On January 1, 2014, the Town of Brookhaven modified its recyclables collection program for the second time. The Town began collecting recyclables curbside in 1989. At that time, separate collections of paper and containers were made each week, on Wednesdays. Carters and managers at the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) found this resulted in very long days, because carters needed to collect each district twice in a day. In 1995, the collection program was modified so that paper was collected every other week, with containers collected on the alternate Wednesdays. On weeks when paper was collected in waste districts north of Middle Country Road, containers were collected south of the road (so that the MRF received paper and containers each week). In 2014, the Town initiated single stream recyclables collection. This is where paper and container recyclables are collected together. The Town chose to collect the combined recyclables each week.
