Andover officials said Tuesday the Town will need to undertake a massive public outreach campaign to educate residents about upcoming changes to its trash and recycling collection.
“We have to really proceed deliberately and with a lot of thought because it’s a service that affects everybody,” select board member Alex Vispoli said at the board’s meeting Tuesday. “The last thing we want to do is engineer some kind of situation where it makes it either more inconvenient or more questionable to deliver the service to our residents.”
As part of a new five-year contract with Republic Services, Andover’s current trash collector, the Town will be switching to automated pickup beginning July 1. The change requires Andover to distribute 64-gallon trash barrels and 96-gallon recycling containers to each residence in Town. Residents will be able to request a second recycling container free of charge and purchase a second trash barrel for a onetime fee of $75.
The select board is scheduled to approve the trash and recycling plan at its next meeting on Jan. 27. The new contract is expected to save the Town money, with a 6.7 percent increase in the first year and a 5.5 percent annual contract in subsequent years. The average increase in collection fees over the past five years has been over six percent, with some years seeing increases as high as 14 percent.
The Town will also need to establish a process for residents to dispose of existing trash and recycling barrels. Several residents expressed concerns over overflow trash during the public comment period at Tuesday’s meeting. The Town is also considering providing overflow bags for residents, especially around the holidays. Under one proposal, the Town would provide the bags for free at certain times during the year. Under another option would be to sell the bags to residents throughout the year.