JIM MULVENNA
WESTFIELD – Public Works Superintendent Jim Mulvenna reported last night to the Board of Public Works that Mayor Daniel M. Knapik is seeking funding to implement a new single-stream recycling program.
Mulvenna said Knapik is submitting an appropriation request to the City Council tomorrow night to purchase 65-gallon trash containers and that the present 96-gallon container will be used for recycling.
Knapik is submitting a request to appropriate $152,675.75 from free cash to the DPW waste collection purchase of services account. That request included the $16,000 to purchase the new yellow recycling lids for the 96-gallon containers, which Mulvenna said, will be switched when the 65-gallon trash containers are delivered to residents.
The appropriation request includes the first annual payment of a five-year lease-to-own contract to acquire the new trash containers and an additional one-time funding of $16,000 to change the lids of the 96-gallon containers most residents now use for trash collection. Those containers, which will become the single-stream recycling containers, will be retrofitted with yellow lids to designate their use for recycling, Mulvenna said.
Mulvenna said his department makes 13,640 residential stops to collect trash weekly and that between 2,000 and 2,500 household now have two of the 96-gallon trash containers.
“The majority of residents have at least one of the 96-gallon containers now although a lot of elderly people, who don’t generate a lot of trash, have the smaller 65-gallon or even the 35-gallon containers,” Mulvenna said.
Knapik said this morning that the goal is to increase the volume of recycling and reduce the tonnage of trash that is trucked out of the city by a third.
“There will be an initial outlay of cash, but the program will pay for itself,” Knapik said this morning. “We anticipate a reduction of solid waste being shipped out of the city, so there will be a cost reduction of a couple of hundred thousand dollars.”
Knapik said the current cost of sending solid waste to landfills and incinerators is about $1 million a year and decreasing that volume will save the city money.
Increasing the volume of recycled materials will increase revenue to the city because the state grant is based on the percent of households actively participating in recycling, Knapik said.
Several members of the Public Works Board were concerned that the smaller 65-gallon containers will not be sufficient for many residents.
Mulvenna said idea is to recycle more and to generate less trash, and that the larger 96-gallon, single-stream containers will make it easier for residents to recycle and can be rolled to the curb.
The single-stream program eliminates the need to carry the present recycling bins to the curb.
The new barrels will also be compatible with the trucks recently purchased with a left arm controlled from inside the cab of the refuse trucks. Those trucks are replacing the trucks that require the driver to get out of the cab to operate the lift arm.
Mulvenna told the BPW that the Health Department, which manages the city’s recycling program, will initiate an educational program to encourage residents to participate in the recycling.
