Recycling Cop?

Transfer Station on closed landfill helps fund town's solid waste/recycling programs

Back in December Town Manager Paul Bockelman told the Select Board Amherst had received a $50,000 state grant to hire a full time "Waste Reduction" employee.

Of course it's a "matching grant" so the town will have to come up with $50K in tax money and once the state money is gone the town will assume full responsibility for the cost of that position.

Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer did not seem overly enthusiastic about the idea telling the Town Manager we don't have to jump on money just because it's offered by the state, although she certainly did not have that attitude with the Massachusetts School Building Authority's $33 million match for the new Mega School, aka Maria's Folly.

The Recycling & Refuse Management Committee will go before the Select Board on Monday night to discuss their Solid Waste Master Plan which was issued over a year ago but to little if any notice.

Coming this close on the heels of the single use plastic bag ban which takes away a convenience most shoppers and stores took for granted, combined with the push for a full time employee to enforce such rules and regulations the issue may get a tad more attention.

 Big Y switched to thin paper bags

And of course "public outreach/education" is one of the stated goals of their Master Plan.

But businesses in spite of the inconvenience seem to have come into compliance with the plastic bag ban just as they did a couple years ago with the Styrofoam ban, so a full time enforcement cop is hardly necessary unless of course the town continues down the road of increasingly restrictive ordinances.

The RRMC is also concerned about the number of private trash haulers doing business in town (7) and would like to get that down to only three or better yet one to reduce the number of trucks running all over town spewing hydrocarbons as they go.

Draft recommendations from Master Plan

Restaurants would also be penalized for not keeping organic wastes out of the trash stream through composting.

And if there's any free time left in their workweek the Waste Reduction employee could snoop through homeowners trash to make sure it does not contain more than 5% recyclables or the occasional mercury thermometer or cadmium batteries.

The Town Manager is required to submit his budget to the Select Board in a couple of weeks and since it's a safe bet he's not going to increase the number of desperately needed full time firefighters, any new position he does add -- even if somewhat paid for by state money -- will come under close scrutiny.

And hiring a new employee dealing only with trash, recycling, sludge and compost may not pass the smell test.