New Trash and Recycling Plan for Watertown Progressing

With a goal of increasing recycling and saving money, Watertown will likely have a new, single-stream recycling and trash pickup system in place in spring, after officials further hashed out plan details Tuesday night.

, which is similar to ones adopted in other towns, including Newton, calls for each household to use a single 64-gallon wheeler toter for trash, and another for recyclables. Under a "single-stream" recycling system, recyclables would no longer need to be sorted.

In a joint meeting of the Public Works and Rules and Ordinances subcommittees on Sept. 27, several issues concerning the new plan were discussed, including how it would be enforced, and the possibility of creating a new inspectional services officer position for oversight.

Members also discussed how to manage trash collection from nonresidential businesses and nonprofits, and expansion of the recycling center.

According to Treasurer Phyllis Marshall, the town will be signing a contract "very soon" with the most responsive vendor, who will also provide mechanized collections trucks and operate the recycling center.

Councilor Susan Falkoff, who chaired the meeting, emphasized that many details of the plan could not be reviewed yet, since the contract had not been signed. The councilors were assured that the contract could be amended, and would be reviewed by the entire council and at a public meeting first.

Enforcement

Falkoff broached the possibility of a new position, an inspectional services officer, to monitor and enforce the new policies. She cited Boston's use of such an officer.

"The question of enforcement keeps coming up," said Falkoff. "The (Watertown) Health Dept. doesn't have the staff, and neither does public works."

The idea garnered support, and it was decided to pursue it.

Town attorney Mark Rich explained that enforcement would probably best be carried out through a noncriminal ticketing process, "much like a parking ticket," he said.

He also suggested that the town draft a broad ordinance, so it could then decide whose jurisdiction it came under and who is most appropriate to enforce it, be it the public works, health or police departments.

Rich also noted the town should try to avoid going to court over "transient issues," such as trash collection violations, because such procedures are expensive and time consuming, while the state's court system is overworked.

"You don't want the plaintiff to say 'the trash is gone,' and have the case thrown out by a judge who thinks you're wasting the court's time," he said.

Councilor Anthony Palomba asked if it was feasible for the contract with a vendor to include an enforcement component, possibly carried out by a subcontractor.

"I don't see a reason it could not be deputized," said Rich. "But I wonder about an appearance of a conflict of interest, if they're benefiting from issuing tickets. It might be a more aggressive enforcement, but is that what you want? And there's also the issue of whether the cost is worth it."

Recycling

Councilor John A. Donohue expressed disappointment that the new contract did not expand the collection of recyclables to a weekly pickup. He noted that some towns have found that households discover more items to recycle, and that people don't use the drop-off recycling center "even for yard waste."

A citizen shared the same sentiment, to which Councilor Vincent Piccirilli responded that recycling is currently at just 20 percent in Watertown. However, if it reached around 50 percent, a weekly collection cycle might be economically justified, since it would mean the cost of twice as many pickups, he said.

Donohue also suggested the recycling center should look into increasing what items it will take, and mentioned that Newton has gotten more bulk items than expected with its new mechanized recycling system. He also suggested that hazardous waste collection be expanded from its current eight times a year.

Bulk Items and Nonresidential Collection

On the issue of collecting bulk items that are too large for 64-gallon trash toters, and which therefore would require a special pickup, DPW Superintendent Gerald Mee said his department would have a recommendation as soon as the contract was ready for review.

Finally, the issue was raised of how to deal with nonresidential sites — businesses and nonprofits, such as churches. Mee noted that 35 of the 174 nonresidential sites in town have signed for the town's paid commercial pickup services, but no one knows what the others are doing about trash removal, whether they're using private services or leaving it on the curb illegally.

A motion was passed to have the town attorney advise on how best to require nonresidential pickup sites to provide proof of valid collection contracts. The related issue was also raised of whether nonresidential trash needs to be in covered containers as well.

Mee noted that the process is going in the right direction.

"The new single-stream (recycling) system is a major step forward," Mee said. "We need to get it going first and see what happens."