SWAMPSCOTT — In just one week, wheeled black plastic bins sporting the town seal have become ubiquitous in Swampscott. While many residents have aired their grievances about the new waste-disposal program, town officials say they have made the right fiscal move.
Swampscott’s new waste-disposal program went into effect Monday. The program provides each household with a new 35-gallon wheeled cart for trash and requires residents to purchase bags for any trash in excess of the 35 gallons.
According to Allie Fiske, assistant to the town administrator, 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.”
Last year, the cost of waste disposal rose by more than 10 percent in Swampscott. At the same time, the town’s overall budget increased by just 3.4 percent. The numbers don’t add up, and it’s a hit on the town’s finances.
The town held two public forums leading up to the new program’s implementation, during which many spoke out against the program.
Swampscott resident Mark Miller said no “consensus” was sought among residents before the program went into effect.
“Wouldn’t it have been better to have engaged the town in advance of making this decision?” he asked.
One woman, who only gave her first name, Mary Ellen, said she appreciates the town’s work and is a supporter of a “pay-as-you-throw” program, but agreed with others that there was not enough public input in the creation of the new program. She also said the program is unfair to households that will naturally generate more trash.
“I am concerned about the burden on larger families,” she said.
One Swampscott resident, a man who identified himself only as Louie, said he is already a recycling “fanatic” but that a 35-gallon limit on trash is too strict. Louie said 70 gallons were allowed in the past, but he never exceeded 50 unless he had a party. He said the new program might cause a small decrease in trash tonnage, but he doesn’t think it will be a significant amount.
“The people putting out trash are still going to put out the same amount, the difference is it’s more money coming out of our pockets,” he said. “You went drastically from 70 to 35, instead of a slow down-tick, 70 to 50.”
Select Board member Polly Titcomb, who was part of the taskforce that came up with the new program, said, “This really was a fiscal decision made by the town administrator in his capacity as chief financial officer.” Implementing the new program was a “non-negotiable” “executive decision,” Titcomb said, and she tried to recruit members of the public to join the taskforce with no success\.
“It was done over many months and many meetings,” Titcomb said.
Households are required to use the town-provided wheeled carts for trash. “Overflow bags,” according to Fiske, are $15 per sleeve of five, or $3 each, and are 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 contract for trash and recyclables collection, 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, Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said.
“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.”
Town officials formed a working group last fall to examine the town’s waste-disposal practices and patterns, and a “trash audit” found more than 45 percent of Swampscott residents disposed of one barrel or less of trash each week. Furthermore, state and federal data shows programs limiting the amount residents throw out leads to increased recycling and composting, thereby decreasing waste disposal costs.
Also guiding the town’s decision was input from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Sharon Byrne Kishida, MassDEP regional municipal assistance coordinator, said rising trash rates are partially due to decreased disposal capacity in the state, and recycling markets that haven’t yet recovered from the 2018 “fallout of China not accepting a significant percentage of our mixed paper and mixed plastic recyclables.”
