No. The town will be accepting extra trash in the DPW dumpster. It must be bagged.

I was told that the DPW would accept bagged trash in their dumpster.
Now I have been told that is not the case.
Business as usual in Watertown

Good point, Sonny. Will we have parking in front of toter fist fights ala the lawn chairs in dug out parking spots during snow storms? I guess you should leave your toters on your driveway apron under the theory that people generally don't park in front of driveway aprons. Minor problems I saw were a small pile of trash that had spilled out of a neighbors toter. It sat there all day til the guy came home. The only other problem I saw was another neighbors recycling toter got its metal post ripped out by the grabber arm, so the truck driver had to manually load the toter in the bin...other than that it seemed to work fairly well on my street.

Watertown has its priorities backward. The expense involved in providing this equipment ("Toters"?). Jobs lost. Impersonal non-service (the "man" sits in the truck). Danger to cars and inefficiency when the truck can't get at the barrels. Meantime other more pressing needs go unsatisfied -- schools, libraries, arts. What is wrong with this picture? Barbara Blais

I live in a large house and the one toter for each just isn't enough. And recyclables don't get pick up every week isn't going to work. I do like the program because more people will recycle, just not th amount of toters er house hold nor the cost to rent.

I don't live in Watertown now, but I grew up there, still own property there, and have parents who live there, so I care what happens. Has anyone in the town govt answered the question as to what to do if you have too much trash, either once in a while, or on a regular basis? Suppose you have a large family? What if you have twins or more?? My kids are older now, but I remember the dirty diapers piling up. What about birthday parties, Christmas, Thanksgiving, BBQ's, etc.etc.etc. This is a recipe for disaster if you can't put everything in the toter. What do you do, wait 'till next week? And then what. Keep piling it up in the backyard until you have a "lite" week? I keep reading how great everything is going to be and how 98% of the town is already complying. Really??? I saw a lot of tags on garbage bags on the streets last week. Where did that 98% number come from? Any answer to any of this?

This program is the worst idea ever. If there were any brains at all behind the design of this program, I'd like to know what they were thinking. The first week of Sept is a huge moving week and we have so much excess trash bagged neatly, that we don't know where to put it. The lady on the phone for the town of Watertown suggests adding the trash to next week’s pile (just genius!!!!). I really wish there would be a change in this program because I'm at a loss of where to bring my trash.

Actually, Sonny, you are not that far off. The DPW recommends if you have too much trash for you toter to ask neighbors if you can put some of yours in their bin.

We have more recycling than the bins can handle. We really should have both trash & recycling picked up EVERY week. I thought the goal was to reduce trash, increase recycling. All of my neighbors have the same problem. Why can't the truck take boxes or bins (old style) as well?

Hey Wendy, you might be in luck. The town is going to be talking with the trash company, Republic, about going to weekly pick up for recycling.

Here's the solution. If a residence has too much trash for one black toter, it should be permitted to buy an extra toter for a reasonable cost from the town. Same goes for the recycling toters. Problem solved.

Dianne wrote about whether the town is still considering weekly recycling pick up. Right now, no. The Town Council said it would be too expensive. You can see more in this article. http://watertown.patch.com/articles/subcommittee-nixes-idea-of-weekly-recycling-watertown-recycling-rate-up