The Town of Braintree, along with every community in Massachusetts, is under increased pressure to address the changes in recycling as a result of international demands to clean up the material that is being put into the curbside carts. Unwanted material in recycling carts has increased leading to higher rates of contamination and as a result, higher processing costs. Recycling is no longer a revenue generator for the Town, and is more complex for our residents due to new types of packaging and in some cases, loss of markets for material like glass.
The Town is committed to our recycling program, and we are taking many steps to help meet the new requirements. You may have seen our “lid flippers” checking recycling carts over the past several months and leaving information for residents on the new rules and what they can do to help improve our performance. We have seen a tremendous response to this effort, and we are a community making great progress toward lowering contamination rates.
Additionally, we have teamed up with Mass DEP (Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection) to provide additional resources through their state-wide effort “Please Do Your Part, Recycle Smart!”. You will see many more notices about the “do’s and don’ts” of recycling over the coming year in addition to resources available on their website www.recyclesmartma.org. We’ll all find that the new recycling guidelines will require we relearn some of the basics and think about reducing “wishful recycling” by not putting items like plastic bags and film, hangers, coffee & beverage cups, clothing , food containers, shredded paper and many more unwanted material in the recycling cart. Getting the right items in the cart (placed loosely, and not in bags) will dramatically reduce contamination problems and help keep costs down.
If you follow these simple, what to recycle guidelines, we’ll be “Recycling Smart” as a community: Mixed paper and Cardboard…Metal Cans….Bottles and Jars…Plastic Containers
Please no…...plastic bags/wraps, clothing, food, trash or bagging recyclables (loose in the cart)
For access to the guidelines, go to:
www.recyclesmartma.org or www.braintreema.gov/recycling