City of Somerville to begin single stream recycling
The city of Somerville will begin single stream recycling tomorrow, allowing residents to toss all bottles, cans, cardboard and other recyclable material into blue 64 gallon toters delivered to residents last week.
Billed as a customer service coup for residents who will no longer need to sort their recycling material, the program is expected to save money on tipping fees and trash tonnage costs in the long term, said Jaclyn Rossetti, spokeswoman for the city.
There will be no change in collection schedules, Rossetti said. Old recycling bins can be kept by residents, or recycled during the first weeks of the new program. To dispose of them, the city is asking residents to place the old bins on top of the new ones when recycling is collected.
The city tested the single-stream system in a pilot program in Ward 5 late last year, and found that in the first eight weeks of the test, recycling rates increased by 58 percent. Somerville joins surrounding communities such as Boston and Medford that have also switched to single-stream.
