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Refuse & Recycling

Refuse and Recycling Services

The City of New Britain provides residents extensive refuse and recycling services which makes up over 20% of Public Works’ annual budget. Providing these services has become increasingly expensive due to the limited capacity of waste disposal within the state. Nearly all of Connecticut’s landfills have been closed, and the capacity at the state’s Trash-to-Energy facilities has been reduced due to closures and the age and condition of several of these facilities.  To avoid these costs 43% of Connecticut municipalities no longer even provide refuse and recycling services for their residents.

To complicate matters further, in 2018 China placed a ban on importing several types of recyclable materials including most forms of plastic and paper.  Before the ban nearly 4,000 large shipping containers full of recyclable materials were shipped from the US to China daily as well as similar quantities of recyclable materials from Canada, Great Britain, and Australia.

This has led to a dramatic shift in the cost of processing recyclable materials faced by New Britain and other communities.  Until the end of June 2019 New Britain, and the other BRRFOC communities including Southington, Plainville, Berlin, and Bristol, were receiving over $9/ton for their recyclable materials. After July 1, 2019 New Britain and the other BRRFOC Communities will be paying over $80/ton to dispose of the recyclable materials, and this is a trend that’s occurring across the entire country, and beyond.

With this increased cost it’s very important for residents to place only materials that can be recycled in the blue recycling bin.  Please refer to the “Recycling Guidelines – What You Can and Can’t Place in Your Blue Recycling Bin” to make sure you aren’t placing non-recyclable materials in your curbside bin.  When you place non-recyclable materials in your blue container it actually contaminates the load, and subjects the City to added disposal costs.

New Britain remains committed to providing its residents comprehensive Refuse and Recycling Services.

The list below, and related links, provide information about these services.

Bulk curbside collections can be scheduled by calling

860-793-6721

or

Online (CWPM website)