This year Methuen instituted single stream recycling city wide, with curb side pickup. I have received some numbers from the five month mark that show that single stream is having a positive impact on overall recycling numbers. The improvement is solid, but as a city we need to do even more to recycle and reduce our solid waste stream. For the first five months of this fiscal year recycling tonnage went from 907 tons to 1047 tons, reflecting a 15.4% increase in recycling. Correspondingly we saw a drop in our solid waste stream from 6991 tons generated to 6699 tons generated, a 292 ton reduction, representing a 4.2% reduction in solid waste.

This is a great improvement, but we can and should do more. Do you have any ideas to improve the rate of recycling in Methuen? Send your suggestions or comments to recycling@ci.methuen.ma.us Lets keep up the good work and strive to further reduce our costs as a city by driving that recycling rate even higher.