Is the town going to provide them? These things are mighty expensive. I find using brown paper lawn bags keep recycling from blowing out of the bins.

If the town is going to provide the bins that's one thing but if not forget it I think it's all in how you pack your bins. How many wasted tax payers dollars are we going to waste on multiple town meetings on this subject

19,000 households times $50 a barrel = $950,000; close to one million dollars. More for those with more than one barrel of recycling a week. So that JRM can slam, toss, bang, break, dump into street and otherwise abuse our property. When JRM cleans up its act and the Town starts to provide more oversight on its contractor, then they can consider a new tax (special purpose barrels purchased by residents) or a new expense (the town provides the barrels). Otherwise, Alan Jones, the Board of Selectmen and the Recycling Committee can put a lid on their brilliant ideas.

If the town provides barrels with well attached covers, (like many other local towns), otherwise the trash collectors lose the lids weekly. Asking residents to constantly replace lids is too much.

There seem to be a lack of good options. Trash cans at Home Depot, for example, are crazy-expensive. Then again, I keep re-buying the cheap ones after JRM leaves my cans' tops in the street, where cars run over them and they crack. So I've probably paid more in replacements than if I'd gotten one expensive one.

That said, is there some sort of hack that would work? In my old neighborhood (not in Arlington), residents would secure tops with bungie cords. But, the trash guys would take them off, empty the can, and reattach the tops and cords. Not sure how much faith I'd have in JRM doing the same. Maybe we can drill a hole in the top, thread a bungie through, and tie the bungie to the handle. Or *something* else that outsmarts JRM.

I think that there are some things that are none of the town's business. The town should pass an ordinance that if your garbage ends up in the street--no matter what the reason--a fine could be levied equal to the cost of cleaning it up. Just as you are required to keep sidewalks free from snow, you should be required to keep sidewalks and streets free from garbage. Covered garbage pails would prevent this. I keep my garbage pails covered because the raccoons make such a mess of things at night.

I think its laughable that the same town that's considering such a "progressive" policy as banning small water bottles still doesn't provide standardized recycling bins. Nearby Somerville provides two free giant recyclying bins for every triple-decker house.
I would have to guess that most garbage hauling companies, such as Iocally-based garbage hauler Casella Waste, would be more than happy to provide the bins for free. (I'm not sure about JRM though, the bigger standardized bins would be much harder for them to throw all over the street after empytying). Recycling & reselling paper, scrap metals, and plastics generate profits for the garbage companies and/or the town. And more recycling means less garbage. Less garbage means lower "tipping fees" that the town has to pay the Garbage company, because garbage dump site capacity is perennielly constrained, as dump sites are very expensive and time consuming to get approved. In sum, if you re-purpose rainwater off your roof to water your organic garden, drive a Prius and get infuriated by plastic bottles and shopping bags, then you should definitely be banging down the doors of City Hall for town-issued giant recycling bins. I'm just sayin'...
James H

Careful with this one and watch out Beware of "good idea prophets". The wording is vague and misleading.
Give these guys any reason to act and you'll see "pay as you throw" and bam another way into wallets. Not only will we be on the hook buying giant barrels and contracting the appropriate trucks, we'll be out in our pj's deciding what to put in them on collection morning. This town will not be buying barrels for anyone.
I already have a few lid types but probably not the giant type neighbor Alan is drooling over. Common sense says that open bins are wrong on windy days, really?
If and when that idea fails, and the supposed $$'s are inevitably spent up on high dollar salaries like Special Ed coordinators etc, what next?
Ask anyone from Somerville how much they love their giant barrels.

Problem: on windy trash pickup days, lots of light recyclables get sucked out of the blue bins. No one wants that on their street, do they? This happened by coincidence a few days after the Selectmen were discussing litter problems and the cost of cleaning it up. Stray recyclables are part of that bigger problem, and prevention is cheaper and more effective than picking it up later. Someone suggested "banging down the doors of City Hall". Since we don't have a City Hall, I thought writing a letter to the Selectmen would be a better approach.

Fix 1: encourage everyone to care. Just put something heavy on top of the light stuff. Like a bag of newspapers on top of the shredded credit card offers. It's cheap and easy and your neighbors will appreciate it.

Fix 2: when your blue bin wears out, replace it with a cheap covered trash can. Put a RECYCLE sticker on it. Those blue bins don't last forever, so you're going to have to replace them sometime anyway. Wanamakers & Shattucks have nice covered cans for $10-15 if you get one on sale.

Fix 3: next time the trash contract comes around, discuss having the hauler provide bins, like they do in many nearby towns. Might work, might not, but it's worth talking about.

Glad to get a conversation started. Any other ideas for fixes?

I was sick and tired of hauling multiple little bins to the sidewalk where the wind would sweep everything out. I broke down and finally spent $54 at Home Depot to buy a medium sized blue Rubbermaid recycling bin with the lid attached (so those horrible trash collectors have less opportunity to ruin my property!). Guess what? I'm so happy! My recyclables stay in the bin, I haul one, wheeled barrel to the curb each week, and even though JRM tries its hardest, it hasn't broken my barrel yet! Funny how the little things in life can make such a difference.

Allan I use and have success with the "Hinged top " 50 gallon 188 L job. About $55.00 per dollars locally. I know pricey but they last so much longer. Easier to move & store and durable. Any bigger and they eat space, tend to overload and harder to move for the trash guys. Which they loath and take it out on your stuff! Talk to them. Appreciate what they do... Mail folks also respond well to a little respect.
Don't even consider the smaller 32 gal "Top Hinged"one's. The hinges are not tough enough and the twisting then banging bumping motion by the collectors will destroy them quickly. I've made this mistake already.
I use to take care of the the collectors at Christmas time, once in a while fund em a coffee tip but with all the changes I have no idea who's on the trucks anymore. The not to long ago old days they'd make sure to treat my stuff with care and neat about placing them back. Now I have 0 relationship and invested in extra rugged equipment to combat the abuse. I cringe every time I go to retrieve my stuff. So far the tougher 50 gal "Top Hinged one's" are still doing well & holding up after a couple years.
Hope this helps save some one some dough and aggravations.

Perhaps the town or JRM could do a bulk purchase and offer discounted large covered bins to residents who sign up (like the rain barrels offered every year). This would bring down the cost for residents who want the convenience of a larger wheeled bin, but avoid a major town expenditure.

Laura Notman

We have to wash our trash,sort our trash, we have times to put our trash out and bring in the empty bins. We can only bring in the recycle bin after the trash is picked up. If we use a barrel with a cover for the recycles what color would the town want it to be. if we bring in a water bottle from outside town could we still recycle the water bottle or would we have to bring it back to the city or town we bought it in? Will all the public trash cans have to be covered or will trash cans on public property have an exemption like leaf blowers. We need to stop micro management. Today I found a beer bottle in front of my house should we close all liquor stores in town? Should we just copy all the laws from neighboring city's and town and add all there laws to our bylaws so we will be the same?

My house is 27 steps up from the road. At 75, I find the small blue bins about all I can handle. Don't make it mandatory to have large covered bins on wheels that are of no use to me.

See that...They never think about Malcolm. Malcolm you should be allowed to litter.
Kidding, but these are things that aren't brought up when the good idea prophets bang around ideas. Flexibilities need to be considered as well.
Malcolm and my 92 year young Iwo Jima 4th Division Marine neighbor deserves this.

Imagine all the empty beer cans a certain former selectwoman could fit in one of these.

Not sure if it's just my street, but most of the recyclable stuff blowing around and littering the streets appears AFTER the collectors have picked up the bins. I've seen with my own eyes almost a quarter of a neighbors paper stuff and cans fall out as the collectors were "emptying" the bin into the truck. Rather than impose new restrictions and expenses on town residents, why not fine the collection company for losing too much of the stuff to begin with? Enforcement would be easy - simply do spot before and after checks or have an inspector follow them around periodically.

This guy has too much time on his hands. People who live alone don't need some big a** bin with a cover...nor do short people. Please stop coming up with these awful ideas.