AMHERST — A town-contracted system that would provide all households pick up of compostable materials, including food scraps, pizza boxes and yard waste, ensuring that organic matter is diverted from landfills where its decomposition produces methane gas, is being pitched to the Town Council.
The Town Council on Monday will receive a presentation from four councilors who are proposing a change to the town bylaw that will mean replacing the current system, where residents sign contracts directly with a private hauler or bring their trash and recyclables to the transfer station on Belchertown Road, with one that would have the town issue a request for proposal for collecting trash, recyclables and compost at curbside, and implementing a pay-as-you throw system.
“We urge the Town Council to refer this proposed bylaw amendment to appropriate committees and to take appropriate action to protect our environment from pollution and climate emissions, thus moving us toward achieving our state and local Zero Waste and Climate Action goals,” reads the memo from District 5 Councilor Shalini Bahl-Milne, District 3 Councilor Jennifer Taub and At-Large Councilors Andy Steinberg and Ellisha Walker.
As contemplated in the proposal, the bylaw would have the new system phased in starting in January 2024, with single-family and two- to four-family homes initially part of the program, and within three years adding apartment complexes, multifamily residences, businesses and homeowners’ associations.
Under the plan, each household would have three “toters” that would need to be placed curbside — one for trash, one for recyclables and one for compost, that would be picked up by a hauler. This concept is based on a study undertaken by the town to research best practices for reducing waste.
That study developed out of a technical assistance grant from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection in which the town worked with Veronique Blanchard, the state’s municipal assistance coordinator, to research nine municipalities across the country for best practices for waste reduction strategies. The study’s findings were presented to the Town Services and Outreach Committee in June 2021.
In January, the Board of Health passed a motion supporting a proposal from Zero Waste Amherst, a private group of residents, for a program that would include curbside trash, recycling and compostable materials pick-up as a part of the basic trash hauler service.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said last week that all three council committees, Town Services and Outreach, Community Resources and Governance, Organization and Legislation, will likely have to weigh in on the changes to the bylaw before the Town Council commits to the change.
The councilors supporting the revised bylaw write that in addition to environmental benefits, a new system could have more transparency in what a hauler charges, and possibly more reasonable pricing, noting that most residents in Amherst pay between $480 and $700 annually for waste removal services offered by USA Hauling and Recycling.
Various committees and organizations in town are supporting the change, including the Amherst Energy and Climate Action Committee, the Amherst League of Women Voters, Climate Action Now and Hitchcock Center for the Environment.
The Zero Waste Amherst group, too, has stated that any bylaw change would be consistent with the contents of the town’s 2016 Solid Waste Master Plan that was put together by the former Refuse and Recycling Committee.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
