Public Comment: It’s Time to Adopt the New Waste Hauler Bylaw. It Will Benefit the Environment and Amherst Residents

The following public comment was submitted in writing to the Town Services and Outreach Committee for their meeting on June 13, 2024.

My name is Darcy DuMont and I live in District 3. I’m commenting on behalf of Zero Waste Amherst regarding next steps for the waste hauler bylaw proposal. We strongly propose that the TSO committee move it forward by giving the original bylaw proposal a favorable recommendation. Its implementation would be a win-win-win for the environment, for the climate, and for residents’ pocketbooks.

I want to thank Guilford Mooring for providing us the waste hauler responses to the August 2023 Request for Information, but am concerned that it took so long. Zero Waste Amherst requested them first on October 16, 2023.

Hauler Responses to Compost Services Questions
After looking at the RFI responses, I would differ with some of what was in the summary provided to this committee in May. On curbside compost pickup, it was reported that no haulers provide it. 

USA Waste and Recycling may be calling their service a pilot project, but the project has lasted over six years with no apparent intention to evaluate it. I know this because I use it. I pay $15/month for alternate week pick up of my 65 gallon compost container. USA takes everything that Martin’s Farm accepts including all food scraps, dirty paper, compostable containers, and yard trimmings. I fill my container to the top every two weeks.

In addition, although Republic Services does not currently provide any curbside compost pick up in Massachusetts, its response to the organics question was the following: 

Republic Services provides organics curbside collections for numerous cities and towns throughout the country, a number of them for many years; however, we do not yet have a curbside organics collections contract in Mass and are looking for the opportunity to implement one.

Casella also indicated a willingness to try to implement our town goals on organics.

Changing to a Town Contract Model
As for changing to a contract model, the RFI responses and contracts demonstrate that Amherst residents who currently use USA Waste and Recycling would save substantially on waste hauling costs if the town contracted with a hauler. The only remaining question is how much staffing the town would need to provide to start up and then to implement the program. Zero Waste Amherst has estimated, based on costs in other communities that bill residents, that it would take .15 FTE in accounting and .15 FTE in DPW contract compliance. 

Resident fees would cover those costs in addition to the additional cost for compost pick up, as they do in our model city, Louisville, Colorado (served by Republic Services, by the way). We will never know what the actual relative costs will be unless we put out an RFP and can look at different options for services.

Most of our residents are interested in and enthusiastic about reducing our waste. They are concerned about methane emissions, about plastic pollution and about PFAS. They are recycling and reusing clothing, furniture, toys, tools and a lot of other things on a large scale now. They are looking for easy ways to compost. Let’s give them the opportunity to make an even larger difference by recommending this program. The Board of Health can work out the details. 

Zero Waste Amherst strongly urges TSO to move to recommend that the town adopt the program so that the town can move ahead with an RFP.

Darcy DuMont is a former town councilor and sponsor of the legislation creating the Amherst Energy and Climate Action Committee. She is a founding member of Zero Waste Amherst, Local Energy Advocates of Western MA, and the Amherst Climate Justice Alliance and a non-voting member of Valley Green Energy Working Group. She can be contacted at dumint140@gmail.com.