A 1939 Notice Reveals New Bedford’s Early Trash Rules

There is no known written history of trash collection in New Bedford, but I've uncovered some information, with the help of the good folks at Spinner Publications, about when the New Bedford Office of the Board of Health apparently began to take the matter seriously.

A Rare 1939 Look at Garbage Rules

While helping me research a recent piece on food scrap recycling, a real page-turner, Spinner's Jay Avila stumbled upon a newspaper notice published in 1939 in which the New Bedford Office of the Board of Health laid down the law about how residential trash should be prepared for collection by the City.

To keep the Board of Health happy and to ensure your rubbish was collected, the Board instructed residents to keep it dry and odor-free: "Drain garbage of all free moisture then wrap it in paper before putting it in the container."

"By using this method, it will neither smell badly in hot weather nor freeze or stick to the container in cold weather," read the notice.

The Board advised, "The owner or occupant of each house is required to provide suitable containers. The use of metal containers or oil drums having a capacity in excess of 30 gallons is not permitted."

The Board required "close-fitting covers" for all trash containers.

READ MORE: New Bedford Collected Residents' Food Scraps Before It Was Cool

Residents were instructed to "provide a sufficient number of containers to hold at least three days' accumulation," and when "filthy, leaking, or in any way defective, must be replaced by new ones."

What Would — and Would Not — Be Collected

The Board required that all "animal and vegetable refuse from the kitchen, rags, old shoes, rubber, straw, and lawn clippings" be placed in the containers, while "old furniture, barrels, boxes, hedge and tree trimmings" be placed near the trash containers for collection.

The Board warned, "Garbage containers containing water, slops, ashes, tin cans, glassware, crockery, or anything of a non-combustible nature will not be taken by the collector."

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When Trash Collection Likely Began in New Bedford

New Bedford's Commissioner of Public Infrastructure Jamie Ponte said trash collection likely started around the turn of the 20th century.

"I believe it (trash collection) started closer to 1900, but maybe the advertising to refine it came out in the 1930s," he said. "City Annual / Municipal Reports list a sanitation section, like a sanitation department, in 1912 and 1916."

Ponte said it appears New Bedford was "talking about it" in the 1890s.