Many notices went out prior to the changeover and the City also started slapping bumper sticker sized labels on the blue totes that had trash in them (which they were, for a while, picking up.)

The smaller totes are marked "trash only."

I have seen blue totes on the street for days at a time where residents just flatly refused to follow the new guidelines.

There is resistance even from people who already know what each bin is for, to me its pretty simple, trash in one, recycling in the other. We can throw stones at the city for rolling out a program that is beneficial to its residents and the planet as a whole, or we can suck it up and separate our waste properly. Its not always easy to create new habits but it is up to us to do so.

I agree that we should separate the waste properly. I didn't know that blue ones are for recycling until today and I appologize for not realizing that. I guess not so many people look carefully on the totes, especially when they get used to the feeling that the blue one is for trash. To me, switching to the black one does not quite make sense, as the blue one is much larger and we produce far more trash than that can be recycled. The black one is too small, is there anyway to overcome that?

One reason people are reluctant to switch is that there is already trash in the blue one, switching means that I have to manually move the trash in the blue tote to the black one myself. It might be painful for me as the blue tote has been full of trash for more than two weeks.

Actually no, in my neighborhood there were NO notices handed out / mailed / etc to residents, so that is not true everywhere. AND DPW is only just now putting stickers on the blue toters (and not all), but that doesn't help if the toter is full of trash and they're refusing to pick it up. I think the new trash / recycling program is great, but I've had to explain it to so many of my neighbors and tenants recently. That should have been what DPW did from the beginning!

I apologize if I seemed condescending, that was not my intention.

We did receive many notices and that may have not been the same for everyone in every neighborhood.

That being said, as I stated before the smaller tote is clearly marked "trash only."

Its very frustrating for us to try and try to do the right thing when many of our neighbors have been ignoring the stickers I have personally seen slapped on the totes, leaving trash outside for days on end and even after being told, are still ignoring the new rules.

It is up to the landlords to let their tenants know about any new rules they are expected to abide by, not that it is not tenants responsibility to follow them or to become informed about them themselves.

As I recall, when these black bins were distributed to every house, there was a pamphlet attached to each black "SMALLER" totes that they are for TRASH only. For many of our neighbors, I found no problem. Every week picking up the blue and black totes goes smoothly and easy. I guess some residents may mix the trash with recycling materials and that is why the blue are not collected.
Ahmed Ramadan

MC, I absolutely agree that it's frustrating to see so many residents who are aware of the new trash / recycling program and still refuse to comply. Hopefully fines will be levied at some point!

It's also frustrating that so many more WOULD comply if DPW had only done its job properly and notified residents of the new program--when it would start and what was expected of them. Fair Haven has a large non-English speaking population and many of these residents do not read the New Haven Independent, the City's website or SeeClickFix even, so they did not know about the new program.

Ahmed, it's true the new black toters say 'trash only,' but that doesn't preclude continuing to put trash ALSO in the blue toters, which is what many residents have been doing, unaware of the new program. And the pamphlets attached to the new bins quickly got soaked by the rain and and appeared to be just an 'owners guide to taking care of your new toter;' who would even read that?

I'm not excusing residents who know better and are refusing to comply. However DPW failed to get the word out properly in minority-populated neighborhoods and it's now costing the City money rather than increasing revenue on recyclables.

I found that on most of the blue totes in my neighborhood, there were no stickers. There were also no stickers on the blue totes at my place. So I guess that's why there is a lot of confusion. When I saw that black tote which say "trash only", my only thought was we had another tote for trash.

I found that on most of the blue totes in my neighborhood, there were no stickers. There were also no stickers on the blue totes at my place. So I guess that's why there is a lot of confusion. When I saw that black tote which say "trash only", my only thought was we had another tote for trash.

the blue bin in NOT for trash....could be why it was left.....

The blue-toters-full-of-garbage is a problem EVERYWHERE: http://seeclickfix.com/issues/173154

Blue=recycle
Brown=Trash