Letter: Town Needs Better Trash Policies

I’m paying USA $120 per quarter to pick up a garbage container that we half-fill once a month (never enough weekly garbage to make the trip down the driveway worthwhile).$1,440 yearly

In addition, until this summer, I paid the Amherst Recycling center over $100 for an annual  sticker, so I could recycle books in the shed and dump occasional bags of leaves. Having been told years ago that twigs and branches go in the brush pile,not with leaves,  I was surprised to be told by a DPW employee, this year, that I owed DPW an additional $5 for the 4 half-filled paper bags of hedge trimmings from my garden!  Landscapers are charged the same for a truckload!

Again the Town gives preferential treatment to businesses over the needs of its tax paying homeowners.

USA has a monopoly on Amherst garbage collection. I would like to suggest that the Town negotiate with them for rates that are proportional to use. Those of us, who live alone, compost, and care enough for our environment to reuse and produce as little trash as possible are carrying the cost for households of many people and for our more wasteful neighbors.

Bring back the “Take It or Leave It Tables”, good for the Environment and a great community social gathering destination. It’s almost worth the $125 Dump Sticker.

Anne Burton

Anne Burton is a resident of Amherst