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Select Board hears Casella plan for automated trash rollout, targets Aug. 1 start
Summary
Casella Waste Services presented a plan to switch Brentwood from manual curbside pickup to automated cart collection, proposing an Aug. 1 commencement with a multi‑week rollout of carts and public education. The company outlined common implementation issues and recommended local ordinance and overflow provisions.
Tony Belanger, municipal representative for Casella Waste Services, told the Brentwood Select Board that the company plans to switch the town’s curbside trash and recycling from manual pickup to automated carts and is “proposing an 8 1 commencement,” with cart delivery in the weeks beforehand.
Belanger said the company favors rolling out carts in July with collection beginning Aug. 1, and flagged eight topics towns typically must address before and after rollout, including public education, cart sizes, ordinances limiting curbside volume, hardship/overflow options, placement rules, 1‑way streets, collection‑pattern timing and cardboard handling.
The plan, Belanger said, calls for a town brochure distributed digitally and with cart deliveries to explain placement and schedules. He recommended Brentwood consider a volume ordinance tied to cart sizes (for example, 65‑ or 95‑gallon limits) and to include an overflow option or subscription for residents with extra waste. On recycling, he noted cardboard takes significant space and suggested the town consider a dedicated cardboard drop at a town transfer site.
Belanger also described operational details drivers face: robotic arms on trucks can reach 10–12 feet to pick carts and will return carts to their original placement; drivers carry stickers to educate residents when placement or orientation is unsafe; and collection times are likely to change within a day so residents must put carts out by 7 a.m. on collection days.
Select Board members and residents asked about cart sizes for ADUs and duplexes, whether extra carts would be allowed for purchase or by subscription, handling of businesses that put curbside commercial trash out, and winter safety when snowbanks push carts into roadways. Belanger said towns typically decide locally whether small businesses may participate in a residential collection program and suggested an ordinance be used to define eligible customers.
No formal action was taken; Belanger said Casella and town staff would collaborate on brochure copy and timing and that final rollout dates and cart sizes would be decided in the coming weeks.
