Politics & Government

First Week of Automated Recycling in E.P. Going Well

First week of automated recycling in East Providence ends today.

The first week of automated recycling in East Providence ends today, Sept. 13, and the contract has said “pickups have gone very well,” said Steve Coutu, director of the public works department.

MTG Disposal is the contractor, and “he’s pleased so far. It seems like the trucks are picking up at a quick pace.”

There has been a need to place orange stickers on some of the big blue 95-gallon bins, said Coutu. The stickers include a checklist of what a homeowner might have done wrong in the first week – such as leaving the lid open or placing the bin in the wrong direction or at a less than convenient spot for pickup.

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“It’s a checklist of things why the recycling truck didn’t pick up,” Coutu said.

But the three truck drivers may have gone back later, he said he has heard from the contractor. 

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“We expected a variety of phone calls from displeased homeowners,” he said, “or homeowners who didn’t get a blue bin or may need one more because of a tenant in an apartment in the back of a home. 

‘We tried to make sure every house got a bin,” Coutu said, working off a list from the tax assessor’s office. “But we missed some houses.” 

Coutu said he drove around the city and liked the cleaner look he found with the big blue bins. The old smaller bins often had cardboard or cartons or bottles sticking out of them, which made streets look a lot messier.

Some people have returned the old bins to the DPW garage on Commercial Way, he said. But it seems like most people are keeping them for some other use.


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