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JAY – Selectmen ended months of meetings, research and debates with a decision to move toward a single-sort method to handle recycling material this evening, asking the committee to look into purchasing a new truck to accommodate the system.
Selectmen unanimously voted to move in the direction of single-sort, in which residents keep every possible recyclable item in a single receptacle, with a hope toward future savings. Jay budgeted $1.14 million to fund transfer station operations for the 2010-2011 fiscal year at the town meeting in June. In comparison, local communities of a similar size pay between $200,000 and $300,000 annually.
The town currently uses a staff of eight employees for transfer station operations, who operate a garbage truck and recycling truck to pick up waste in town. The recycling truck is believed to be near the end of its operational lifespan, with an estimated trade-in value of $3,000.
Selectmen have instructed a committee, which has met once a week for the past few months and studied the issue, to select and purchase a new “60/40” truck, which can pick up and compress both garbage and carry recyclables at the same time. Rather than sorting recyclables into several different categories, residents can give the town a single pail containing cans, cardboard, paper, plastic containers and so forth. Additionally, other sorts of material can be recycled through this method, such as seven different types of plastic, pizza boxes and other types.
Several local communities use single-sort, such as nearby Livermore Falls.
“I believe, from my position on the board,” Selectman Tim DeMillo, who served on the committee, said, “that this is the direction we need to go.”
The anticipated savings would be in eventually going from two trucks to one, as well as reductions in the workload back at the transfer station. Highway Foreman John Johnson, who has been working with the transfer station employees, believes that the eight budgeted positions could be reduced to six. That reduction, along with savings in maintenance, insurance and other costs associated with having two trucks, could save the town $135,000 to $150,000 annually.
Town officials also believe that simplifying the recycling process, eliminating the need for sorting and broadening the range of participating material, may spur more people to consider it. That reduces the tonnage of garbage the town needs to pay to be hauled and disposed of, in the town of Norridgewock.
However, there are wrinkles that need to be ironed out. A significant one revolves around commercial dumpsters in Jay, which the owners rent or have purchased and the town has always disposed of. This system, which has been in place for roughly 20 years and appears to be unique to the area, would not work with a single 60/40 truck, because no 60/40 truck that the committee could find can lift and dispose of material in dumpsters. Several business owners, having heard of the issue, were on hand at Monday’s meeting to express their concern that dumpster service may be discontinued entirely.
One possible solution could be to keep the garbage truck, perhaps using it for a single day a week to pick up the roughly 45 to 50 dumpsters serviced by the town. Such a system could extend the life of the garbage truck, estimated at roughly four years, to several times that.
DeMillo and others were optimistic that the streamlined single-sort system could shorten the typical curbside pickup from five days of work to four, leaving a free day for transfer station employees to go clear out dumpsters. Johnson noted that if that wasn’t possible, keeping the second truck in service with additional work for town employees could eat into the projected savings.
Another option would be to charge commercial dumpster owners a fee for pickup, to help defray the additional costs of operating a second truck, or even to further reduce the transfer station’s impact on the town.
“Either way we go here,” DeMillo said, “there are significant savings.”
It is expected to take seven to eight months to get the new truck in Jay. Until then, selectmen intend to continue meeting about the transfer station issue. Another future step includes a redraft for the town’s waste disposal ordinance. Officials say the older ordinance, which is now out-of-date anyway, lacks teeth to deal with repeat offenders of town regulations regarding pickup.
Transfer station employees, Johnson and selectmen are also continuing to look into ways to save money. Johnson noted that 170 tractor trailer loads to Norridgewock and other disposal areas had been deleted as a result of changes in policy and more efficient planning.
