You may or may not know, several weeks ago, the Board of Selectmen (BoS) inherited responsibility for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW --- TRASH & RECYCLING). Previously, the Board of Health had that responsibility. With this last annual fee increase of $30, pushing the total annual cost per household to $270, lots of calls were received at Town Hall and the BoS decided they would give MSW a try. The first thing the BoS did was form a Committee.
Some members were recruited and some volunteered. I vounteered since I have been recycling since 1942 and am keenly interested in encouraging others to recycle. There are 8 other active members and two more who are intested but not currently active due to meeting conflicts. We meet every Wednesday evening at 6:30pm in Town Hall, either in the Selectman's office or the Advisory Committee room on the opposite corner of the second floor. Our meetings are open public meetings and on occasion we have inerested residents attend and chip in their two cents worth. Of course everyone is invited. An effort is made to conclude our meetings by 8:pm but some times we go longer.
TALKING TRASH is SO much fun we just can't seem to tear ourselves away from it.
Some options we have researched and discussed are;
1) PAYT (Pay As You Throw)
2) Adding curbside recycling to our current curbside trash collection & closing the Recycling Center
3) Stopping curbside completely and going to a Transfer Station for both trash and recycling
4) Getting completely out of the trash business and having all residents fend for themselves with private trash haulers.
We have certainly not come close to rendering a choice amongst our members but these are some of the topics we are considering. There are towns in Mass doing some of each of these options and there are pros and cons to each of them.
Jim McCollum,
Member, Solid Waste & Recycling Committee
