Thanks to the efforts of The Board of Health, the Solid Waste/Recycling Department and the Department of Public Works, curtailing of illegal dumping activity within town have been decreasing throughout the last couple of years.

The drop off program was introduced April 2009 and is held during Saturdays from 8am and noon at 515 Main St., exclusively to Saugus residents. Residents were allowed to drop-off up to three large items like televisions and computers along with other smaller recyclables free of charge. Aside from the weekly television and computer drop-off program, the town also holds a hazardous waste drop twice a year during May and October and a weekly compost program.

Grass clippings, leaves, and small brush drop offs are done during Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m throughout the duration of the program.

Previously, residents had to pay a fee so they could drop off their TVs and computers for recycling, but the program making recycling free encouraged a lot of residents to avoid illegal dumping.

Over the last year however, televisions and computers were no longer the problem but construction materials illegal dumping and green trashbags containing yard waste even if people can already avail of recycling for free which is making Solid Waste/Recycling Coordinator Lorna Cerbone frustrated.