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

Recycling

[fishkiss56.livejournal.com]

The city is currently considering going to co-mingled recycling, where you'd throw all your recyclables (paper, plastic, glass, etc.) into a large (likely with wheels) bin. Hopefully this would reduce the potential for the garbage folks taking the recycling. There's currently one provider in the area and the city was looking at how much it would cost. Vithal Deshpande, the city's environmental coordinator, discussed it at the last Ward 7 Resistat meeting. I'm sure the more 311, emails, and phone calls he received asking about and/or supporting the idea, would help him make a case to the mayor.