Pittsfield mayor outlines phased rollout of new trash-and-recycling toters and fields council questions

Mayor Peter Marchetti told the Pittsfield City Council on Oct. 8 that the city’s phased rollout of new trash and recycling toters began in mid‑September and is proceeding route by route, with trash-toter deliveries scheduled to begin Oct. 14.

"So phase 1 is a review of the delivery and pickup of the recyclable toters," Marchetti said, describing community meetings, multilingual materials and a public website with how‑to guides and request forms. He said recycling-toter delivery began “around September 10th” and that the city has been using postcard mailers, video, social media and broadcast outreach to support the change.

Marchetti and administrative staff provided several operational metrics and early results: roughly 19,000 recycling toters delivered to about 17,400 households; 127 pending requests to remove unclaimed carts; 500 additional trash requests and 2,229 additional recycling requests logged as of the end of September. The mayor said the city is tracking roughly 300 service issues with vendor Casella and that about half of those have been resolved.

Councilors and members of the public pressed staff on specific implementation issues. Councilor Warren asked for a shared, live document showing which addresses had received toters and which deliveries were outstanding; the commissioner confirmed the city and Casella maintain a working list and said 176 addresses had been missed and 154 of those had been corrected. Councilor Kavey and others sought clarity on deliveries to multifamily properties: city staff said the health department keeps a list of multi‑family properties and that some delivery errors (addresses that received too many carts) are being corrected.

Several councilors raised concerns about accessibility for elderly and disabled residents. A council member asked how backyard pickup works and where to find the application online; staff said an application and a backyard pickup request form are available on the city website and that approval requires supporting documentation from a doctor. Marchetti said the city would follow up with Casella to ensure approved backyard pickups are being performed.

Councilors also questioned how and when toter ID tags are linked to addresses. City staff said Casella scanned the toters during delivery and that a delivery file was transmitted to the city the previous night; the mayor said crews were using iPads to record deliveries.

Marchetti defended the choice of a 48‑gallon toter as a balance between capacity and cost, saying it offered substantial disposal savings in the city’s analysis and that the program aims to increase recycling and reduce trash. He urged residents to place only recycling in the blue‑lidded toter and to keep lids closed.

The council moved to accept the presentation and place it on file; the motion passed unanimously.