- Collection will continue to be weekly and will include the use of one green 64-gallon container devoted to recycled materials and one blue 64-gallon container devoted to non-recyclable rubbish. The containers will be paid for by the contractor (Casella Waste Systems) and will be distributed to eligible households. Trash placed outside of the blue 64-gallon container will not be picked up and will become the responsibility of the owner.
- In the case of multi-family housing units, trash collection will be limited to buildings with six or fewer units. Buildings containing seven or more units will be required to pay for private trash collection, a policy change that lowers the threshold for private trash collection down from the current 10-unit building minimum. According to the memo, such a change in policy will directly affect 261 units and 23 property owners.
- Encoded with a serial number assigned to a property's address, the containers are the property of the City of Westbrook and will remain with the property in the case of a tenant or homeowner selling or moving from the property.
- Besides continuing the policy of requiring condominium complexes to pay for the collection and disposal of their trash, the memo also recommends three unidentified "grandfathered" condo complexes now assume responsibility to collect and dispose of their trash.
- Forty-five unidentified narrow or dead end streets or portions of streets will be required to place all trash on one side of the street to enable the automated truck to back onto the street and collect trash and recycables when driving forward.
- Factoring in Casella's agreement to pay for the automated pickup trucks and 64-gallon containers, Bryant estimates the City of Westbrook will save $56,283 in annual costs, despite the increase in services (e.g., curbside recycling). The costs of advertising and promotion (from $4,006 to $11,500) and collection (from $300,903 to $623,191) are expected to go up under the new program, while the costs of rentals (from $64,040 to $54,845) and disposal (from $638,820 to $300,903) are expected to decrease.
- John C.L. Morgan
Related: New Recycling Program to Include Automated Pickup (April 3, 2009)
4 comments:
Now this is a great cost saving measure and I'm excited Westbrook has finally offered curb side recycling. More people recyle when its cubside and they pick it up quickly. I find people really get into it and it becomes second nature. I had the pleasure of requiring 400 tenants in Portland to recycle (it went much smoother then I thought it would) and now we offer it our locations that have private pick up as well because it requested.
I have a lot of familiy in Windham and when they come to my house they get confused and/or guilty throwing something away in the trash. You can teach and old dog new tricks.
I really can't wait til the day when everyone has to bring their own bags when shopping. This one law would save a lot of oil and trash. I forget to bring/grab my bags sometimes but if it was manditory it would become second nature.
Any word on exactly what items we can put in the recycling bins? I hope the list is as complete as what we can leave in the big containers now.
I hope it is like Portland which is a one stream program so all plastics (and I mean all), cans and paper can go in one bin. I'm sure they will send out a list with the bins.
The Committee of the Whole will begin addressing the trash collection program tonight at 6:45p. I'll be speaking on a different issue, but I'll try to find out if they plan to maintain the status quo on recyclables.
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