God help us if we Cumberland residents ever see 35-gallon trash limits.
We have no idea how easy we have it on curbside trash and recycling capacity. Rhode Island as a whole is way behind Massachusetts when it comes to dealing with the future reality of waste disposal, where you’ll likely have to think hard about the size of the packaging on the items you buy.
To hear a few residents complain, you would think that the town stole their child the way they talk about how the trucks only pick up recycling every other week now to save more than $200,000.
With the recycling bins going to 95 gallons from 64 gallons (maybe 65?), you’re talking about a difference of 17-18 gallons per week less in capacity for recycling.
As I pointed out to folks on the lovely social media site where the conversation happens, 47 gallons of recycling per week is more than enough for our family of five, and we get a ton of boxes delivered and are terrible at breaking things down.
Think about it: if you went through 10 gallons of milk, 30 cans, 20 bottles, and had 15 boxes delivered in two weeks, you should still have room left over if you crush everything correctly. And the world will not end if you have to put one box in the trash. Believe me, entire truckloads of recycling get dumped because they’re contaminated with garbage.
I don’t want to contribute more tax dollars for people who seem to have no idea what’s coming and how good they have it.
You don’t have to look far. In neighboring Attleboro, where I drive almost daily, trash barrels look like they could be toys. They allow 35 GALLONS of trash, and anything beyond that requires a specially purchased bag.
Recycling bins are 64 gallons, similar to Cumberland’s previous ones, though service does come weekly.
North Attleboro has similar circumstances, with 35 gallons for baseline trash and 95 gallons for weekly recycling pickup.
North Attleboro, where my mom still lives, has had these kind of rules for many years, and long ago I grew accustomed to her closely monitoring what I was throwing out.
As I scout out recycling bins around Cumberland, the majority of them aren’t full every two weeks, and with the ones that are, they are full of boxes that haven’t been broken down.
With our landfills nearing capacity in the coming decades, folks might want to start preparing now. With the rising costs of disposal (including for many items that currently go in the recycling but can’t actually be recycled) you’ll be seeing wild terms such as “mandatory organic waste diversion” thrown around much more frequently. Wait until the AI sensors can tell exactly how poorly you did on both your trash and recycling sorting. Think you’re doing well recycling the right items? Check the list again.
I’m all for local services being the best they can be (especially trash, plowing, paving, and education), and even the idea of complaining a bit on Facebook, but at a certain point, people need to realize how good they already have it.
And if we’re being honest with ourselves, I sort of doubt that you’re breaking the Amazon boxes down quite as much as you claim you are.
Ethan Shorey is the founder of The Local Insider, and he used to think everything he put in the recycling actually got recycled.
Opinion pieces here come with black and white headshots, to differentiate them from news.
