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

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

On my street, the recycling truck usually comes first, and I'm not sure I've ever seen them take any recycling that wasn't *in* the bin.

So, for example, if the bin is totally full of glass/plastic/metal so the paper is bagged and on the side, the paper is left behind to be grabbed by the trash guys. Same with any cardboard that isn't in the bin.

[ron_newman]

I thought you were supposed to leave the paper in bags outside the bin?

First time I hear of this!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I usually have paper and plastic in paper bags, some in the blue bin, some outside, since it's kinda small..

[gookalockgeek.livejournal.com]

according to the city of somerville website:

Place commingled material in recycling bin. (Acceptable commingled Items: glass bottles, metal cans, plastic containers (#1-7) & milk/juice cartons).

For mixed papers and cardboard: Place all papers (newspaper, discarded mail or junk mail, envelopes, magazines etc.) in a paper bag. Please flatten cardboard, cut and tie in approximate size of 2’x2’. Place next to recycle bin.

The woman at 311 told me that you can't put anything but paper outside of the bin, and cardboard must be bound with twine to be picked up.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

That's ambiguous. Does "Place next to recycle bin." apply to papers and cardboard, or just cardboard?

[trtls.livejournal.com]

Get another recycling bin. We have 3 in case we do have that much recycling. Generally we use 2 for the whole house (3 units).