The Chittenden Solid Waste District has been studying more efficient and cost-effective ways to collect residential trash in Chittenden County. The District has been looking at a system known as consolidated collection. Many residents and haulers expressed concern over residents losing their ability to choose their hauler and the proposed system's potential negative impact on small haulers, leading CSWD's Board of Commissioners to call a time out at its monthly meeting on September 24, directing staff to consider additional options.
Public and municipal official informational meetings on consolidated collection, scheduled on Oct. 30 and Dec. 3, have been cancelled.
Consolidated collection is a system in which a municipality (CSWD or an individual city, village, or town) contracts with one or more haulers to provide curbside collection service for specific routes or districts within that municipality, rather than have multiple haulers serving a scattering of customers in each neighborhood.
The main concerns that are driving the effort to rework the curbside trash and recycling collection system include:
- Under the current system, it could be very expensive to implement Act 148 requirement for haulers to provide food scrap and yard debris (also called "organics") collection for those subscribing to curbside service.
- Excessive road wear, costs, fuel use, noise and pollution resulting from the current system of many trucks serving the same neighborhoods.
CSWD has the statutory authority and responsibility for the management of solid waste in Chittenden County. Its mission is to provide efficient, economical, and environmentally sound management of solid waste generated by member towns and cities and their residents and businesses. Pollution, impact on public infrastructure, and affordability of organics collection triggered CSWD's review of options to address concerns impacting that mandate.
"Many of our residents support moving to a consolidated collection system, and many oppose it," noted CSWD's Board Chairman, Paul Stabler. "We received a lot of feedback from all sides and we must take the values and opinions of all of our members into consideration before making any decision. At the same time, it is important to continue working towards a solution to prepare the District to meet the mandates of Act 148 as they come on line."
The Board instructed the staff to undertake the following:
1) A pause in the process of considering consolidated collection as a means of achieving the stated goals.
2) Consider additional options for achieving our stated goals of reducing collection cost, reducing the impact on infrastructure and the environment, and effectively collecting segregated organic waste by July 2017. Continue working with the hauling community to achieve these objectives. Identify needs for supplemental data.
3) Return to the Board with a progress report and potential recommendations by the June 2015 Board meeting.
More information on consolidated collection can be found at http://cswd.net/consolidated-collection.