Saugus waste reduction program begins Aug. 1

SAUGUS – The Saugus Solid Waste and Recycling Department will be going ahead with its new waste reduction program beginning August 1, despite Town Meeting voting down the $2 fee for extra trash barrels.Residents will be limited to three 35 gallon trash barrels for a single family, six for two families and nine for three families.Solid Waste and Recycling Coordinator Lorna Cerbone said the fee will no longer be applied to any extra barrels, but trucks will not pick up anything more than three barrels per family.”The fourth barrel will be left,” said Cerbone. “Unfortunately the town is only going to pick up the three barrels. I really think it would have been in the town’s best interest to have a provisional option for anyone who might need it, but they’ve taken that away.”The original plan called for a $2 fee for an additional fourth or fifth barrel of trash, but Town Meeting voted that down because it would have violated the town bylaw that prohibits a trash fee.”I think the premise was correct, but the timing was incorrect,”said Town Meeting member Robert Cox. “The Board of Health is not empowered to create a fee, so we took issue with it. I don’t have a problem with incentives to recycle, but I just felt we just had an increase in snow and ice and a hike in water rates and this we just drew the line.”Right now 56 percent of residents recycle on a weekly basis, and Cerbone is hoping the new reduction program will bump that up to 75 percent.”Department of Environmental Protection statistics have shown that a waste reduction program yields more recycling than a mandatory recycling program,” said Cerbone. “That’s why we decided this was the route to go.”Saugus currently allows one bulk item per week for a $2 sticker fee, which will be increased to two bulk items per week. Cerbone said the current bulk fee generates $40,000 a year for the town. But while she couldn’t estimate what an extra trash barrel fee would have generated, Cerbone said it wasn’t just about money.”I think more importantly than the money is the fact that it would have given the public an option to do the right thing with an overflow barrel,” said Cerbone. “Now unfortunately people are on their own. Most people won’t be affected, but for a larger family ? they might have a little bit of an issue.”Saugus isn’t alone in launching a waste reduction program. Peabody recently enacted a similar program on July 5, while Danvers and Swampscott will be voting on one this week.Peabody Director of Health Sharon Cameron said it took residents a few weeks to get used to the three barrel limit.”Some people are still putting out extra,” said Cameron. “But we’re seeing fewer complaints now that we’re in week three. People are actually finding that three barrels is very generous.”Cameron said trash collectors picked up extra barrels for the first two weeks, and left stickers notifying residents that they were in violation. This past week however, collectors began leaving extra barrels behind. But Cameron said it’s too early to tell if there are any problems.”There will be an assessment after a few months to see what any complaints there are,” said Cameron.To emphasize how much recyclable goods people throw away, Cerbone looked to last year’s recycling fair as an example. Cerbone brought with her four trash bags from four different homes that did not recycle. Cerbone said she was able to fit all the trash in each bag into a shopping bag, while the rest was recyclable material that filled two bins.With this in mind, Cerbone said people will be surprised at how few trash barrels they would actually need if they recycle properly.”It’s amazing how many people that recycle do not use more than a second barrel of trash,” said Cerbone.