City to begin adjustment to automated trash

LYNN – The bins are coming.Beginning in December, those chest-high, wheel-mounted plastic containers are expected to be used by 28,000 local households to dispose of trash and recyclables.The bins – or carts – are the key ingredient in the city?s plan to switch from traditional trash collection to automated trash collection aimed at doubling Lynn?s recycling rate from its current 12 percent.?Our experience is that when you provide people with a mechanism to recycle conveniently, they will recycle,” said Waste Management representative Michael Wall. The City Council approved a five-year contract with Woburn-based trash hauler Waste Management in April. Trash hauling costs for Lynn have climbed 18 percent since 2010 to more than $5 million, with $2.8 million spent on burning trash at the Wheelabrator incinerator in Saugus.Public Works Commissioner Andrew Hall said increasing recycling participation by local residents will reduce city garbage costs by reducing the 28,000 tons of trash collected from city homes and some businesses annually.?It?s a big number,” he said.Waste Management and Public Works will start educating local residents about automated trash hauling next week when the city mails out four-page brochures explaining the new collection method.Beginning Oct. 20, bins will be distributed to homes across the city, starting with neighborhoods on Waste Management?s Monday trash collection schedule. Wall said it will take company workers four or five weeks to hand out the more than 50,000 free bins.?Patience is appreciated,” Wall said.In addition to single-family homes, multi-family buildings with up to six units will receive bins along with businesses or organizations currently serviced by Waste Management.Waste Management will mail out a more detailed guide to automated trash collection in mid-November. The guide will explain how 64-gallon bins distributed to homes will be used for trash and the larger, 96-gallon bins will be used for recycling.Each bin will be engraved with a serial number corresponding with a resident?s address, and trash and recycling collections will continue on currently scheduled collection days. Wall said recycling bins will include green or blue lids corresponding with recycling pickup weeks.Each recycling bin?s lid will be stamped with a visual guide to recycling items that can be placed in the bins.?Nothing has to be sorted,” Wall said.Residents will face some changes once automated trash collection begins on Dec. 1. Bulk items currently left curbside next to trash barrels will not be collected under the new system. Wall said residents will have the option to schedule a bulk pickup with Waste Management for $20 or get rid of the items on city dumpster days scheduled in the summer, spring and fall.Any excess trash that will not fit in trash bins must be placed in “overflow bags” available for $3, beginning in mid-November. Wall said 30 local stores around the city will sell the bags. Additional bins can be rented from Waste Management for $100 a year.Residents will also have to pay a little more attention to detail when they place bins out for collection. Trucks mounted with mechanical arms will scoop up and dump the bins, and Wall said “residents will be advised to put the cart as close to the curb as possible.”?There will be an adjustment period over the first few weeks” of automated collection, but Wall said Medford and eight other communities using automated collection have increased recycling and ironed out collection rough spots by switching from barrels to bins.