks (yet). Problem is, I can’t guarantee someone won’t park in front of my barrel. Of course, I suppose I could put it on the no-parking side of the street, but will the truck work that side?
I can’t wait to see how this all works out. I’m sure in time we’ll figure out all the kinks and what to do about them. I should pay a lot more attention to my town government. I tend to find out about stuff when I get a ticket (year-round parking restrictions) or an ugly over-sized barrel shows up in front of my house. By then it’s too late to do much except complain on someone’s blog!
Thanks for indulging me.
Comment by joejoefm — August 25, 2010 @ 7:41 pm
Does anyone know what the color means? My father got one with a brown lid (as did some of his neighbors) but others got a barrel with a yellow lid. They’re all the same size. And yes, they are HUGE. We need to put an addition on the garage just for the barrel.
To joejoefm - I also think everyone should recycle. One of our neighbors didn’t and the town sent them a stern letter that they may be fined (they had tons of trash). Maybe a call placed to the town about these non-recycling lazy people and maybe something can done to give them a nudge.
Comment by Susie — August 30, 2010 @ 1:24 pm
Susie:
The cans with yellow lids are the 96-gallon variety; the ones with brown lids hold 64-gallons.
Yes, I agree, too, that non-recyclers should be fined, not as a moral issue, but as a practical one. My understanding is that Fram. pays $85/ton to have trash hauled away.
Comment by Matt — August 30, 2010 @ 2:37 pm
Great. I called a month ago and requested a 96. today I got a 64 and when I called they told me they had no record of my request I will have to wait until the end of september until they are done distributing the bins to see if they can then give me a larger onbe. DPW is ridiculous. you do what they ask, they lose track of it and then expect you to get at the end of the line rather than fixing the problem !!!!
Anyone had the DPW “lose” track of their request?
Comment by boya — August 31, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
We finally got our bucket yesterday. I was amazed at how large the 96 gallon is. For us, that will be good, since I have a large family.
I’m still waiting to see how this is going to save the town money. Between the cost of the buckets , which all have a computer chip in them, the delivery cost (ours was delivered on Sunday of Labor Day weekend, so there was probably time and a half or overtime involved), the cost of new trucks, etc. I don’t see how this is going to save as much money as was thought. I’ll be interested to see how it all works out.
Comment by Karen — September 6, 2010 @ 8:12 am
They straightened out my bin mixup. Very nice and easy to deal with once I got to the director. The ladies in the office were NOT helpful.
re the cost of the “computer chiP which is really an RFID tag…that’s minimal…maybe 7 to 10 cents. and the more they buy, the lower the cost. it’s built right in by the company they buy the bin from.
Comment by boya — September 7, 2010 @ 8:23 pm
Thanks. I wasn’t really referring to the cost of the chip itself, but the cost of all those brand new bins and trucks. They can’t be cheap!
Comment by Karen — September 8, 2010 @ 10:46 pm
Give me a breakl, do you think the illegals down town will recycle using the new bins? they don’t do it now and the town does nothing about it.
Comment by bb — September 11, 2010 @ 8:44 am
It still boggles my mind that the town spent so much money on these bins and this program. This will cost money over the long haul and will result in more employees added to the payroll (to bring the program in house instead of contracted out)… All this spending when kids have to walk so far to school. The moeny spent on this program could have been (and should have been used) to bring back the busses.
Comment by Brad — September 15, 2010 @ 5:14 pm
I work from home most days so have had a chance to see the new recycle collection in-action. Appears they are the same trucks, whereby they always had the lift-arm feature but just didn’t use it… maybe I’m wrong. It is clearly NOT ‘automated’ since the drive still needs to get out and wheel the bin to the truck, then operate the lifter, then wheel it back. With the smaller tote-sized bins I was always impressed at the speed the driver was able to make his rounds. This new system looks much slower, but perhaps with the switch to bi-weekly it saves time overall. I will say it slightly improves the aesthetics of the neighborhoods now that everyone has uniform-looking recycle bins — rather than a mish-mash of totes with exposed stuff in them (except for those who can’t seem to get the schedule straight and put their bins out on the off weeks!). I would like to see the numbers on the revised town contract with WM — are they posted somewhere? Besides to colossal overtime bill for distributing the bins I would have to think the WM contract stayed flat or went down.
Comment by Will — October 13, 2010 @ 10:50 am