SWAMPSCOTT — Last year, the cost of waste disposal rose by more than 10 percent in Swampscott. During the same period, the town’s overall budget rose just 3.4 percent. The numbers don’t add up, and town officials are hoping the new waste reduction program will decrease costs.
Beginning Monday, Aug. 3, Swampscott will institute a new trash-disposal program, providing each household with a new 35-gallon wheeled cart for trash and requiring residents to purchase bags for any trash in excess of 35 gallons a week.
The program’s intention is to encourage recycling while decreasing the tonnage of waste generated by residents, “thereby mitigating the spiraling cost of solid waste disposal,” said Allie Fiske, assistant to the town administrator, in a statement.
“Massachusetts, and the nation at large, is in the midst of a solid waste crisis, with costs increasing exponentially relative to the amounts historically allocated in our annual operating budget,” said Ronald Mendes, assistant town administrator. “When we see something that is systemically broken in our budget, we are responsible for fixing it.”
Once the program begins, households will be required to use the wheeled cart for trash. Overflow bags will be $15 per sleeve of five (or $3 each), and will be available for purchase in town at Whole Foods, CVS, Walgreens, Stop & Shop, JRH Services, Richdale Convenience Store and Swampscott Town Hall. Bulk items, such as furniture, that do not fit in overflow bags require residents to buy a bulk-item sticker for $20. Stickers will also be available at the aforementioned locations, or may be purchased online at www.swampscottma.gov.
Swampscott is in the final year of its current trash and recycling collection contract, and future contracts will charge between $95 per ton (a 26-percent increase) and $110 per ton (a 46-percent increase) for the same collection services, said Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald first brought up the issue at the special town meeting in November, when he said the cost of trash disposal had increased 10.9 percent from the fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2020, while the town’s overall budget increased just 3.4 percent during the same time period.
A Solid Waste Advisory Committee composed of town staff and elected officials used grant money, working with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, to come up with the new program.
The committee’s “trash audit” showed that over 45 percent of Swampscott residents disposed of one barrel or less of trash each week, and state and federal data shows programs limiting the amount residents throw out leads to increased recycling and composting, thereby decreasing waste disposal costs.
“As the committee was determining the best waste reduction program for Swampscott, it was important to me that the Town did not uniformly increase disposal costs on all residents despite the variation in waste generation,” said Select Board member Polly Titcomb.
Alternative disposal programs available include unlimited, single-stream recycling picked up weekly; metal item drop-off days on the last Saturday of every month at 200 Paradise Road; and Mercury Recovery Program’s year-round textile and household goods recycling, which has a drop-off site at Big Blue Bargains Thrift Store, 297 Forest Ave.
According to Sharon Byrne Kishida, the regional municipal assistance coordinator for MassDEP, rising trash disposal rates are due to decreased in-state disposal capacity, and recycling markets having not yet recovered from the 2018 “fallout of China not accepting a significant percentage of our mixed paper and mixed plastic recyclables.”
Thursday, July 9, at 6 p.m., the town will offer a live virtual community forum to outline the new program and answer questions. Visit www.swampscottma.gov for information and to join the live forum.
