Curbside Recycling

The Framingham Department of Public Works collects recycling from up to four units of residential dwellings once a week. 

Framingham’s recycling is single-stream and fully automated, meaning only materials in your cart will be collected. There is no need to sort or separate, as all materials will be sorted at the processing plant.

For a list of what can/cannot be recycled, see our comprehensive RECYCLING GUIDE.

Guidelines 

Failure to follow the following guidelines could result in your collection being skipped. The DPW is not responsible for collecting skipped recycling before your next recycling day. 

• Carts should be placed with the wheels and the handles away from the street.
• Carts must be at least three feet away from your trash cart and other objects. 
• If you live on a one-way street, please place your cart on the right side of the road in the direction of travel. Recycling carts not moved to the right side of the road will not be collected. 
• All collections must be placed curbside by 7 a.m. on the pick-up day but no earlier than 6 p.m. the night before. 
• Recycling receptacles must be removed from the curb by midnight following collection. 
• All recycling must be put into the cart loose or contained in paper bags. Plastic bags are not permitted in the recycling. 
• All recycling must fit in the cart with the lid closed. No recycling can be placed on top of or beside the cart. Overflow recycling can be brought to the Recycling Drop-off Center.
• Only approved items are allowed in the recycling (see Recycling Guide).

Holidays

On weeks with a holiday, there will be no trash or recycling pickup on the day of the holiday. As a result, trash and recycling collection will be delayed by one day for all residents for that week.  

Carts 

Each recycling cart has a serial number and an embedded RFID tag to identify the owner and location. These carts are the property of the City of Framingham, and should you relocate, they must stay at the address to which they are delivered.

Carts come in 35-, 64-, and 96-gallon sizes, and you may request a size change at any time. Call 508-532-6001 to request a different-sized cart or to fix/replace a broken cart. 

When Is My Collection Day?

Residents can view their collection day by using the calendar tool under “Recycling Made Easy” on the Sanitation main page or by scrolling to their street on the list of streets in Framingham. View the list of streets.

The calendar tool can also be used to set reminders for weekly pick-ups, holiday delays, and other schedule changes.  

General Recycling Information

What is Recycling?

Recycling is when materials that would normally be discarded are collected and reprocessed into new materials. 

There are two kinds of municipal recycling: single-stream and dual-stream. In Framingham, we have single-stream recycling, which means that residents can combine all their recyclables into one container to be sorted at the materials recovery facility (MRF).

Check out this video of a single-stream MRF to see how your recyclables are sorted.

Why Recycle?

Recycling is beneficial because it reduces the need for virgin (new) materials. This means less extraction—a process that is hard on the Earth and its inhabitants—is needed to produce the same amount of goods. 

Recycling is great because it is almost always less energy-intensive than processing virgin materials. For example, using recycled aluminum cans to make new aluminum cans uses 95% less energy than using bauxite ore, the raw material from which aluminum is made. Since generating energy usually creates greenhouse gasses and other emissions, using less energy is always good. 

To learn more about the many environmental impacts of processing virgin materials, check out this interactive web tool: The Environmental Impact of “Stuff”

Finally, recycling is beneficial because it diverts waste from going to landfills and incinerators, which have limited capacity and release harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Plainly put, we are running out of space to put our waste!

Contamination

You may have noticed that the Framingham DPW is passionate about keeping “contamination” out of the recycling, but why is that?

Contamination—i.e., anything that is not curbside recyclable—harms the recycling system. It can cause mechanical issues at the sorting facility, ruin other recyclables, or even cause entire loads to be thrown away as trash.

Contamination Continued – Recycling as a Business

Recycling is great for the environment, but unfortunately, that doesn't pay the recyclers’ bills. At its core, recycling is a business model; for it to work, it must be profitable. 

Whether it’s because of rejected loads, mechanical issues, or simply having to hire more staff or update machinery to deal with high contamination levels, contamination makes recycling less profitable, making the business model less feasible. 

Use the Waste Wizard tool on the Sanitation main page, see the Recycling Guide, or visit RecycleSmartMA.org to determine whether or not an item is recyclable.

Are My Recyclables Being Recycled?

Lately, there has been a lot of concern about whether or not the things we recycle are being made into new products. The answer to this question is: sometimes. 

The unfortunate truth is that only a portion of the things we recycle make it all the way through the system, and that portion varies depending on the material. 

In 2021, about 31% of glass, 68% of paper/cardboard, 69% of metal, and only 5% of plastics were truly recycled. 

These statistics may be disheartening, but our society recycles SO MUCH MATERIAL every day that capturing even a portion is beneficial. For example, the 5% of plastics that the US recycled in 2021 was still 2,500,000 tons of material!

What Can I Do?

Given that the recycling system is far from perfect, instead of adopting a “why bother” mindset, we can use this knowledge to inform our habits. 

• We can be mindful to choose items with no packaging or in more recyclable packaging.
• We can purchase items made with recycled material to strengthen the recycling system. 
• We can shop second-hand and donate our used items when we no longer want them.  Visit the Beyond the Bin directory to find out how and where to donate or recycle items that are not curbside recyclable.

There is a reason that “reduce and reuse” always comes before “recycle” in the common phrase: reducing and reusing have a more positive impact on the environment than recycling ever will. 

“The most environmentally friendly product is the one you didn’t buy.”

 – Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist

View more information about items that should and should not be recycled here Curbside RecyclingHeadline.

Visit the Beyond the Bin directory to find out how and where to donate or recycle items that can’t go in your home recycling bin but are too good to trash.