By David Porter

On Monday night, the Town Council heard a presentation by proponents of a plan to make significant changes to the town’s waste hauling bylaw. Following is an explanation of what’s being proposed.

What is the proposed new bylaw, in a nutshell?

The proposed amendment to General Bylaw 3.33, Refuse Collection and Recyclable Materials, would authorize the town to enter into contracts with waste haulers, require all residents to compost organic waste and institute a comprehensive pay-as-you-throw system to encourage residents to decrease the amount of non-recyclable trash they produce. 

Why is it being proposed?

The five members of the Town Services and Outreach (TSO) Committee and Zero Waste Amherst, a local advocacy group, say the town’s 10-year-old trash and recycling guidelines need to be updated to increase composting, which will reduce the amount of organic waste in landfills, reduce greenhouse gases and address a looming shortage of landfill space in the state. 

Supporters also say the bidding process would lead to savings for residents and increase transparency since haulers would be required under the new bylaw to file annual reports detailing how many tons of trash, recyclables, and compostables they’ve collected. 

What’s the next step?

The Council is expected to take up the matter again at its next meeting on August 18, when it could vote to take the TSO’s recommendation and have Town Manager Paul Bockelman’s office issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to prospective waste haulers interested in contracting with the town. The TSO and Council anticipate that public outreach, such as listening sessions, about the proposed bylaw changes will be planned once responses to the RFP have been received and reviewed.

What will change if the bylaw is approved?

The town would accept bids and contract directly with waste haulers. Currently, haulers contract individually with homeowners, multi-unit complexes and businesses. Only one company, USA Waste and Recycling, currently is licensed to operate in Amherst by the town Board of Health. 

Haulers would provide universal curbside (or alley) pickup of trash, recyclables and compostable materials, with the latter two occurring no less frequently than every other week. 

Residents would be required to separate their refuse into recyclables, compostables and trash, and place each in its designated container. Under the proposed changes, the program would be phased in over a three-year period, starting with single-family and two- to four-family residences and eventually including apartment complexes, homeowners’ associations, businesses and institutions.

Beginning in 2025, every licensed solid waste hauler would charge residents for disposing household trash under a “pay-as-you-throw” system – using a combination of a can or cart subscription system or prepaid bags – that would encourage the diverting of recyclable and compostable materials. It’s not known what the range of costs might be in Amherst, though the TSO has researched how other communities have implemented PAYT systems.

How would the new guidelines be enforced? Would additional personnel need to be hired to do that?

It won’t be clear how billing, complaints and oversight would be handled, and whether those would require additional staffing, until the RFP responses from haulers are reviewed. 

How would this affect people who already compost at home or bring compost to the town Transfer and Recycling Center?

There is room for exemptions to the composting requirement based on family hardship or if residents already take their compost to the transfer center; however, the TSO is recommending that all residents who don’t use the transfer center should be required to contract with a waste hauler for composting, since organic waste such as food-soiled utensils, pizza boxes and bones must be processed by a professional composting facility. 

Has the public had a chance to weigh in on the proposed bylaw?

No, although Zero Waste Amherst conducted an online survey last year about current trash and recycling practices that received replies from more than 500 residents. 

Some of its key findings:

• Just under 70 percent were USA Waste and Recycling customers, while about half paid the $125 annual fee to use the Amherst Transfer and Recycling Center. About 20 percent used both. 
• The average annual cost per household of private hauling services was about $550.  
• Only five of the 310 USA customers responding said they paid USA for additional curbside compost pickup. 
• About 80 percent of residents holding current Transfer center passes said they used it for recycling, while about 70 percent said they used the center’s pay-as-you-throw service for household trash. About 30 percent said they bring compost to the center.