Town Of Arlington: Yard Waste Collection Delays

Press release from Town of Arlington:

11/19/2021

Yard waste season is in full swing!

While you and your neighbors are steadily working to get the leaves off the ground, our partners at JRM are working to get the bags and barrels of leaves to the composting facility.

And just like you might run out of bags and need to run to the store for more, JRM trucks fill up and have to leave town to empty their loads, sometimes as much as three times in a day.

We ask for the public's patience during the final month of leaf and yard waste collection. The crews are dealing with wet material, sometime added to by rain storms and barrels that don't have drain holes in the bottom. 

JRM workers follow laws that protect them, and the other drivers, by preventing these already-heavy trucks from overloading and becoming too heavy to travel safely. 

Lastly, the Town does not want work to go beyond 5:00 PM in most cases, plus they guys have to rest after all that lifting!

We will work with JRM to be sure that all routes are taken care of before the season ends, but for that to be a success, please keep the following in mind:

• Reusable barrels MUST be labelled with the Town's "Yard Trimmings" bumper stickers, no exceptions. These are free and available at 51 Grove Street 24/7 in the plastic bins just outside the Customer Service door
• Each piece of yard waste equipment (bag or barrel) must not weigh more than 50 lbs., but please try to keep them to 40 lbs. or under in order to make it more manageable for the workers' backs
• Only place out acceptable material- logs, branches over 1" in diameter, soils, rock, and root balls are all not allowed and will be left behind
• Do not include any food, even if it came from your garden. So no pumpkins, gourds, or apples/fruit from your trees. 
• If you use twine to hold sticks together, it must be biodegradable.
• If we get a snowstorm, plowing takes priority over yard waste collection

Remember that all of this material is really made into something else, something organic and put back in the soil, so it's up to all of us to keep plastics out of our yard waste.

This press release was produced by Town of Arlington. The views expressed here are the author’s own.