The Boston-area city of Medford is in an uproar after Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn unveiled her latest “green” initiative — a plan that slashes household garbage pickup to just twice a month. Many locals say the policy stinks… literally.
Lungo-Koehn, a Democrat long celebrated by environmental groups, proudly rolled out the change in a press release that touted a $200,000 “Pay As You Throw” grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. The money arrived as part of her ongoing push toward what City Hall calls a “Zero Waste” future.
Quoting herself in the announcement, the mayor declared, “It’s the right move for our residents and businesses, it’s the right move for the environment, and it’s the right move for our city’s future.” She insisted her administration is making it “easier for Medford residents and businesses to reduce, reuse, and recycle.”
But the public — and even some elected officials — aren’t buying the spin.
Beginning July 1, 2027, the city will collect residents’ 64-gallon trash carts every other week, reducing regular waste service by half. Recycling pickups will coincide with the new trash schedule, and the arrangement is expected to meet the waste-volume requirements that qualify Medford for the state’s grant.
While the mayor is still basking in the glow of progressive accolades — including being named an “Outstanding Elected Leader” by the National Recycling Coalition for expanding weekly curbside composting — her constituents are sounding the alarm.
The biggest complaint? Residents fear Medford’s already-troubling rat problem is about to explode.
“So more rats will be coming,” one resident warned in a local Facebook group. “There are so so many rats in our neighborhood.”
Another predicted a booming business for exterminators, writing that “the rats are taking over our neighborhoods.”
Others pointed out the obvious: two weeks of stewing trash in summer heat is a recipe for misery. “Nobody wants to smell two weeks of garbage,” one commenter said bluntly.
Medford City Council President Zac Bears blasted the rollout, criticizing not only the plan itself but what he called the administration’s lack of transparency.
According to the Boston Herald, Bears said the city isn’t seeing “any of the benchmarks that would lead us to believe that this is a good change,” stressing that burying the pickup change at the bottom of the press release “rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.”
He added, “I think it’s set up this program for failure because I think there’s no trust in it.”
And indeed, the announcement showcased paragraphs of glowing self-congratulation before finally revealing the part residents actually care about — that their garbage will now sit festering for up to 14 days at a time.
While environmental activists are applauding Medford’s shift toward a PAYT model, everyday residents say they’re being forced to bear the costs and consequences of a policy designed more to please Beacon Hill than the people who live on Medford’s streets.
