Worcester relaunches recycling education campaign

The City of Worcester announced it is relaunching its Worcester Recycles Right campaign this month to address rising contamination in curbside recycling bins at residential buildings with one to six units.

The campaign, first developed in 2022, combines curbside audits, targeted education and collaborative enforcement with the city's recycling hauler, Casella Waste Systems, Inc. The goal is to increase residents' awareness of recycling rules and improve compliance.

John Odell, chief sustainability officer, said in a statement, "We're excited to relaunch this campaign. Every resident should have clear information about what goes in the bin, whether they've lived here for decades or moved in last week. When residents recycle right, we save public dollars, recover more usable material, and protect our environment."

The city said the need for education is especially strong in Worcester because new residents are always arriving, often without knowing local recycling rules, making continuous, multilingual communication essential. Better compliance is also expected to produce higher-quality recycling that is more valuable for reuse.

Under the campaign timeline, city staff and volunteers will conduct curbside audits, education and enforcement during October and November in areas with high observed contamination. They will distribute bilingual warning bin tags and door hangers containing educational information. One week after that initial outreach, further steps are planned, though the city's release describing them was cut off before detailing the next phase.

Source: Town of Worcester announcement, October 21, 2026.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the original announcement. It was corrected where it differed.