New trash collection
policy for Lowell
Richard Howe
The Lowell City Council recently voted to
make a radical change in the city’s
method of collecting household trash.
Currently, each residence pays $100 per
year for unlimited trash collection.
Beginning on February 1, 2009, that fee
will rise to $125 and, more importantly,
tight limits will be placed on the amount
of trash that will be collected.
However much trash can be shoved in a
single 64-gallon, city-provided barrel is
all that will be picked up each week.
Anything more will have to go in special
trash collection bags that may be
purchased separately for $1.50 each.
There will be no limit on the amount of
recyclable material that will be picked
up.
For many years, the city has made
available to residents an excellent
recycling program with weekly curbside
pickup of recyclables (paper and plastic
containers, mostly) on the same day as
regular trash pickup.
From the beginning of April until
mid-November, yard waste in paper bags or
loose in barrels is collected weekly.
Twice each year, the city holds a
hazardous waste event at which residents
can drop off batteries, tires, oil paint
and mercury thermometers free of charge.
Old TVs, computer monitors, household
appliances and furniture will also be
picked up curbside at no charge by just
calling and making a pickup appointment.
A full-time recycling coordinator writes
regular newspaper columns, produces a
recycling newsletter and mails a
recycling brochure to every household
twice each year.
Despite this first-rate program, Lowell’s
recycling rate is abysmal. While the city
of Worcester recycles 44% of its trash,
Lowell recycles less than 10%. And the
cost of dumping the trash that is not
recycled has sky-rocketed, making this a
fiscal as well as an environmental
crisis.
So now that the “carrot” of an
excellent, no-cost recycling program has
proven not to work, the City Council is
pulling out the “stick” which
consists of an increased annual fee and
limits on the quantity of trash that will
be picked up. Conceptually, at least,
residents should put more effort into
recycling rather than pay extra for the
“excess trash” bags.
Many are skeptical. Councilor Bill
Martin, the lone vote against the
ordinance, observed that the lowest rates
of recycling under the current system are
in neighborhoods thick with multifamily
homes.
Since the trash fee is imposed on the
property owner, increasing the fee will
provide little motivation for the tenant
to recycle more. (The argument that the
tenant will pay indirectly through
increased rent, while true, is not all
that persuasive since the increased cost
of everything else will drive up rent
anyway).
Others believe that excess trash will get
carted away by frustrated homeowners and
tossed out the window of moving vehicles
along lightly settled stretches of road.
The ordinance seeks to address these
concerns by increasing the penalties for
illegal dumping but there’s a
question of how vigorously such
provisions will be enforced. The city has
an ordinance that requires homeowners to
shovel sidewalks after winter storms, yet
as every parent of a child who walks to
school will tell you, many sidewalks are
left clogged with snow, forcing their
children to walk in the street.
Will the city’s efforts to catch
those who dump illegally be similarly
ineffective? And what of the homeowners
who put out trash in unapproved
containers?
Presumably, the trash collectors will
just leave it on the curb, but for how
long? How effective will be the city’s
efforts to coerce non-complying
homeowners to get with the program? On
paper, the ordinance answers these and
other questions. Whether these
theoretical solutions work in practice is
another matter.
Aggressive enforcement from the first day
the ordinance takes effect will be
critical to its success. So will a
continuous effort to educate and
encourage homeowners.
Those who are already diligent about
recycling under the current system will
readily tell you that it takes a
considerable amount of effort to cut up
cardboard, bundle old newspapers and
pitch empty soda cans into the recycling
bin in the garage.
It’s certainly much easier to dump
everything in a dark green, multiply
plastic trash bag and drag as many as it
takes out to the curb. But now that we’re
in an age when both gasoline and milk
cost $3.50 per gallon, perhaps more folks
will recognize that we live in a world of
finite resources and the only way to keep
things going is for everyone to do his
part.
For homeowners in Lowell, that means
paying serious attention to how to
dispose of household trash.
 Richard P. Howe Jr. is the
creator of www.richardhowe.com,
a blog that provides commentary on
politics in Lowell. He also serves as
Register of Deeds of the Northern
District of Middlesex County. You can
email him at lowelldeeds@comcast.net
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