Public Works Director Carlos Jaquez held a public information session in Town Hall on April 9 to explain the new automated trash collection system that Andover will be instituting in July.
Only nine people attended the info session, most of whom were elderly people concerned about how the change will affect them.
The Public Works Department announced in December last year that the town will transition from manual to automated trash collection. The change also includes new standardized trash and recycling carts provided by the town.
Essentially this system has become an industry standard,” Jaquez said. “Trash haulers are a very high injury prone profession, and from an industry wide perspective, they’ve looked at how to make that more safer and more efficient.”
According to the town website, the average household in Andover generates about 25% (or 400 pounds) more trash than similar communities. For the past five years, the cost of collection and disposal has gone up by an average of 6% each year. By switching to automation, the town is also expecting a drop in long-term disposal costs.
This story was published as part of a collaboration between Andover News and the Department of Journalism in Boston University’s College of Communication. The student journalist is a member of Professor Meghan E. Irons’s Reporting in Depth class.
Each household will receive one 65-gallon trash cart and one 95-gallon recycling cart. Residents may require smaller sizes: 35-gallon trash cart and 64-gallon recycling cart based on their needs. Any additional trash cart will cost $75 each.
Jaquez said the program will maintain existing service levels: weekly solid waste collection, and biweekly recycling waste. For existing bins, three options are available for residents:
- Reuse the carts for yard waste disposal
- Recycle certain bins only eligible for recycling
- Disposal
“It’s not quite simple to recycle trash carts,” Jaquez said. “It’s actually that I myself learned by going through this process.”
Jaquez said that one of the concerns they heard from the seniors is how they are able to roll the large size carts out, especially during extreme winter weather or in a hilly neighborhood. The department is still working on a solution.
“We are trying to address that as the best we can,” Jaquez said.
Steve and Lynne Doxsey, both in their 70s, expressed concerns about the new trash carts’ size.
“I just don’t want to see these outside of people’s homes, these are huge ones, and hard to fit in someone’s garage,” said Lynne Doxsey, who lives in a 60-year-old house with a small garage. “I see some neighbors who keep their trash bins outside, and I don’t like it. It’s an eyesore.”
“Just like anything, it’s gonna be some hiccups on the way,” Steve Doxsey added.
Andover recently entered into a new five-year contract with Republic Services, which will handle collection from fiscal year 2025 through 2029. The company previously served the town under a manual collection system, but the new contract includes automation.
At a Select Board meeting in December, Town Manager Andrew Flanagan recommended using remaining funds of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to offset the cost of purchasing trash and recycling carts, supporting the transition to automated collection. This allocation would cover approximately 65% of the Town’s first payment for the carts.
35-year-old Will Stewart, owner of a local dumpster company Tiger Dumpster, supports the change.
“I think it will be good to have it standardized,” said Stewart, “There might be some issues in the first few weeks, but I think everybody kind of learn and adjust.”