New Compactor to Boost Cardboard Recycling at the Bedford Recycling Center

Bedford Public Works is excited to announce a pending upgrade to its recycling operations at the Bedford Recycling Center (BRC) with the addition of a compactor unit specifically for corrugated cardboard, coming Summer 2025! This change will help accommodate the growing volumes of cardboard brought in by our residents, while improving efficiency, reducing costs, and supporting a sustainable, circular economy. This change means fewer truck trips which will reduce heavy vehicle traffic and emissions at the same time. 

Site work has begun in preparation for installation of the compactor unit in the coming weeks. Residents will see some changes to the drop-off area as the project nears completion. A new traffic and site layout map can be found on the Town website, showing the overall resident-facing areas as well as the new traffic pattern for accessing the cardboard area.

The compactor is intended to replace the existing blue dumpsters and will provide a more efficient system for handling cardboard. It’s designed to be loaded from two sides, making the process smoother and quicker for everyone. Plus, DPW will introduce a “Cardboard Fast Lane” to help those with only cardboard get in and out of the site even faster.

While the new compactor will solve capacity constraints and improve the overall system, it does come with a small change: the opening on the side of the new unit is smaller than the opening on the current dumpsters. To make sure your cardboard fits easily, we kindly ask residents to flatten all cardboard, remove any packing material, and cut down boxes into pieces no larger than 34 inches before you arrive at the site. This will help keep the process running smoothly and alleviate traffic issues around the cardboard drop off area.

We know this is a small adjustment and might require an extra step before heading to the site. This change will allow DPW to handle increasing cardboard volumes more efficiently, particularly at the busiest times of the year, and significantly reduce expenses, all while cutting cardboard-specific truck trips and resulting vehicle emissions in half. 

Please remember, only clean, dry, corrugated cardboard (the kind used for brown shipping boxes) is collected at the BRC. Paperboard (like cereal boxes) and paper-based packing materials (such as newsprint or packing paper) should be placed in your blue curbside recycling cart instead. Think of it like this: At the BRC, residents and staff are creating source-separated materials ready for a buyer, whereas at home, the material is co-mingled in a single cart that someone will sort later at the MRF. Quality matters and ensuring that only corrugated cardboard is placed into the compactor means that our future buyers—manufacturers who turn old boxes into new ones—will get the high-quality materials they need to keep the recycling loop going strong.

Thank you for your cooperation as we continue to improve our recycling program offerings and help create a more sustainable future for Bedford!