Politics & Government

Braintree Moving to Automated Waste Pickup

The plan is to encourage more recycling by residents.

Braintree’s new trash and recycling vendor Sunrise Scavenger will convert this fall to automated pickup, a shift in service that some town officials say will help increase recycling rates, but that has others questioning the cost to the town and the burden on large families.

Sunrise was awarded a five-year contract that began July 1, replacing Capitol Waste, which had been the vendor used by Braintree, Quincy and Weymouth under a partnership that Quincy dropped earlier this year.

The contract, announced by Mayor Joseph Sullivan in June, includes the change to an automated pickup method, reducing Sunrise Scavenger’s personnel costs, making service more efficient and boosting recycling, Chief of Staff and Operations Peter Morin said.

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The change also means the town will likely spend $775,000 on bonding, which, combined with an anticipated $130,000 state grant, would pay for trash and recycling barrels for each household.

Town councilors are scheduled to take up the bonding request this month. If it is approved, the barrels could be distributed and automated pickup could begin by October.

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“This is the way municipal trash collection is trending across the country,” Morin said. “It is going to be more automated and more uniform.”

Capacity Concerns

The plan has already been criticized by some councilors, who say they were taken by surprise about the need to purchase the barrels, and by Braintree residents, who say they are worried about being able to use only a single trash barrel each week.

“I’m concerned that one 64-gallon trash barrel is not going to be enough, especially for families,” Councilor-at-Large Sean Powers said. “The people of Braintree work very hard, they pay their trash fee, and that’s the last thing they want to be hassled about.”

Julie Canelli, in response to a question posed on Facebook by Braintree Patch about the plan for automation, said that her family of six uses three trash barrels and one recycling barrel. She should not have to drop off her trash because she already pays $160 for the trash fee, Canelli said.

“My family uses one large barrel and two bins for recycle and then 2 trash bags,” Braintree High School student Robert Kearns said. “I guess we will be dropping off recycle and trash at the dump more often.”

Michelle Solimini-Crosby said that she definitely needs more than one barrel for trash. “I believe we should be able to get it if we need it since we pay a trash fee.”

Others have praised Sunrise’s level of service so far – despite some early hiccups – and are curious as to how the program will affect trash output.

“I think Sunrise is doing a great job,” ReNee Chisolm said. “Capitol sucked. They constantly left trash in my buckets and I watched them throw my buckets in the street.”

District 3 Councilor Tom Bowes said Sunrise should be cut some slack because they just started in Braintree and within the first few weeks dealt with an extreme heat wave. He also expressed optimism about how automation could affect waste practices.

“Maybe this will increase the recyclables,” Bowes said. “Maybe this will make people stop and make sure they are putting the right objects into the right container.”

That is the main idea behind automation for Mayor Sullivan.

A pilot program initiated by the mayor to give residents 32-gallon recycling receptacles stalled after Highlands residents received the barrels in 2011. The program had some effect, Morin said, but not to the extent that the town had hoped for.

Automation limits households to one 64-gallon trash barrel. If families need an additional barrel, they will likely have to pay for it themselves or use their sticker to drop off waste at the Ivory Street transfer station. Morin said the town is still working out those details.

Senior citizens, who get a discount on their trash fee, may also be able to receive a smaller trash barrel, Morin said.

Boosting Recycling, Saving Money

Going into the bidding process for a new vendor, town officials knew they wanted a plan to increase recycling and bring more equity to waste service, said Jeffrey Kunz, Braintree’s recycling coordinator.

About 40 to 48 percent of Braintree residents put out only two barrels or two bags of waste per week, Kunz said. Others, who may have an at-home business, a particularly large family or who are bringing trash from elsewhere, use more resources and in some cases large receptacles that strain workers and increase worker compensation costs. 

Those households will still have several options under automation if they have a lot of waste, including bulk pickups, the compost site on Plain Street and drop-off at the transfer station.

“What we’re trying to do is encourage people to recycle more by not giving them unlimited capacity,” Kunz said.

Officials also looked at pay-as-you-go pickup, which involves residents purchasing special bags, but deemed that too punitive.

They instead leaned on the experience of other communities that have gone with automation, including Abington, Pembroke Needham and Dedham, where Kunz said recycling rates have increased and residents are by-and-large happy with the program.  

Better recycling rates means lower waste removal costs for Braintree, a trend that could further reduce or eliminate the trash fee in the future, Sullivan said. The fee was recently decreased by $10 and Sullivan said he would like to see it drop even more.

Right now, Braintree recycles approximately 30 percent of its waste. Within 90 days, after residents acclimate to their new trash capacity, the town could see a hike of 10 to 20 percent, putting the town at nearly 50 percent, a rate that Kunz said would be “terrific.”

Recyclables cost $5 per ton to dispose, versus a statewide average of $77 per ton for trash, Kunz said. Braintree pays significantly less to get rid of trash – $25 per ton – because it hosts the transfer station.

The town could save $30,000 to $50,000 per year by increasing its recycling rate, Kunz said.

Paying for the Barrels

Before automation can begin, the town will have to put up what is likely to be a five-year loan for its $775,000 portion of the trash barrel cost. That cost was calculated when the mayor signed the Sunrise contract, Morin said, and the town will still save $750,000 over five years under the agreement, as announced in June.

However, Quincy also went with Sunrise for their new waste contract and it did not include automation, and so some Braintree officials are questioning why the mayor agreed to pay for the barrels.

“It frankly came as a bit of a surprise,” District 6 Councilor Paul “Dan” Clifford said.

Clifford, who is chair of the Committee on Ways & Mean, will hold a meeting on Monday, Aug. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall to go over the bonding request.

“At that point we’ll be really trying to peel the onion back and look at it,” Clifford said.

Among the questions he said he would pose are: “What is the business case behind this?” and “Why are we bonding rather than using free cash?”

Morin said he knows there will be challenges implementing automation, but that “we’re willing to work the challenge.”

“Some people probably won’t be happy no matter what we do,” Morin said. “We will act responsibly and reasonably and get the trash picked up.”


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