Medford residents push back against plan to cut trash pickup, expand composting in city

Some Medford, Massachusetts residents are upset after the city announced plans to cut trash pickup back to every other week as part of a new plan to expand composting in the city. The compost push comes after the city secured a $200,000 grant that would require the city to limit weekly trash service to 32-gallons a week or the two-week equivalent of the 64-gallon buckets the city deploys now. 

“There are four people who live in my house, and we go through two barrels, so we pay for an extra anyways,” said Chris Donnelly, a Medford barber and resident. “We go through that every week, so if we have to cut it down by 50% a week, I don’t know how many people can sustain that.” 

In a release, the city says solid food waste accounts for a large portion of the state’s solid waste, and costs more to dispose of because it weighs more. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has considered expanding a food waste ban to all Massachusetts residents by 2030. 

“My wife is a stickler about [composting], and she does whatever she can to mitigate trash, and unfortunately we still have a barrel full of trash every week,” said Richard Silvestro, owner of Silvestro’s Barbershop in Medford. “I think it would help save the city money on trash pickup, but other than that I don’t see any benefit.” 

“People with little ones, diapers, everything adds up,” said Ryan Tuttle, a customer at Silvestro’s. “People put their compost in the freezer to stop it from smelling. You can only do that so much, or run out of freezer space, and it smells.” 

“We have upset our residents”

Compost would still be picked up every week, despite the trash being picked up every two weeks starting in 2027. Free pickup would be limited to the single 64-gallon barrel, but additional can be purchased and used at a cost. 

“We are trying to meet our financial goals and our sustainability goals at the same time, so yes, I know people are upset. People don’t like change, and they don’t want their services taken away. We see it as please give it a chance,” said Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn. “We have upset our residents going to potentially every other week trash, but we do, we need time to learn, listen, and get everyone’s concerns and make adjustments and changes as we move through the next 19 months.” 

In a statement to WBZ-TV, Medford City Council President Zac Bears had this to say about the changes: 

“Mayor Lungo-Koehn promised that any potential decision to cut back weekly trash collection would only happen after the City conducted robust public outreach and achieved clear benchmarks. That never happened.

Residents who oppose this decision are worried about the negative impacts on quality of life. Residents who support efforts to reduce waste and control trash removal costs that hurt our city budget are worried that this botched rollout means the city won’t make progress on those issues. 

I’m disappointed that the Mayor is pointing fingers instead of leading with a clear plan to earn the trust of residents and make sure that Medford is ready for such a big decision.”