Letter: Board of Health Has Been Seeking Trash Hauler Reform Since 2021
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The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council and Town Manager on August 9, 2024.
I am asking you to act on and support the waste hauler bylaw proposal by obtaining cost information from local haulers. Moving forward on this bylaw is important for environmental and financial reasons. The environmental reasons have been clearly presented by Zero Waste Amherst and others. At present, town residents have only one waste hauler option which costs $500 or more per year for a single residence. The town’s transfer station is an alternative to contracting with waste haulers. However the transfer station has limited hours of operation and may not be an option for working families.
The Amherst Board of Health began examining their established Regulations for Refuse Collection and Mandatory Recycling in early 2021. This led to 4 actions related to the Waste Hauler Bylaw proposal:
1) November 2021: The board requested that The Amherst Health Department create a working group that would review the present Regulations for Refuse Collection and Mandatory Recycling and establish the elements of a pilot program to be provided directly by the town or through a town contract with one or more haulers, that would include curbside trash, recycling and compostable materials pick up in basic service, a pay-as-you-throw fee structure, and local compostable materials processing and reuse. Town management felt that it was not feasible at the time for town staff to work on this issue given other priorities.
2) January 2022:The board made the following motion:The Board of Health supports the Zero Waste Amherst proposal for a pilot project to include curbside trash, recycling and compostable materials pick up in basic service, and is asking for input from the Town Council and Town Manager for action on the Zero Waste Amherst proposal to move the proposal forward. This request was sent in a letter to the Town Council.
3) June 2022: In continuing support of the proposal for a pilot project to include curbside trash, recycling and compostable materials pick up in basic service, the board sent another letter to the Town Council asking that the issue be put on the Town Council agenda.
4) May 2023: The Board again sent a letter to the Town Counsel asking them to act on adopting the waste hauler proposal during the summer, so that the proposal could be implemented in January 2024.
Please do not delay action on this proposal any longer. Thank you.
Nancy Gilbert
Nancy Gilbert is the former chair of the Amherst Board of Health
For the demands that have placed on haulers to provide 3 services ( trash, recycling, and compostable collection). $500 per year is a very reasonable amount.
$500 is a great deal of money for one person on a fixed income *many seniors in town by the way) who have small amounts of trash.