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Trash plan bears down on May 1 changeover

By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Fast and furious. Might be the name of a movie, but in Putnam it’s the speed with which the new Casella Waste trash program is shaking out.
Delivery of the bins to eligible residential households started April 15. By lunchtime April 15 some 500 bins had already been delivered.
Michael Saucier, president of Waste Support Systems of Windham, N.H., said he believes all the bins will be delivered to eligible residents by Friday.
His company was at the old armory building today with thousands of bins. Workers took the two wheels and the axle out of each bin and attached them to the bottom of the bin. Then they put a Casella brochure on how the system works inside each bin.
There are 4,500 95-gallon bins and 500 65-gallon bins. The 95-gallon bin count includes the 95-gallon recycling bins.
Each bin has a serial number on it and that number is assigned, in the computer, to a specific resident. The order that Waste Support Systems delivers bins this week is determined by a computer.
Beginning May 1 residents are asked to use their trash stickers on the garbage bag inside the new bin. Casella Waste will begin May 1 collecting trash using automated side arm trucks; therefore, no bags with stickers alongside the trash can nor any trash in “regular” trash cans of folks who are not signed up for the new program will be collected,
As of July 1, the changeover will be complete and there will be no stickers.
The “overlap” of using the stickers on trash bags in the new bins is to help pay for the bins and service before the bills for the new bins go out with tax bills in June, according to officials.
The town will be in charge of the data base and payment collection. Casella will be in charge of service concerns.
At an informational meeting, Marc Morgan of Casella said the company has an app that will tell you when the next collection day is (trash and recycling). He said the app allows for setting notifications (i.e. “a text the day before reminding you to put your trash out.”). The app can also notify of holiday or weather-related changes to pick up — “if there’s trees down or a bridge out, etc.” And the app is easily updated.
That app has already been fired up. Check the Google Play Store for “Recycle Better with Casella” with a Casella logo (dark blue and white). It already has schedules for trash collection (once a week) and recycling collection (every other week). It will also remind you about a change in schedule because of a holiday.

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