Community Corner

Cheshire Implements New Automated Recycling Program

The town is now going to have a truck with a mechanical arm come pick up your trash.

The Town of Cheshire is implementing a new automated recycling program with Town-provided recycling containers. An automated truck with a mechanical arm will pick up these recycling containers every other week (biweekly). The regular solid waste collection will not change; trash will continue to be collected weekly.

The delivery of the new automated recycling containers to all eligible households is expected to begin in mid-November, with the automated biweekly collection to begin after Thanksgiving. There will be one week without recycling collection when the new schedule starts, but the weekly trash collection will not be interrupted. The biweekly collection schedule, additional information about this program and a listing of recyclable materials will be sent to Cheshire households within the next several weeks and will be available on the Town’s website at www.cheshirect.org.

The new recycling containers will be used for all recyclable materials. They are large enough to hold two weeks of recyclables for most households, and are covered so materials won’t blow away, become saturated with rain and snow, or attract animals. These dark green covered containers will have RFID, which is an electronic ID that will enable identification of the address to which a container belongs.

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All accepted recycling materials can simply be placed in these containers; no more sorting, folding, crushing or bundling. These containers can then be wheeled out to the curb for collection every other week. Residents may keep their old recyclable bins for personal use, or can return them to collection centers which will be set up at several locations in town.

Most households will receive 96 gallon containers, however, those households meeting one of the following criteria will receive 64 gallon containers:

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  • households with one or two bedrooms;
  • households of one or two residents where at least one resident is over 65 years of age by December 31, 2012 or qualifies for disability tax benefits (this information will be compiled based on the data from the voter registration list; therefore, residents who are over 65 but are not registered voters will not be detected for receipt of the 64 gallon containers);
  • most condominiums which currently have Town-provided collection services.

Residents may be able to swap sizes after two months of collections if a sufficient number of the requested containers are available.  This process will be developed and publicized in January 2013.

This new program is expected to increase the amount of materials that are recycled, and decrease the quantity of solid waste going to the trash plant, saving the environment and reducing the cost of solid waste disposal.

This information came from a press release from the Cheshire Town Hall.


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