In 2024, the council voted through an ambitious plan from first-term Mayor Peter Marchetti to finally move from an unlimited curbside trash and recycling policy to a toter system. It came after years of discussion. The mayor framed the effort as both a cost saving mechanism and an inevitable evolution for the industry per city waste management contractor Casella. In a report to the council Tuesday, Marchetti gave an update on how the rollout has proceeded so far.
“In the initial deliver, Casella delivered one trash and one recyclable toter to just over 17,000 households, for a total of 34,476 toters," said the mayor. "As you know, residents have the option to request additional recycling toters for free, and additional trash toters for $160 a year. As you can see, we have received requests for both, with the number of recycling toters almost doubling the number of trash toters.”
Marchetti acknowledged that there had been bumps in the road.
“Early on, we ran out of recycling toters and needed to place in order to have more," he said. "This caused a delay in delivery, and it is an issue that we addressed with Casella. We have their guarantee that they will order additional toters sooner if we were to run out in the process so we don't have the gap like we are experiencing. Casella has been working hard over the last week or two to ensure that all total requests have been delivered and they should be completed soon, if not already. So, we finished today.”
The mayor also admitted Pittsfield’s outreach around the new system needs to improve.
“We are still working to address the gaps between communities that we are able to connect with during the initial launch," Marchetti continued. "Education will always be something that needs to be involved.”
That said, city officials were eager to highlight the new program’s accomplishments. Commissioner of Public Works Ricardo Morales pointed to the average trash disposal rate per household in Pittsfield.
“The trends we were watching had to do with lowering from 1,800 pounds per household – and you can see Pittsfield is a little over the 1,800 pounds at the end of the year per household – lowering that number to around 1,400 pounds per household," he told the council. "And the trend we're looking at now for the last three months – October, November and December – is 1,500 pounds per household.”
The commissioner noted that the city’s recycling rate – long resting at or around 10% - has immediately jumped since the toters were distributed at the end of 2024.
“We went from that 10% immediately to around 15% and later on to north of 18% recycling for the month of December,” said Morales.
He pegged Pittsfield’s monthly recycling tonnage at 200 over the previous system’s average of 160.
More to the point, Morales said the data collected so far shows that the new system is in fact saving Pittsfield money on waste collection as promised.
“FY24 costs, just collection – this does not include the $5 million total cost – $1.9 million," he said. "If we didn't do anything, if we just went on with our lives, no changes, that would be $2 million in FY25. Now, we compare that to our reality, and we have been saving $367,000."
Marchetti said he’s optimistic about the ongoing adoption of the toters.
“When we first implemented this program, I couldn't go any place without someone saying, this program is a terrible idea," said the mayor. "As we are now getting further and further into the system, I am being approached by people that say, Mr. Mayor, it was a bumpy ride, but I think we're getting there.”
Audio was provided by Pittsfield Community Television.
