Another solid waste subcommittee appointed by the former mayor, laid out options for household trash disposal once the landfill closes.
NORTHAMPTON – The solid waste subcommittee of the Board of Public Works will continue the dirty job of calculating the city’s future trash needs when it meets at Department of Public Works headquarters at 8 a.m. Friday.
Just as investors have to deal with the uncertainty of the stock market, the three-member committee is hindered by the fluctuating nature of waste disposal. A major factor in the cost to Northampton residents of disposing their waste is the closing of the city’s municipal landfill on Glendale Road. However, that will not happen until next year and the repercussions, while expensive, have not yet been figured in dollars and cents.
Board of Public Works chairman Terry Culhane, who is not on the subcommittee, said its more likely topics for discussion will be issues such as whether to keep the transfer stations on Locust Street and Glendale Road both open to the public and how much this will cost. Residents currently pay $2 to dump a 36-gallon bag of trash at those locations. The operations would have to be self-sustaining, Culhane said.
“The city clearly wants us to not take money from the tax base,” he said. “We’re working through what’s fiscally possible.”
The transfer station on Locust Street is convenient for a greater number of residents and should remain open, Culhane said. However, the Glendale Road facility has loads of room for leaf disposal and yard waste.
Although the city stresses waste reduction, in order for the transfer stations to prosper, the volume of both recyclables and household waste has to be high. Recyclables such as paper have dwindled in recent years, in part because newspapers are thinner, Culhane said.
Looking ahead, another solid waste task force appointed by former Mayor Mary Clare Higgins, which has since disbanded, has laid out options for household trash disposal once the landfill closes. These include curbside pick-up by the city. In order for this to work, Culhane said, a majority of residents must participate.
“If people opt out, it’s not worth it,” he said.
Currently, about half of all city households use private haulers, according to Culhane.
The Solid Waste Subcommittee is not expected to come up with formal recommendations Friday but is working in that direction. Culhane said he does not expect the full Board of Public Works to take up the matter until next year.