Arlington Transitions To New Trash Collector

ARLINGTON, MA — The town entered into a contract with a new waste collection company earlier this week.

In May, Town Manager Jim Feeney announced that the town had reached an agreement with Waste Management to be Arlington’s new waste hauler. New 65-gallon trash and recycling receptacles arrived at residents’ homes in June to allow for the new automatic pickup system, as opposed to a previous manual system.

Feeney said WM was the most cost-efficient option for the town.

“Over the life of this contract, Arlington is expected to save at least $10 million compared to the manual collection program we use today,” Feeney said. “It is also anticipated there will be cleaner streets because all carts will have lids.”

The town is instructing residents to leave their bins three feet away from the curb and three feet from each other when being put out for pickup.

However, some community members have said that the transition has not been the smoothest. Resident Alex Townsend said that the switch has been a “trainwreck,” with a main reason being the ongoing strike with the town’s previous trash collector Republic Services.

“I'm more concerned about how the town government is handling this situation, as we've gotten weeks of notices assuring us that everything will be collected just one week later,” Townsend said. “We also still haven't received the new bins we were supposed to get weeks ago that are compatible with this new collector's machinery.”