EASTHAMPTON — As he was leaving Big E’s Supermarket one day earlier this summer, Brian Jensen thought about something that many residents have likely pondered over the last few months as they’ve wandered through downtown.
“I’ve been wondering why there aren’t trash cans on the street,” Jensen said. “I see trash on the street all the time.”
Turns out officials took away the public open-top trash cans located around the city last spring after observing a recurring issue of people stuffing overflowing amounts of household garbage in the bins, including a car battery and other inappropriate waste.
Former Mayor Nicole LaChapelle ordered the trash cans be removed in hopes of stopping this abuse, and to reduce safety hazards and substantial overtime costs for city workers to clean up the messes. According to mayoral Executive Assistant Lindsi Sekula, this decision aimed to mirror the “carry-in, carry-out” model used in state parks, but it hasn’t worked well.
“Our office received significant feedback from residents and visitors that this approach was not working well in our downtown setting,” Sekula said in an email to the Gazette.
After receiving the feedback, Sekula met with the directors of the Department of Public Works and Parks & Recreation Department to explore solutions. They agreed to launch a pilot trial of two to three new “mailbox-style bins” designed to deter improper use. LaChapelle approved funding for these bins, which are expected to be installed by the end of September. They will be placed on the Cottage Street boardwalk and in the public parking lot across from Marigold Theater.
“If this approach is successful, I would strongly advocate expanding placements to Union and Main Street as well,” Sekula said in an email to the Gazette.
Former City Councilor Owen Zaret has been an advocate against littering in the city, helping organize Easthampton City-Wide Cleanup Days and Source to Sea Cleanups since 2019. He has helped pick up litter with co-organizer Molly Montgomery for years and sees littering as an issue without one clear solution. One of their efforts involved placing a bin by the Municipal Building at 50 Payson Ave. to collect nip bottles. They have collected close to 30,000 nip bottles since it was placed there.
“It kind of seems to come in waves. I think litter is a generalized problem and the biggest issue with the waste bins is that people throw household trash in there …” Zaret said about the trash bins. “It’s never going to be a perfect system. There’s still people that are going to take advantage of it but I think we need garbage receptacles in the city and it’s a better system than nothing at all.”
Part of the problem is that the city, unlike surrounding Hampshire County communities, does not offer trash disposal services, nor does it operate a transfer station where property owners can bring their trash for a fee. That means many residents must use private waste companies or take garbage to a nearby private dump. The city does offer disposal of recyclable household items at the municipal Recycling Center at 30 Northampton St., and yard waste is accepted at the brush dump on Oliver Street.
When resident Malika Amandi moved to Easthampton from Los Angeles in 2021, she was surprised there was no public system in place to get rid of her garbage.
“I guess I took it for granted that trash was a city service. It’s strange to me that it’s not involved in our city taxes …” she said. “Whenever my family visits they’re appalled.”
While Amandi thinks a public disposal system is a good idea, she wonders if associated taxes would cost more than what her family pays for a private hauler.
Easthampton has had multiple municipally-owned landfills in the past, all of which have been shut down. According to a state document listing inactive landfills across Massachusetts, the city has operated three landfills in the past — on East Street, Loudville Road and Oliver Street.
The Oliver Street landfill was the last of the three, closing to the public on Feb. 1, 1988, according to previous editions of the Gazette. According to former Mayor Michael A. Tautznik, it had to be shut down due to environmental and financial concerns.
“It closed due to capacity and funding issues,” he said. “There was a time when people felt landfills were good things but times have changed.”
According to previous editions of the Gazette, the Oliver Street landfill was reported to have several code violations from the formerly titled state Department of Environmental Quality Engineering, including haphazard disposal of automobile batteries, disorganized disposal of waste oils and sewage sludge. There had been multiple instances of groundwater pollution as well.
Since its closure, the landfill has been capped and a solar array farm now stands in its place providing clean energy to municipal buildings. The site was approved for the solar farm in 2012 when Tautznik was still mayor.
There was a time when people felt landfills were good things but times have changed.
Michael A. Tautznik
Multiple city officials said there haven’t been any substantial proposals from officials or residents to form a new landfill, at least within the past 10 years, nor have there been demands that the city offer trash removal services like those in place in South Hadley and Holyoke. Other communities, like Northampton and Amherst, operate transfer stations for residents.
Joshua Fyhr, who moved to Easthampton in 2009, feels a transfer station may help attract more people to move the city. “There’s more people moving to the area and if you want to get more, that might help … That’s a great idea.”
Tautznik feels Easthampton is too small to create a new landfill and there are too many environmental concerns. “I’m perfectly happy to have a private hauler and people have generally been fine with it,” he said.
