Residents' demands for recycling toters have been outpacing supply. The toter system will be fully implemented effective Nov. 12.

PITTSFIELD, Mass.— About a month into the new trash system, more than 2,200 extra recycling toters and over 500 additional trash toters have been requested.  

Mayor Peter Marchetti is most excited about these metrics and hopes the trend stays. This is a 4-to-1 request for 48-gallon recycling and trash toters.

"I'm going to try to remain optimistic that they're asking for the additional recycles because they recognize the information that we're putting out there," he told the City Council on Tuesday.

"If you recycle, you won't need as much trash. My sense is if you're calling and asking for a second recyclable toter and you know what the size is, you'd be making your decisions about trash."

The delivery of recycling toters began on Sept. 10 and trash toters will begin rolling out on Oct. 14.  Marchetti explained that the last trash collection will happen on Nov. 11 and from there, the toter system will be fully implemented.

Officials say Pittsfield's nearly 17,400 households produce about 1,800 pounds of trash each annually, generating close to 20 tons as a community. The system aims to reduce each household's waste to 1,370 pounds annually.

Households can have an additional recycling toter for free and a second for trash if they pay an extra $40 quarterly.

The administration reached constituents through nine community meetings, mailers, print and digital media, radio, public access, and social media so they were informed about the new system.

There were 17,000 impressions through location-based ad targeting, 8,900 video plays on Facebook, 900 YouTube impressions with a nearly 67 percent view rate, 60,000 print ad subscribers, and 38,000 listeners of radio ads.

A Facebook reminder on Sept. 13 reached more than 29,200 people.

"The communication has been great," Councilor at Large Earl Persip III said.

"Anybody that says they haven't been communicated to is just not paying attention. Let's be honest, there's been so much communication out there."

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa also commended the outreach.

"I know I was one of the people who was like, 'We need more communication' and you delivered and that shows," she said.

"There was a lot of questions at the beginning and your office and Casella and the commissioner's office has been great at responding and helping me solve questions and problems from constituents so I really appreciate that. I really appreciate the Spanish language work as well."

Hiccups were expected during this process and the administration vowed to maintain transparency with constituents. Marchetti explained that Casella Waste Systems needed more time to deliver toters and the window was expanded. But many residents were not aware that they could use the toters right away and reminders were issued on CodeRED and social media, and there were addresses with more or less units than the city thought.

"We found the quick first mistake that we had and that was that Casella believed that they could deliver 3,500 totes in less than 48 hours and we found in that first week that that wasn't happening," Marchetti said.

The last issue sparked conversation, as there were concerns that apartment buildings with more than four units would be grandfathered into the new system by mistake.

"We had the issue where multiple units over four had trash or recycling pickup and the residents who rent those spaces weren't aware that they no longer had trash or recycling pickup because it's something that was against our code but we were also doing for the last, 2006 it was changed, so we've been doing it since then and now they're putting the trash on the side of the road," Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey said, asking how the city is communicating with those landlords to make sure that get a dumpster and handle trash on their own.

Marchetti admitted that the city missed the mark on targeted communication with landlords about two weeks ago. Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales reported that they are working with the health department to contact landlords via email.  

"The city took the approach of every single household that we pick up trash got a postcard. The city have been promoting six ways to Sunday about the toter system. I had an individual in my office very concerned that she was going to get evicted from her property because she asked for a second recycling tote," he said.

"The light bulb in my mind went on that we have been communicating wide and far that this is happening but we did not reach out to the landlords to have a conversation with them because we were working on a property-by-property basis."

While tenants requesting an additional recycling toter makes no impact, the cost of an additional trash toter would need to be paid by the tenant or landlord.

Persip has heard horror stories about Casella delivering to apartment buildings and asked why the light bulb hasn't gone off that buildings with over four units don't receive municipal trash and recycling.

Marchetti attributed this to occasional errors in the list being provided to the trash company and outsourced work for the deliveries.

"I agree with you. It shouldn't be happening for whatever reason. Some we have communicated this already," Morales said.

"The good thing about all this, it won't happen for the trash delivery because we have been cleaning the list but at the same time, I will say that 19,600 deliveries and 127 have been delivered wrong."

There were 127 requests to remove recycling toters after they were over-delivered, which could also be attributed to second homes and people no longer living there.

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