Residents will be changing the way they take out the trash and recycling this fall after Town Meeting last night approved $1.9 million for a new five-year rubbish removal contract.
General Manager John Carroll said the new mechanized collection system that will include single-stream recycling, in which residents can throw all recycling goods into one bin without sorting them, will go into effect October 1.
Town Meeting was still going last night shortly before 11 p.m., and it is not known if members completed deliberating on the annual warrant.
They took up trash collection earlier in the evening.
Under the new system, Waste Management will provide each home with both a 64-gallon wheeled trash container and a 96-gallon wheeled recycling container for all recycling items. A truck with mechanized arms will pick up and empty the bins weekly for trash and every two weeks for recycling. The recycling items will be sorted out at an automated Waste Management facility.
Carroll called the mechanized system the wave of the future and believes it will benefit the town, specifically by making it easier for residents to recycle.
Carroll said the five-year contract consistently has lower prices per ton for removal of recycling versus removal of trash. Next year, for instance, it will cost the town $60 less per ton to have recycling hauled away as opposed to a ton of trash.
Selectman Chairman Mike Lyons said he hopes the new system will increase the town's recycling rate from roughly 14 percent to closer to 40 percent. Based on the new contract, a 40 percent recycling rate would save the town $165,000.
"The bottom line is it is cheaper to recycle," said Lyons.
Selectwoman Helen Donohue spoke out against the approval, saying she wanted to get selectmen to reconsider the contract and spend the coming year studying the mechanized system and whether it will be good for the town.
Donohue said she's worried that some residents may have difficulty moving the large bins. She said such a drastic change should have been more fully examined.
"Traditionally in town when we have such a large change we have a committee of citizens study the issues and the questions and that was not done," said Donohue.
Donohue was also opposed to the town negotiating a five-year deal without going out to bid and allowing other companies to compete for the contract.
"Even though it's legal to award a five-year contract without going out to bid, personally, I don't think it's morally right," said Donohue.
Town Meeting member Joe Fitzgerald echoed Donohue's concern about the process, and also said he's concerned about how the system will work during major snowstorms. Carroll said trash collection, regardless of the system, is always a problem in storms and when snowbanks build up on the sidewalks.
District 4 Town Meeting member Sean Dixon also asked selectmen to amend the contract or otherwise assure residents that selectmen will not consider any type of trash removal fees over the course of the five-year contract.
Trash fees have been part of various budget discussions over the past few years as a possible new source of revenue, but selectmen have repeatedly voted against the idea.
Dixon said he wanted a guarantee the fees would no longer be discussed.
"I don't want to approve this and then two years down the road we get a trash fee," said Dixon.
But selectmen said they are prohibited from making any guarantee or taking any vote that would bind a future board.
Town Meeting voted 141-10 to approve the $1.9 million request.
Daily News staff writer Brian Falla can be reached at 781-433-8339 or at bfalla@cnc.com.
