When walking down Main Street in Worcester, it’s easy to find a trash bin. There’s one in front of city hall, two on the sidewalk of Front Street just outside the formerly-named Midtown Mall and three bins on the corners of Main, Pearl and Mechanic streets just outside the MassLive office building.
But when traveling down Grafton Street, a street with restaurants, stores, and a small supermarket, there are hardly any of the steel black bins that are prominently found on Main Street. In the parking lot of a Pizza Hut on Grafton Street, the wind blows a small paper saucer and some other litter away.
“There’s Dunkin’s and Cumberland Farm’s garbage bins,” said resident David Webb. “Otherwise, absolutely nothing.”
The same is true on Pleasant Street. Despite being the home of a barbershop, the Pickle Barrel Deli and a Dollar Shop, among other things, the drive down Pleasant Street all the way down to the roundabout that exits onto June Street does not have any trash bins on the sidewalk.
Tom Matthews, a spokesperson for City Manager Eric D. Batista, told MassLive that there are a total of 54 trash bins on the sidewalks of Worcester, not counting private trash bins or trash bins in parks. The city is looking to add up to 200 new trash and recycling bins and is asking residents where the new bins should be.
Last month, the city launched a crowdsource map to gather information on where these bins should be. The map is covered in yellow and green markers, with yellow indicating a person’s request of where a bin should be and a green dot indicating where a bin is currently located.
“We will be installing the bins in multiple phases and expect all to be in place by the end of 2025,” Matthews said. “The Department of Sustainability and Resilience is collaborating with Department of Public Works to oversee the project.”
Two sanitation workers empty the bins from 5:30 a.m. to roughly 10:30 a.m. six times a week, Matthews said.
“This is a great opportunity for members of the public to offer input on locations they think are in need of trash and recycling bins to improve our city’s cleanliness,” Batista said in a statement. “We encourage all residents to engage with the interactive map and select locations.”
Yenni Desorches, a Worcester resident, told MassLive that the idea of asking residents online about where trash bins should be place sounds good on paper but added that some residents may not have internet access or know about the initiative.
“Without engaging everyone, you can get obvious bias issues especially for different parts of the city.” Desorches said. “With some smart planning and better accessibility options, Worcester could finally make real progress on this problem. It’s not just about putting out bins—it’s about making sure everyone can use them and wants to.”
David Jerry, a community ambassador for the Main South Community Development Corporation, told MassLive that adding more trash bins would be helpful but that the city should take more responsibility in making sure his neighborhood, Main South, has the same cleanliness as other parts of the city.
“We would definitely appreciate if the city would take a better interest in the trash collection throughout the whole city,” Jerry said.
