{"id":406913,"date":"2026-01-14T16:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/406913\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:01:07","slug":"instead-of-retiring-blue-bins-for-good-this-onondaga-county-town-is-recycling-a-couple-of-collection-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/406913\/","title":{"rendered":"Instead of retiring blue bins for good, this Onondaga County town is recycling a couple of collection ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

DeWitt, N.Y. — One Onondaga County town is resisting a switch to automated trash and recycling collection, a decision that has created confusion and prompted officials to walk back an initial solution.<\/p>\n

DeWitt residents got a letter Dec. 31 with the news that come March 1, the town\u2019s hauler would no longer collect recyclables from a traditional blue bin. <\/p>\n

Instead, town residents must do it themselves, the letter said. They must buy their own bin, with a lid. The letter also contained a sticker meant to designate the bin for recycling.<\/p>\n

By early January, the town\u2019s new supervisor, Max Ruckdeschel, retracted those instructions, in part. Ruckdeschel said he didn\u2019t send out the initial letter, which was signed by former DeWitt supervisor Ed Michalenko. The new supervisor said he felt a different approach made sense.<\/p>\n

For now, DeWitt residents can disregard the March 1 deadline and use their blue bins until they wear out. <\/p>\n

But when they do, they\u2019ll have to buy new, covered recycling containers and affix the town\u2019s sticker to them. (The change doesn\u2019t affect East Syracuse residents.)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s prompting the change? The retirement of the blue bins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For several years, the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency has been transitioning away from blue bins in favor of what they consider the industry gold standard: lidded carts that work with automated trash pickup trucks.<\/p>\n

Many communities, including Syracuse, Manlius, Salina, Geddes and Camillus, have replaced blue bins with these wheeled, lidded plastic recycling carts<\/a>. In several of these towns, the municipalities have paid for the new bins, securing grants which helped with the cost. In some cases resident have had to pay for the receptable on their trash bill.<\/p>\n

But DeWitt is avoiding that change and cost, at least for now, the supervisor said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because DeWitt residents currently can pay a little more and have the hauler retrieve trash and recyclables close to their houses, rather than at the end of driveways, Ruckdeschel said. <\/p>\n

Switching to the bigger, lidded bins, which automated arms pick up and dump in the trucks, would end that extra, off-curb service. Instead, everyone would have to pull their bins to the curbs, he said.<\/p>\n

Yet there are very few DeWitt customers who use that special service.<\/p>\n

Of 7,093 households that get garbage pickup, less than 5%, 320 households, get off-curb service. Still, the town wants to preserve that offer, at least for now, he said.<\/p>\n

When the town\u2019s contract with Butler expires at the end of this year, the town will reconsider all options to see what residents want and how much it would cost, Ruckdeschel said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, OCRRA is pushing more communities to go blue-bin-less and switch to the larger bins and automated trash pickup. The covered recycling carts are the way of the future, said Kristen Lawton, OCRRA\u2019s director of recycling and reduction.<\/p>\n

The carts are large, 60- or 95-gallon totes. They create less litter because the recycled items are inside a closed bin. <\/p>\n

Lawton said recycling should be as easy as possible for residents, and they believe carts are the best option. But it\u2019s a choice municipalities have to make. It\u2019s not something OCRRA will mandate, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the way we see the industry going, and we want to help interested municipalities with the transition to carts,\u201d Lawton said. <\/p>\n

If municipalities are worried about the cost of buying totes for their residents, there are grants available to help offset the cost, Lawton added. <\/p>\n

The cost also can be negotiated into a trash contract with a hauler, said Tammy Palmer, speaking for OCRRA.<\/p>\n

DeWitt\u2019s Ruckdeschel said officials realize they may eventually have to use the automated system, but they are putting it off as long as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like the price and the service we get now,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we want to use the sticker system for now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DeWitt, N.Y. — One Onondaga County town is resisting a switch to automated trash and recycling collection, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-406913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}