BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The Burlington City Council on Monday night voted to privatize the city\u2019s recycling, allowing Casella Waste Systems to take over the responsibility of hauling away the city\u2019s annual 5.5 million pounds of recycling.<\/p>\n
Burlington\u2019s Department of Public Works union members are breathing a sigh of relief after a yearslong battle to get the city to take recycling off their plate.<\/p>\n
Colby Delaire is one of the many Burlington DPW employees fed up with filling in. He says employees from the street department are working dangerous amounts of overtime to make up for two vacancies in Burlington\u2019s recycling program. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very touched and thank all the councilors. The council has heard us loud and clear that workers\u2019 safety, security, and overall physical and mental health has to be addressed,\u201d said Dealire.<\/p>\n
In a rare move, councilors voted across party lines Monday night in Contois Auditorium. The final tally was 8-4 in favor of contracting Casella to run the city\u2019s recycling.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be subject to democratic control on a not-for-profit basis, but I am convinced that we cannot get there now, sadly. We need a strategic retreat,\u201d City Councilor Gene Bergman, P-Ward 2. <\/p>\n
Those in favor of the Casella takeover say the program, as it stands, is too expensive and understaffed. Those opposed are concerned about environmental implications and are afraid the city won\u2019t be able to take over the service again if they contract it out now. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe consequences of privatization of public goods are well known, especially here in Burlington: higher costs and greatly diminished public accountability,\u201d City Councilor Marek Broderick, P-Ward 8.<\/p>\n
The contract is for seven years, and its effectiveness will be studied by a new oversight committee. For residents, not much will change. People can keep taking their recycling to their normal spot. One perk Casella is offering is to pick up on holidays and do backdoor service. <\/p>\n
Burlington Public Works Director Chapin Spencer said he plans to sign the contract on March 20, but it won\u2019t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2027.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The Burlington City Council on Monday night voted to privatize the city\u2019s recycling, allowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[55670,7053,1075,53166,192,68300,4688,15652,3238,6562,79,13485,27076,34752,2502],"class_list":["post-515683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-burlington","tag-city","tag-community","tag-council","tag-environment","tag-garbage","tag-issues","tag-plan","tag-public","tag-recycling","tag-science","tag-trash","tag-vermont","tag-wcax","tag-works"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515683","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=515683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}