Curbside Recycling Just Got Easier

• No more putting recyclable paper and cardboard in a separate bin.
• No more putting recyclable cans, bottles, and plastics in a separate bin.
• No need to put out two recycling containers if all your paper, cardboard, cans, bottles and plastics will fit in one.

Thanks to new technology and new trucks, everything that your household recycles can now go in the same container. In the recycling world, the term is "co- mingled". The sorting technology and workers in the sorting plants do the separation, with conveyor belts carrying each type of recyclable to a different place.

IPR, Westford's curbside contractor, started a pilot program in town earlier this year using a new truck. They now have the capability to cover all 30 square miles in town with the trucks that co-mingle. So homeowners no longer have to sort recyclables.

"The main reason we hear from residents who don't recycle is that it is too much trouble for them to sort their recyclables and that the bins take up too much room with paper and junk mail in one bin and everything else in another", says Recycling Commission member Elizabeth Sawyer. "Now there is absolutely no excuse not to take part."

"And", adds member Barb Theriault, "recycling was made mandatory in Westford by a vote of the Board of Selectmen in October, 1994."

Mandatory recycling assures we get recyclables out of the trash and therefore out of the incinerator in North Andover where the town pays an additional fee for every ton of trash taken there.

The members of the Recycling Commission are listed in the 2009-2010 Recycling Guide that was mailed to every household earlier this month. Please call any member with questions.