Weekly Recycling Collection Could Soon Come to Arlington

Arlington residents could soon have weekly recycling and yard waste collection.

Town Manager Brian Sullivan said the town is negotiating a new solid waste collection contract that would be more cost-effective than Waste Management, the town’s current service provider.

“Our current vendor has been very good for us,” Director Michael Rademacher said. “But we found that, as the years went on, we were adding things a little bit here and there—and those were costing the town. We felt that, if we went out to bid, we could potentially get savings.”

The name of the vendor is yet to be disclosed. Sullivan said he can’t discuss many details of the contract because of ongoing negotiations.

Several selectmen said weekly recycling has been a long-standing desire of many town residents.

“This contract is remarkable in what it allows us to do,” Selectman Annie LaCourt said. “It will help us increase our recycling, which reduces our disposal costs.”

Rademacher said the new contract would likely include some form of mandatory recycling that would penalize residents with no trash pick-up when they fail to put out recyclables. That part of the contract is still under negotiations, he added.

Sullivan said the new vendor would limit trash collection to three barrels per household, an amount he said should be more than reasonable for a week’s worth of recyclables.

The town manager added the town has received other bids for recycling services, but those were on average several hundred thousand dollars higher than the top vendor on his list.

Editor's note: The original version of this article incorrectly indicated there would be a three-barrel limit on recycling collection. Rather, the limit would be on trash collection.