GBH

She was told they'd separate her recycling from the waste. It wasn't true.

GBH | By Craig LeMoult

Published September 23, 2026 at 10:20 AM EDT

Grace Wexler shows off the trash dumpster full of recyclable material outside her Malden apartment building. The recycling bins were removed by the building's management company.

Grace Wexler opened up the dumpster outside her Malden apartment building and took a look inside.

"You can see there's cans, there's glass, there's cardboard, there's everything," she said.

That's because there are no recycling bins to put all that stuff in.

"We used to have recycling over here," she said, pointing next to the dumpster. "There was one, two, three, like, green ... recycling bins."

That was for the roughly 50 apartments in the building. But then one day in June, the bins just disappeared.

"And I thought maybe they were like, I don't know, taking them to clean them or replacing them with maybe something bigger. And then they did not get replaced, and that's when we got the email."

The email was from the building's management company, CMS Partners. GBH News received a forward of the email.

"Dear Residents," it read. "We would like to inform you of a change to our waste collection process. Effective immediately, the separate recycling bins have been removed from the property. Our waste management provider now transports all collected materials to a sorting facility, where recyclable items are separated from regular trash. As a result, residents no longer need to place recyclables in a designated recycling container."

Wexler wondered how that was possible. She tried calling the management and the trash company to confirm, but couldn't get any answer. So she reached out to GBH News. And it turns out she was right to be skeptical.

The state Department of Environmental Protection says no trash company in Massachusetts is able to separate the recyclable material from the waste if they are collected together.

The trash hauler, Republic Services, confirmed in a written statement that their operations do not sort the two.

"As a matter of company practice, Republic Services does not operate facilities or collection programs that intentionally blend recyclable materials with trash as part of the normal collection process," the statement reads. "Recycling and waste streams are managed separately, and our operations are designed to support compliance with applicable local and state requirements."

"Ah, that sucks," Wexler replied with a sigh when GBH News relayed that information back to her. "I mean, I'm not surprised, right? That's what I thought. But it sucks because someone is not being honest."

The trash dumpster outside a Malden apartment building is full of things like cardboard and cans, which are legally supposed to be recycled

Since then, GBH News has made repeated attempts to reach the management company, CMS Partners, without any response.

But it turns out there's nothing unusual about this apartment building not offering its residents curbside recycling.

"It is absolutely not an outlier," said Abbey Massaro of the nonprofit group MassRecycle. "Only 43% of households in multifamily housing in Massachusetts have access to recycling."

That's according to the latest available data — a 2024 report by The Recycling Partnership.

Currently, Massachusetts law does not require multifamily buildings to offer recycling. Some cities and towns do require it — and MassRecycle is working on a toolkit to help more of them pass local ordinances like that.

"It does vary a lot from city to city and town to town," said Kirstie Pecci, executive director of the nonprofit group Just Zero, which focuses on waste reduction. "For instance, in Boston, the city system picks up the apartment complex recyclables. That's a choice to decide that — if you have a city or town system that's doing the curbside pickup, you know, what units are included in it."

In Malden, for example, the city's recycling trucks pick up at buildings with six units or fewer. Bigger buildings are required to contract for their own trash — and there's no recycling requirement.

"I think the majority of the reasons why you'd see large buildings not having recycling is because they either don't have space for a separate recycling dumpster or the landlord doesn't want to incur the costs, which bear in mind landlords pass through to renters," said Doug Quattrochi, executive director of the group Mass. Landlords, Inc. "So as a way of containing costs for residents as well, they're not offering recycling."

It is illegal to throw certain recyclable material out, including cardboard, cans and bottles.

There used to be three recycling bins next to the dumpster at this Malden apartment building

The state DEP says it can trace these materials back to the source and issue warnings and fines. But with tens of thousands of apartment buildings in the state, the DEP issued just 14 letters and only one fine last year.

"That's not a great way to stop individuals or businesses from putting their recyclables in their own trash or in dumpsters," said Pecci of Just Zero. "So that's one problem .... Where the legal obligation resides is in actually preventing disposal at the end of a line, not preventing disposal up front."

Pecci added that trash haulers face legal limits on how much of the material they dispose of are recyclables.

In the absence of any real enforcement, state Rep. Michael Day of Stoneham has introduced legislation that would require apartment buildings to recycle.

"The fact that it's not available to all residents of the commonwealth is what surprised me when I first got into office, which is why I drafted and introduced this legislation to say if you are hauling trash or if you're disposing of trash, you have to offer recycling opportunities as well," Rep. Day said.

But the bill hasn't made it very far.

"I've introduced it over a number of terms since I've been in office, trying to get some attention on it, trying to get it moving," he said. "Haven't been able to do so yet, but not giving up on it."

The state contracts with a company called CET to run RecyclingWorks, which helps apartment and commercial buildings with recycling issues.

The state DEP didn't make anyone available for an interview for this story, but provided a written statement.

"Trash should never be mixed with recyclables," the statement reads. "Enforcing proper disposal is a persistent challenge with multi-family housing across Massachusetts. Unlike single-family homes, many multi-family residents are not served by municipal programs. MassDEP encourages multi-family property owners to take advantage of RecyclingWorks in Massachusetts, our free program offering recycling assistance and resources."

Lorenzo Macaluso of CET said RecyclingWorks receives referrals when a commercial building is not adhering to the waste ban.

"We are here to at no cost help them come back into compliance," he said.

That help includes training, signage and advice on composting.

After GBH News reached out for this story, the DEP sent a warning letter to CMS Partners, the company managing Grace Wexler's Malden apartment building.

Since then, Wexler says there's been some progress.

"I went out to throw away my trash and there were two brand new fresh, like, clean recycling bins."

There used to be three. But, she said, two is better than nothing.