SWAMPSCOTT — The town’s residents are producing too much waste.
According to Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald, Swampscott produces more trash per household than several similar, surrounding communities and the costs of having it removed are only getting higher. At the last Select Board meeting, Fitzgerald recommended to the members that the town implement a Waste Management Advisory Committee.
The committee would include three residents, Select Board member Polly Titcomb, one Board of Health member, one Finance Committee member, Community and Economic Development Director Marzie Galazka, Public Health Director Jeff Vaughan, and Assistant Town Administrator of Operations/DPW Director Gino Cresta. Coming up with strategies to reduce waste throughout the town will be the new committee’s biggest goal, he said.
“We generate more waste than Ipswich,” Fitzgerald said to the members. “We need to think about how we limit waste. The costs won’t get better until we get better.”
The town currently budgets $1.25 million for waste services. That changes Aug. 1, when the town will be forced to start paying recycling costs to JRM Hauling & Recycling, which Fitzgerald said will add pressure on an “already significant item on the budget line.”
Fitzgerald attended a meeting last week with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. He said their data showed that Swampscott’s waste company served 4,965 households in 2018, which produced a total of 4,030 tons of trash. Ipswich, a comparable municipality, served 5,041 households that produced 2,861 tons of trash. While Swampscott had better numbers than Lynnfield where 4,350 households produced 4,493 tons), the town wasn’t too far behind.
“The biggest problem is the cost of having trash removed,” said Vaughan. “It’s getting tougher and tougher for everyone in the state because landfills across the state are closing with not many opening.”
Vaughan said getting rid of recycling in town will be more costly than trash removal. Charging for bulk items, like couches and mattresses, could help counteract the cost increases in the contract, according to Vaughan.
“Clearly, Swampscott clearly needs to make some changes to address the economics of the new costs for recycling and solid waste,” Fitzgerald said. “However, we also need to be more mindful about the environment impact of how we deal with organics, textiles, and lawn and leaf tonnage that adds costs and does little to make our environment more sustainable.”
