Medford’s plan to cut trash collection in half is generating a stench that has turned the Greater Boston city into a national “laughingstock,” according to city councilors who are rebutting the mayor’s claim that they approved the rollback.

Turmoil has erupted after Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and other officials announced that the city is prepared to implement biweekly waste collection in July 2027, with the rollback surfacing in national and international headlines after the Herald first reported on the plan.

Comedian Seth Meyers has even picked up on the controversy.

“The mayor of Medford, Massachusetts, recently announced a new waste removal program, which will reduce trash pickups to once every two weeks, but it’s Massachusetts,” Meyers said Tuesday on his late-night show on

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