Nancy, which parts are wrong or incoherent? We can work to correct and/or clarify it.

Nancy, the town's schedule is correct but it should have been created to show the weeks for bin pickup not for the weeks of blue bag pickup. People want to know when the standard service event that they need to address falls on the schedule which would be the bin pickup week. By showing the blue bag week, the exception to the normal routine is being shown and many people will interpret this as the bin pickup....Another way to look at it is that we know you can put out a blue bag every week if you like, the important piece of data is when does the black bin get used. The calendar was created using a bit of reverse logic for the way most people think...

Mr. Gates...Good Luck!
Compost conflicting information - The book says...cooking oils yes...on-line guide says no. Book says no clam shells...on-line guide says yes clam shells. Book says cat litter , yes...Gretel Clark responded on patch that only organic kitty litter...not clay clumping is a yes (and it's still unclear if cat feces are allowed. On-line says Chinese food containers - yes, but aren't they plastic coated and therefore not compostable?
There's the questions just for the green bin.

I just wanted to give a shout out to Robert Gates and the excellent work that he does here at the Hamilton-Wenham Patch. When you are a Patch editor, you are basically tasked with everything -- writing features, reporting news stories, copy editing, marketing, and publishing. He's doing the work of about five different people, really, and he's doing it quite well.

And, no, I am not a friend nor family member.

Ron, you put the "Good" in Good Friday for me. Thanks for your kind words.

Nancy (and others),
Here's two helpful links.
1) Patch's news coverage of the new trash program, in reverse chronological order: http://hamilton-wenham.patch.com/topics/SMART+trash
2) Town of Hamilton's main webpage for trash, recycling and organics: http://www.hamiltonma.gov/Pages/HamiltonMA_PublicWorks/trash
Hopefully that is helpful.

I agree with Larry that this totally counter-intuitive. I checked the link to the Hamilton page for trash and they indicate the weeks that blue bags would be picked up but not the bins. Why would they do that? It should be the other way around. I always put out a trash bin, but have never used a blue bag. I think I'm in the majority. I think we should put some heat on DPW to re-do that schedule to more accurately reflect the bin pick-up schedule.

Rich, you are correct. And you can also put out the green 13-gallon organics bin next week (and every week) on your usual collection day. Plus, any trash that you have beyond what fits in the back bin can be put out in a blue bag. And make sure the recycling is in a recycling bin or the container it is in is labeled "recycling."

Michelle, notification that compost would now be picked up on your regular trash day was in local newspapers, the flyer that came with the compost container, the Hamilton Wenham Trash directory, the 2012 trash, recycling and organics calendar delivered to your home, announced at Board of Selectman meetings, explained at the Q&A sessions on trash held at the library and posting were sent to our local public access channels. What other means of media did we miss?

Littering is against the law, under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 270, Section 16. Punishment is "a fine of not more than $5,500 for the first offense and a fine not to exceed $15,000 for each subsequent offense."

Trash is considered as part of a home's curtilage and there has been litigation to determine whether someone has the right to go through it. Off the top of my head, I do not know what the courts have said in that regard.

In 1995, the state SJC ruled that someone who threw out there trash in a Dumpster that was in a fenced alley and was not visible to passersby was not public and required a search warrant from the government. But in the same ruling, the SJC refers to a California case that ruled that trash bags on the curb were essentially public "because it is left in a place 'particularly suited for public inspection." The decision does not appear to talk about the issue specifically in Mass., although there may have been a more recent decision in this regard.
http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/421/421mass37.html

You are welcome. That may not be all the answers but hopefully it gets you headed in the right direction.

According to this DPW flyer, yes, you may place black bins out for pickup next week.

http://www.hamiltonma.gov/Pages/HamiltonMA_PublicWorks/TrashInfo/SolidwasteFlyer

Hamiltonite, if you don't leave deposit bottles and cans in your recycling, they quickly learn to pass by your driveway. A truck stopped at our house only once, but now passes us by.
If you're looking for somewhere to donate deposit bottles and cans that will benefit local kids, the Wenham Boy Scouts collect, sort, and return the bottles regularly. They can be dropped off in the box behind the Iron Rail.
When the cans are left curbside, the towns do not collect the 5 cent deposit. The state keeps it in the kitty for their budget. The amount that might come back to Hamilton or Wenham is minimal at best.

A change of this magnitude required more than a flyer and a link on the Town's website. It probably required a notice taped to your black bins last week informing you not to put the bins out this week, a couple of public forums hosted by your Town Manager where he explained exactly what was going to happen and when (and answer questions from residents), and a full press media campaign (Mike Lombardo or someone from the Town should be commenting on the Hamilton-Wenham Patch and other news sites). Comments have gone unanswered here for days, and it's really Mike Lombardo's job (not Robert Gates) to make sure that residents have these answers.

There really was not nearly enough of a full court press made here by the Town Manager, and it appears that even the hauler was confused. Blaming it on the residents dovetails nicely into my comparison with the Iowa City Farmers' Market fiasco, when he blamed a town employee for the miscommunication, confusion, and delay.

In short, this plan can be saved, but your Town Manager needs to step up here. Get out in public, be very visible, be extremely accessible to residents, get on Hamwen cam -- clearly communicate, and don't take for granted that a change this significant will be easily grasped by residents.

Did you see three different trucks? The plan was to have organics and recycling in the same truck plus the "trash truck."

There were definitely 3 seperate trucks... at least on my street. In driving through town yesterday, I would conservatively say at least 75% of households had the black bins out and the automated truck was dumping them. Great communication.... I called Town Hall and asked about it and they couldnt understand why there was so much confusion???? The entire attitude of the people forcing this down our throats is "They're right, the world must be wrong".

Perhaps the single-stream automated truck, a truck for the separate blue bags, and the recycling/organic truck? Town Hall can blame it on whomever it likes, but this was a communication failure on several levels, and ultimately the Town Manager has to step up here and fix it.

The 3 trucks that picked up here were the usual organics truck, the old trash truck (not the new automated one), and a recycling truck with 2 bays in the back, only one of which was used (perhaps the other will eventually be used for organics).