Lynn trash ordinance to take shape following automated pickup debut

LYNN – As sure as the rattle of the trash truck that rolls down city streets each week, automated trash pickup is on schedule to be rolled out this spring.”We’re in the process of reviewing the contract,” said city attorney George Markopoulos. “And we will hopefully meet with the mayor to go over it next week.”The city is preparing to enter into a five-year contract with Waste Management for automated collection for the city’s 27,000 households.Under automated collection, each city household will get a 64-gallon trash bin and 96-gallon recycling bin. Homeowners will place the bins curbside on collection days and an automated side load truck will drive by and scoop up any empty bins using a mechanical arm.Current trash collection rules require residents to place covered barrels curbside on designated collection days along with bins marked with city “recycle” stickers and stuffed with plastic, metal and paper. Waste Management dispatches trucks along city collection routes, and company crews pick up and dump curbside bins by hand.Once Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy signs off on the contract it will go to city council for approval. Markopoulos said the contract requires council approve because of its length.Jamie Cerulli, Kennedy’s chief of staff, said even after council approves the measure it will take a few months to get everything in place for the program to work.”In order to get the recycling toters plus the barrels out to everyone, they’ll need six months to prep,” she said.Once the program is up and rolling, Council President Daniel Cahill said they can focus on getting a trash ordinance in place as well. Cahill said he is setting an aggressive agenda for the new year that includes tackling a number of ordinances and atop the list is trash.”In which I think we’ll be able to strike a fair balance for all parties involved,” he said.There was a push in 2012 to write a new trash ordinance for the city that went nowhere after Kennedy and the council became locked in a stalemate.Cahill said once the city decided last summer to go with automated trash pickup, it didn’t make sense to put together a new ordinance until the details were worked out.”We had to hold off on implementing a new trash ordinance because based on the new contract, we will have to devise a whole new plan,” he said.