New Danvers Trash, Recycling Service Begins In September

DANVERS, MA — The new automated trash and recycling program will begin in September with the distribution of free standardized carts to all residents.

Town officials said the move in the new trash and recycling contract is to decrease waste and maximize efficiency as part of a trend toward automated pickup in the industry. The new carts will designed to be picked up by the trucks as opposed to manually emptied by someone working on the back of the trucks.

Each household who lives in a residence currently receiving curbside collection service will get one 96-gallon recycling cart and one 64-gallon trash cart.

A vote of town meeting approved the use of "free cash" — or end-of-year surplus funds — to purchase the carts along with grant money from The Recycling Partnership, over the objection of the Finance Committee, which argued that residents should pay for the new carts with the surplus money going toward other necessary town services.

Along with the change, the town will go to every-other-week recycling. Residents will be informed of their recycling week prior to the September change.

The town will continue to support a Bulky Item Collection sticker program.

Leaf and yard waste collection will remain the same.

Drop-off at the Transfer Station will still be available.

More on the trash and recycling changes can be found here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)