Town of Holden, Massachusetts Case Study
The Challenge
- Town of Holden struggled to control amounts of household trash and promote recycling with use of 96-gallon carts for waste and 20-gallon open-top bins for recycling
- Adopted Holden Recycling and Trash Collection Program in 2000 with an unsatisfactory recycling rate of 10%
The Solution
- Partnered with Casella in 2007 and implemented an adjusted curbside collection program that repurposed the 96-gallon carts for Zero-Sort® recycling and deployed 64-gallon carts for trash
- Built on partnership and expanded original program, including installation of a 30-yard roll-off container in a public space for recycling use by all residents
The Results
- Increased recycling rate to 35%
- Realized a 95% approval rating by residents on the improved program
- Became first community in central Massachusetts to implement single-stream recycling in curbside collection and received the 2008 Kenneth E. Pickard Award from the Massachusetts Municipal Association for applying innovative solutions to traditional municipal waste problems