My neighbors and I were surprised so perhaps you will be too to learn that there is no one-day trash pick up delay the week following Christmas (Dec. 26th) or the week following New Years (Jan 2nd).
by Greg Reibman | Dec 27, 2016 | Newton | 24 comments
My neighbors and I were surprised so perhaps you will be too to learn that there is no one-day trash pick up delay the week following Christmas (Dec. 26th) or the week following New Years (Jan 2nd).
September 13, 2023
Men's Crib September 13, 2023 5:20 am
@Greg: That’s because you and they didn’t read or receive my newsletter or go to my website. And also because the City didn’t and should have done a robo-call to let folks know that unlike other “holidays” – the day after Christmas and the day after New Year’s would not be on the traditional “holiday” schedule.
I did read your email newsletter….this morning!
If anyone did not have their barrels out, please simply report a missed pickup to the City Customer Service line at 617-796-1000 or enter it online at http://www.newtonma.gov/gov/311.asp and we will ensure that they are collected.
For the remainder of this week, there is not a delay, so if you live in the Wednesday, Thursday or Friday route, please have your barrels out by 7:00am on your regular collection day. The same goes for next week. There will not be a one day delay the week of January 2nd, so please have your barrels out by 7:00am on your regular day.
Thank you, and we apologize for the inconvenience.
Aaron, that’s most of our street! If yesterday was a Federal holiday, you’d think it would be a Newton holiday too! I talked to the driver of the Recycle truck: I thought he said next week would have a holiday delay. Thanks.
Oops…and I even have the city app on my phone now. Shoot!
Robo call was received. Thanks Aaron!!!
Robo call would have been very helpful if it had come on Monday, so I would have put out my bins last night. I was rather surprised to receive it a day late, after today’s pick-up. We shouldn’t need to have the city app (which isn’t available for all phone OS’s) nor be on a city councilor’s mailing list to find out about these things.
Why would anyone expect there would be a delayed pickup? Christmas and New Years both fall on Sundays, leaving the pickup schedule unaffected. As with most things though, I have my own perspective. It’s time the government stopped celebrating Christian holidays. There’s no longer any justification for this practice. We often trot out the “separation of church and state” mantra. It’s time to stop being hypocritical about something so imperative to our democracy.
@mgwa: I am a Councilor-at-Large. Everyone should and can sign up for my newsletters or go to my website where I post information about City Council meetings and other City Board and Commission Meetings and also post announcements. The whole purpose is to provide information to all Newton residents.
Actually, anyone who likes to follow what’s happening at city hall — or who has trash — should subscribe to Councilor Sangiolo’s weekly email. I’ts pretty darn awesome.
@Amy – That’s great that you do that, but I get enough city-related email as it is. Enough that I expect to be able to learn anything of importance without adding another newsletter.
@Mike – the reason I expected it was because it was officially a holiday (i.e., no mail). Believe me, I have no attachment to Christian holidays other than appreciating any time I’m given a day off from work!
The City dropped the ball on this one.
It is absolutely reasonable for everyone to think trash pickup would be delayed by one day this week and next week. EVERY Monday holiday results in the one day delay. Why anyone would think theses 2 holiday weeks would be different is beyond me.
So today a robo call goes out telling us all we have to do is call and report a missed pick up. We shouldn’t have to deal with that hassle.
Either pick up trash ALL the time on the scheduled day or ALWAYS have a one day delay on a holiday week.
Get a clue Newton!
For those of us with a Monday pickup, this was especially problematic. On Sunday night, I went to the Trash Collection page on the mobile website, where it stated: “Collections are delayed one day after a holiday.” And “holiday” linked to the list of City of Newton official holidays, which included December 26 and January 2. So not only was there no robocall, there was contradictory info on the website.
Councilor Sangiolo’s email enabled us to get out our barrels on time. Thanks Amy!
I’m a recent subscriber to Amy’s newletter. I think its the best single source for information that I want to know about in city government. Great job Amy, its a real public service.
– and systematically you can count on her delivery Monday before 7 a.m. even when she’s out of the continental U.S.!
I can’t add much to the comments about Amy’s newsletter except to say that they are absolutely on target.
Thanks everyone!
Today I got an email from DPW about the schedule change. One of the things it said was “We also urge all residents to download the Recycle Right app, which will keep you informed of changes to the waste pick-up schedule.”
It is a serious problem if Newton’s government decides to count on citizens to have apps for their information. There are still residents who don’t have smart phones, or whose smart phones don’t have either Apple or Android phones (Windows phones are a LOT less expensive) and therefore cannot run most of these apps.
I hope the City of Newton isn’t moving towards ignoring the needs of it’s citizens who are not able to afford expensive phones.
To be fair: I filed a 311 for a missed pickup yesterday. My garbage and recycling containers were empty by 8 this morning.
Aw, phew- getting this just in time. Thanks V14! I would have missed tomorrow’s pickup without coming by to see this. When is a holiday, not a holiday? Now we know (maybe).
I agree Amy has a great newsletter!
I also agree the City dropped the ball on this one and Tricia is correct that the DPW page lists as holidays Dec 26 an Jan 2. For those that have smart Phones I recommend that “Recycle Right Newton” App by Recollect. It gives you the garbage and recycling schedules and reminders and you can get notifications. I was told that one of the most common calls to Customer Service is to get information on trash & recycling pick up.
Tricia is correct. The City’s list of trash collection holidays listed this week and next. I went on specifically to check, so it wasn’t an assumption on my part. Putting trash out early, particularly with post-Christmas food scraps, is just begging for a midnight visit from Santa Squirrel and his eight tiny Raccoons. The Tuesday call for Monday pickups was less than helpful. An acknowledgement that the City’s own website added to the issue would have been good.
I had the same issue as Dan and Tricia. I checked the city website and saw that Monday was listed as a Trash Holiday with no additional qualifications indicating that the rest of the week would be on its normal schedule. Since have Tuesday am pick up I did not put my garbage and recycling out. I heard what sounded like garbage trucks rolling by early Tuesday and googled and found another listing which mentioned the holiday but included a statement that there would not be a delay for the rest of the week. I was able to run and put my garbage on the other side of the street which gets picked up a bit later but missed recycling. When I got the robocall I tried calling City Hall but the phone just rang when I tried (probably got sick of the complaints they received prior to the robocall) so I used the 311 system. Recycling got picked up last night so @48 hours after my request. Personally I don’t want a trash/recycling app. I prefer to have ones I use regularly for things that interest me. I don’t need an app taking up space on my device.