By Theresa Knapp 

As of March 3, the Medway Recycling Center will no longer accept solid waste, including yellow bags, swap shop items, or bulk trash items. 

The recycling center sits atop a former town landfill that was closed in 1982. 

Medway Town Manager Michael Boynton addressed the issue in a community update video posted on Facebook on Feb. 11 in which he said Medway has been running a ‘recycling center’ at 46 Broad Street since the late 1980s or early 1990s but it has recently come to light that the site is operating like a ‘transfer station’ for which it is not licensed.  

Boynton said that, after an inspection last year, “It was determined that some of the material that we’re taking at the recycling center actually constitutes what’s called ‘municipal solid waste’ (MSW) [and] that municipal solid waste can only be disposed of at a transfer station, it cannot be disposed of at a recycling center.”  

“So even though we’ve had years and years of inspections there, only now is it really coming to light that we are, in fact, essentially running a transfer station without authorization,” said Boynton. “The moment that we accept anything that is trash-related there, or solid-waste related, we are in violation of state law.”  

Boynton explained that transfer station licenses must be approved by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and Medway has never received approval for a transfer station. In order to get that approval, the former landfill site has to have a DEP-approved “post-closure use plan” which Medway does not have. In order to get that plan, the town must have submitted to DEP a certification from the original capping of the landfill (in the 1980s), but neither the town nor the state can locate that paperwork. 

Boynton says the town continues to work with the state to address the situation but, “It is not a quick solution, there is not a quick turnaround…We’re working on a problem that’s 40 years in the making.” He thanked residents for their patience and cooperation as town officials work to solve the issue. 

Going forward, recyclables will continue to be accepted at the recycling center. “Anything that would otherwise have to go to an incinerator, or be burned, or [go to] some other landfill, can no longer be disposed of or held over or swapped out at the recycling center,” Boynton said, adding yellow bags can be disposed of at the curb through Lawrence Waste Services.  

For Boynton’s entire message, visit https://fb.watch/xMQP55JE3P/. Lawrence Waste Services can be reached at 508-533-5200.