May 10,2024
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kim O'Rourke at 860-638-4855

Update on City's Waste Reduction Program 

The City of Middletown would like to thank all the residents and businesses in the Sanitation District participating in the Save As You Throw waste reduction program.   

To show appreciation, the City is launching a Thank You campaign.  Monitors will be spot-checking carts, and residents using the green and orange bags will receive a green sticker thanking them and entering them into a free raffle for one of five $100 gift cards to a local grocery store.  The stickering will occur through the month of May. Prizes will be awarded in early June.   

The Save As You Throw program has resulted in a 30% reduction in trash sent for disposal from the Middletown Sanitation District. This is a win for us all.   

Starting November 2023, the Sanitation District initiated a unit-based, co-collection program where customers must use specific city trash bags and directly pay for the waste they generate. The City created a two-tier billing system, where base billing fees were reduced, and the cost of the disposal was shifted to the official bags.  With this system, the more you recycle, the more you reduce waste, and the more efficiently you use the bags, the less you pay.    

The City is also offering a curbside, co-collection of food waste.  Food waste, which makes up over 20% of what we throw away by weight, can be put in green bags and those are placed in your regular trash cart.  Both the orange and green bags get taken to a sorting facility, where the green bags are separated out and delivered to an anaerobic digester where the food waste is turned into clean energy and compost.    

It makes a difference! By reducing waste, we send less waste to landfills and incinerators, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create energy, and reduce costs!    

This program is funded through a Sustainable Materials Management Grant issued by the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).   

Thank you for your efforts and keep up the good work! 

Municipal Building; 245 deKoven Drive, Middletown, Connecticut 06457
Phone: 860-638-4850   Fax: 860-638-1950 E-mail: recycling@middletownct.gov