In an April interview with WAMC, first-term Mayor Peter Marchetti said that the trash and recycling changes he long unsuccessfully sought as city council president were no longer avoidable.
“Currently, we're spending about $5.1 million between trash collection and disposal costs," said Marchetti. "If we continue to allow for unlimited curbside trash pickup, that number is not going to decline anytime in the near future. And so, we need to find ways to reduce costs and generate some revenues and decreasing the amount of trash that we're hauling away and increasing the amount of recyclables does that.”
On Monday night, the Pittsfield city council – meeting in its capacity as the committee of the whole – unanimously signed off on preliminary approval of the new system. Marchetti’s plan calls for the adoption of a toters program with fixed limits on what Pittsfielders can expect waste management company Casella to pick up.
“Curbside collection, we're looking at a value of $2,420,000," said Commissioner of Public Works Ricardo Morales. "It includes automated vehicle acquisition, toter procurement and distribution, additional trash toters and recyclables, transition to automation, education, and customer service.”
Morales told the council that the city would provide one toter for trash and one toter for recycling to 17,500 families in Pittsfield.
“In here, we're proposing in this contract 48 gallons for both," he continued. "So, for the additional toter, within the contract, there's some stipulations that talk about the cost for that total plus a $3 fee per pickup. That comes out to around $160 a year, which on the city side, with residents who- This part is not technically in the contract, but it's part of the discussions that we want to have tonight, as this will be costs that Casella will pass on to the city, and in this case, $40 per quarter would be passed on to each resident that requires or wants an additional trash toter. For recycling, no extra fee, the city will cover that cost.”
Morales says the rollout of the system – which includes successfully implementing automated trash and recycling technology – will take place neighborhood by neighborhood throughout Pittsfield.
The goal of the switch is to reduce trash output and increase recycling.
“We're essentially operating on about in Pittsfield, based on how much we put out, we're functioning as if we had a 95-gallon toter mandate," said the commissioner. "That's on average what we throw out per family- 1,851 pounds per household. If we move towards a 48-gallon, which is what we're proposing, we are set to see potential reductions down to 1,372 pounds per household. So, that's our goal, and doing so will be achieved by diverting from the landfill. So, we are looking to set goals of increasing our recycling from what we do around 1,700 tons per year as a community up to 5,000 tons a year, and other things that can be diverted from the landfill, but not necessarily as a recyclable item, go from about 20 tons we generate currently to 600 tons. These are items that usually are bulky in nature, so they can add up quickly. And that's going to be to our advantage.”
The council is expected to take up the proposal for a final vote during its June 11th meeting.
