Councilors: Students may be key to starting trash pickup system

LYNN – School children could play a critical role, city officials said, in helping local residents who speak many different languages adapt to automated trash collection when it?s introduced in October.The city?s new five-year trash pickup contract with garbage contractor Waste Management calls for the residents in the city?s 28,000 households to set aside their trash barrels and begin putting garbage and recyclable trash in wheel-mounted bins.Before a single bin is emptied, Waste Management will launch a public information campaign aimed at preparing residents for automated collection. The campaign will include direct mailings, cable television notices and radio spots aimed at local foreign language speakers.?We?re intending to have multilingual translations on the city website,” said Waste Management public sector services manager James Nocella.City Councilor William Trahant Jr. said the campaign should start in local schools because parents who speak limited or no English rely on their children to translate brochures and information on city websites.?It would be great to put a barrel in every school,” Trahant said.Automated trash collection is intended to hold the line on the city?s garbage disposal costs to about $3 million a year – roughly what Lynn currently pays Waste Management – while boosting the city?s recycling rate from 10 percent of disposed trash.Lynn pays about $2 million a year to send trash to the Refuse Energy System incinerator in Saugus. Boosting the city?s recycling rate could reduce incineration costs – Medford increased its recycling rate from 10 percent to 30 percent, Nocella said.A 64-gallon trash bin and 96-gallon recycling bin are the essential components in automatic collection. Equipped with lids, the bins are designed to be picked up curbside, dumped and set down again by a worker using a mechanical arm mounted to a collection truck.Local students will get an introduction to the trucks as early as May, said Acting Interim Public Works Commissioner J.T. Gaucher. He hopes seeing the mechanical arm in action will prompt children to tell their parents about planned trash pickup changes.?That?s the most effective way to get the word out,” Gaucher said.Introducing automation to students makes sense, said Aborn School Principal Patricia Muxie. She said students in the East Lynn school are already learning about recycling and repeating at home what they learn in school.?They definitely do talk about what goes on in school,” she said.Lowell, Newton, Billerica, Providence and Medford use automated trash collection, said Nocella. Ten to 15 Waste Management employees collect trash on five Lynn routes every weekday and Nocella said that number will shrink to 12 without workers facing layoffs.?We?ll redeploy them in other contracts,” Nocella said.The bins will be distributed free to single-family homeowners and residents in multi-family buildings with up to six units. Larger properties currently contract out their own trash pickup.Nocella said the trash bins hold six regular-size kitchen trash bags. Councilors want to know how Waste Management will handle holiday trash volume and Nocella said Medford sells bags to residents and asks them to use the bags during heavy trash weeks.Councilor Darren Cyr said he spoke to Medford residents and said some complained about the cost of excess bags.Waste Management will maintain its current collection days under automated pickup with recyclables picked up on the current two-week schedule.?My concern is the size of the barrels for some of the elderly in the city,” Councilor Peter Capano said.Nocella said the bins are easy to move and Waste Management workers will repair broken bin lids and wheels. He said the company has organized collections in some communities to allow residents to dispose of old trash barrels.