The town says it segregates waste. Its own dump yard says otherwise

Sample story — delete this file once your own reports are up.

The claim is on a board at the municipal office, painted in green: 78% source segregation achieved. It has been there long enough for the paint to fade at one corner.

Segregation means households separating wet waste from dry waste before it is collected. It is the single thing that decides whether a town's garbage becomes compost and recyclables, or becomes a hill.

What arrived, and in what condition

Between 7am and 11am on a Tuesday, I counted every vehicle entering the dump yard and looked at what came off it.

• Total loads recorded: 31
• Loads arriving in properly separate wet and dry compartments: 6
• Loads arriving fully mixed: 21
• Loads that could not be assessed: 4

Six out of twenty-seven assessable loads is roughly 22 percent, not 78.

Where the number comes from

The 78 percent figure is calculated from the number of households issued two-bin sets, not from the number of households actually using them, and not from what reaches the yard. Both numbers are technically true. Only one of them describes reality.

"We give the two bins. After that it is the public's habit. We cannot stand in every house."

That is a sanitary supervisor, and he is not wrong. But the collection vehicles themselves have a single open bed on this route, so even a household that separates carefully watches both bags go into the same space.

The cost of the gap

Mixed waste cannot be composted cleanly and cannot be sold as recyclable. It goes to the hill. The hill grows. Every few summers it catches fire, and the town spends a week breathing it.

If your ward's collection vehicle has only one compartment, photograph it and send it in. A pattern across wards is a story; a single vehicle is an anecdote.