Automated trash collection to begin next spring

LYNN – Automating city trash collection could save the city $300,000, including costs associated with distributing thousands of wheeled garbage and recycling bins to residents and some merchants, said Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy.The city currently pays $5.3 million annually to Waste Management to send crews and trucks around the city. Kennedy said automatic trash collection, scheduled to begin in April 2014, will cost $5.1 million in the initial year of a proposed five-year contract.She said Waste Management will hand out 27,000 free collection bins with residents and business owners currently receiving trash collection each getting a 96-gallon recycling bin mounted on wheels and a 64-gallon trash bin.The bins will replace the assortment of trash barrels now placed on curbs on trash days.?It makes for a more attractive neighborhood on pickup day,” Kennedy said.Trucks equipped with mechanical arms will travel trash collection routes across the city scooping up and emptying bins in front of homes. City officials picked next April to start automated collection in order to distribute bins after winter ends.City trash collection improvements are overdue, said Ward 3 City Councilor Darren Cyr.?We?ve been saying for four years we want automated trash collection,” he said.Acting Interim Public Works Commissioner J.T. Gaucher said automated trash collection will encourage residents and business owners to recycle by allowing recyclables, including papers, metals and plastics, to be “commingled” in the recycling bin.He said the bins are easy to wheel around and said Waste Management will be able to reduce its collection costs in Lynn by assigning fewer employees to trucks equipped with mechanical arms.Kennedy said increased recycling sets the stage for the city to reduce its other major trash-related expense in addition to collection. She said initial estimates indicate the “tipping fee” related to transporting garbage for incineration “significantly reduce” with automated collection.?It keeps my costs stable,” she said.Kennedy and City Council members, including Cyr, have traded ideas – and criticisms – aimed at improving trash collection and reducing the city?s rat problems. Kennedy said. She said the heavy plastic bins are a good defense against garbage-eating rats but Cyr said residents need to secure trash against rats and deny the rodents any food sources.?Common sense is going to stop the rats,” he said.