recycling problems

[gookalockgeek.livejournal.com]

I live in Somerville (though not in Davis Square) and I'm having an issue with my trash/recycling. Last night my landlord showed up at my door and yelled at me for having cardboard boxes and paper bags full of recycling next to my recycling bin, claiming that he has been repeatedly fined for this by the city of Somerville. He demanded that we throw all our recycling in the trash to avoid this. We complied because he is scary and was in our building unannounced and had caught us off guard.

This morning, I cleaned up the 6 bags of trash my neighbors had thrown on the curb (most likely what he is actually being fined for) and put them in trash cans. Then I stood at the window and watched the trash truck throw away the contents of not only the several trash cans, but my clearly marked blue "Somerville Recycles" recycling bin.

Has anyone dealt with this problem before? What do I do to stop this? I moved here from Brookline, where you're fined for NOT recycling, and now I am being punished for doing so.

EDIT: I called 311 and reported the issue, but I'm going to leave this up to let people know that their recycling might end up in the dump if they don't pay attention to who is picking it up!

Comments

[xthlcm.livejournal.com]

When I lived in Somerville (granted this was 5 years ago) we had constant problems with garbage and recycling collection. They would regularly strew garbage all over the street, toss our recycling in the truck, leave garbage cans on their side in the middle of the road, etc.

I was complaining about this to one of our neighbors (who had lived in the house for 20+ years) and she laughed it off. "Don't you give these guys any grief; it took forever to hire them, and they're like a breath of fresh air compared to what we used to have!" I can only assume that the previous garbage collectors would dump garbage on your head, set your house on fire and rape your dog. This may explain the BOA's attitude.