Ward 5 councilor Patrick Kavey submitted the petition with Ward 6 councilor Dina Lampiasi at Tuesday night’s meeting.
“The reason that we did this is just because solid waste costs continue to go up," said Kavey. "So, like with a recycling campaign that the commissioner put together for us, cost of recycling was less than solid waste at the time, so the more people who recycle the less we spend on solid waste. Commissioner, would you mind coming up and just explaining how municipal composting, I mean, right out of the gates, won't necessarily help us, but over time, how it could help us lower our solid waste costs?”
“Yeah, so, it's all about trash diversion from the dump, from hauling it anywhere," said Commissioner of Public Works Ricardo Morales. "So, recycling costs right now are much lower than hauling trash out from the transfer station on Hubbard Ave. Anything we can do to reduce what that trash is made up of, to reduce the weight, it's all by weight. Anything we can do to reduce that weight is going to reflect on our costs. Composting deals with organics. You can look at programs that deal with textile reclamation, we have started that. There are privately owned textile collection boxes. The city has installed a couple and they are in a couple locations, city owned lots. There's work regarding bulky waste. Soon they're starting, there's a new law that prohibits the throw out on the trash of mattresses or box springs. They need to be recycled as of November 1st. You're soon going to be hearing some public information about that, probably next week on the plans Pittsfield has for recycling mattresses. All of that is going to help reduce the cost of dealing with our trash.”
Morales was asked to describe what a municipal composting program for Pittsfield might look like.
“One of them would be residential drop off," he said. "Another program would be curbside pickup. Right now, there's a number of private and private organizations that offer a residential pickup of organics for composting. I participate in one of them. As I don't have the virtues of growing a garden, I give it to a farm and they pick it up.”
The commissioner backed a public-private partnership approach.
“I think one of the best solutions, in my view, is subsidizing some of those services as a city so that we can pay to be able to offer that service to the residents either at no cost or a reduced cost, and at the same time in doing so, see our costs for trash reduced,” he said.
Morales also answered questions about how Pittsfield handles the disposal of mattresses. It costs residents $20 to have mattresses picked up as bulky waste, but the city upwards of $100 to process them.
“One of the solutions we're looking at right now would reduce that drastically, and we, as a host facility, as a host city to offer services for mattress recycling around the county, we would get some discounts and there would be a company that picks up mattresses,” he said.
The commissioner also was asked to explain why the state had closed down the city’s trash incinerator on Hubbard Avenue once operated by Community Eco Power.
“It is complicated matter that involves bankruptcy, the business of being in business to burn trash, and the health implications that the residual chemicals after you burn trash have in neighboring communities," said Morales. "All that together resulted in the [Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection], after CEP filed for bankruptcy, chapter 11 and later, subsequently, bankruptcy, the [Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection] rescinding the permit for the stacks because of the stacks’ condition and the facilities condition in general for burning trash at that facility.”
Since June, new owners Casella Waste Systems have operated a transfer station at the property.
“Their plans include, ultimately, and I'll go for the far end future, ultimately to have a state-of-the-art facility transfer station, which includes not only the availability or ability to receive trash and recycling, as they do right now from Pittsfield and from other communities and contractors, but also room, expanded room for residential drop off,” said the commissioner.
According to Morales, the company intends to have a temporary structure erected for residential drop off set up by mid to late December.
