The at-your-driveway pickup service in Sutton is BFI. You put out your blue trash bin, and they take it away for you. They also take away recyclables in alternating weeks - paper and cardboard one week, plastic and glass the other week. Just put out the recyclable bins and they do the rest!

This service is a commercial service. The price is relatively comprable to the town transfer station price.

BFI does pick-up trash and recycling service in Sutton for only $22/month. That comes out to $264 a year without you having to drive anywhere, deal with special hours of operation or show-your-physical-registration hassles. You can visit the Republic / Allied / BFI Website to see where they cover, but the local contact email isn't listed there. You have to pick up the phone and call them at 508-832-9001. The full info is:

Allied Waste Services of Auburn
1 HARDSCRABBLE DR
AUBURN, MA 1501
(508) 832-9001
Services:
Hauling Collection

BFI is in essence a transport company. They then bring the trash and recyclables to Casella in Auburn for the sorting and processing.

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Recycling

The schedule of paper and blue alternates week by week. So Jan 4-8 2010 is a paper week, Jan 11-15 2010 is a glass-plastic week, and so on. Starting in 2011 the weeks begin again with Jan 3-7 being a paper week and Jan 10-14 being a glass-plastic week.

Here are their official lists of what they take on those weeks. Note that this list is mandated by the people BFI bring their items TO. BFI is a transportaton service. They bring all of their recycling items to FCR - and it is FCR who determines what can be recycled and what cannot.

Paper Week (the "green" week on their calendars)
* Newspaper with inserts
* Magazines / catalogues
* Phone books
* Junk mail
* Chipboard - cereal, cracker boxes
* Corrugated cadboard - flatened, wax-free, 2'x2' or smaller
**** EMPTY PIZZA BOXES **** Pizza Boxes and Recycling

Glass / Plastic Week (the "blue" week on their calendars)
* Glass bottles and Jars. Remove lids, corks, rings, etc. Note these CANNOT be bulbs, window, auto, Pyrex, or other special kinds of glass.
* Metal food cans, deposit and non-deposit cans. NO paint / aerosol cans, no coat hangers.
* Plastic containers 1 through 7
* NO plastic bags, NO motor oil or chemical containers
* Milk, juice cartons, drink boxes

FORBIDDEN ITEMS IN THE RECYCLE STREAM
* Pizza-Filled Pizza Boxes!! Pizza Boxes and Recycling
* Light bulbs, window glass, auto glass, Pyrex glass
* Paint cans, aerosol cans
* Coat hangers
* Plastic bags
* Motor oil containers
* Chemical containers

To handle items the service does NOT take in, visit our Recycling Options page!

Important Note:
A confused person once emailed me claiming that BFI and Casella just throw away recycling items because they saw different types of recyclables tossed into the back of a truck. This one-bin-system is possible because the companies are BRILLIANT and can use a zero-sort system. That means certain facilities take everything in as a mish-mash and do the sorting FOR you. In essence they don't trust the residents to sort out their recyclables well :) So rather than risk having recyclables end up in the trash stream, Casella sorts the items THEMSELVES. It ensures the trash stream is as recyclable-free as humanly possible. The back of the truck has an area for "all recyclables" - and it has an area for "trash"

It doesn't mean you shouldn't TRY to sort your recyclables as well as you can. Not all of the facilities are zero sort. But if you ever see recyclables being put in "bulk" in the back of a trash truck, this is why.

I visited Casella to see this zero-sort one-stream method live and in action.

Casella Zero-Sort

Recycling in Sutton MA
Recycling Services in Sutton MA
Recycling Options - for items the services won't take
Historical Rates of Recycling in Sutton MA
Pizza Boxes and Recycling


Sutton Massachusetts Info