On April 8, Councillor Piccirilli chaired a meeting with the DPW to discuss recycling efforts in Watertown. The town’s contract with Republic haulers ends June 30, 2022, which gives us time to look at both organic and inorganic waste recycling. With a good deal of input from the public, including WFCC members, the Councillors voted to re-establish the town’s Recycling Committee and will be looking for citizens interested in serving.
WFCC would like to see organic waste collected in Watertown, either through a town effort or through an independent contractor. Black Earth now serves 400 families in Watertown and can give us statistics about how much their collection diverts from a landfill – and thus how much we can save in dumping costs. You think of organic recycling as compost, but Black Earth takes many things – bones, meat, paper, pizza boxes – that you wouldn’t put in a backyard composter. As for inorganic recycling, WFCC is interested in pursuing the question of what happens to the material we recycle after it leaves the town’s borders. With China no longer buying our recycling, do the contents our green bins simply get tossed into another landfill somewhere else? No one seemed able to answer this question. We need that answer before we just assume the best and sign on again with Republic or another hauler.