DeWitt, NY – One Onondaga County town is resisting a switch to automated garbage and recycling collection, a decision that has caused confusion and prompted officials to go back to the original solution.
DeWitt residents received a letter Dec. 31 with the news that came March 1 that the city hauler would no longer collect recyclables from the traditional blue bin.
Instead, the city’s residents must do it themselves, the paper said. They have to buy their own trash can with a lid. The letter also included a sticker to mark the bin for recycling.
In early January, the new city supervisor, Max Ruckdeschel, partially withdrew those guidelines. Ruckdeschel said he did not send the initial letter, which was signed by former DeWitt Chief Ed Michalenko. The new supervisor said he felt a different approach made sense.
For now, DeWitt residents can ignore the March 1 deadline and use their blue bins until they wear out.
But when they do, they’ll have to buy new, covered recycling bins and put a city sticker on them. (The change does not apply to East Syracuse residents.)
What drives change? Removal of blue bins.
For several years, the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency has been moving away from blue bins in favor of what it considers the industry’s gold standard: lidded carts that work with automated garbage trucks.
Many communities, including Syracuse, Manlius, Salina, Geddes and Camillus, have replaced the blue bins with these plastic wheeled recycling carts with lids. There, the municipalities already paid for the new bins, although in some cases they provided subsidies that helped with the costs.
But DeWitt avoids this change and expense, at least for now, said the warden.
That’s because DeWitt residents can currently pay a little more to have haulers pick up trash and recyclables near their homes, rather than at the end of their driveways, Ruckdeschel said.
A switch to larger, lidded bins that automated weapons pick up and dump into trucks would end this odd curbside service. Instead, he said, everyone would have to pull their trash cans to the curb.
Yet there are very few DeWitt customers who take advantage of this special service.
Of the 7,093 households that collect garbage, less than 5%, 320 households, have curbside service. Still, the city wants to keep that offer, at least for now, he said.
When the city’s contract with Butler expires at the end of this year, the city will reconsider all options to see what residents want and how much it would cost, Ruckdeschel said.
In the meantime, OCRRA is pushing other communities to switch to larger bins and automatic garbage collection. Covered recycling carts are the way of the future, said Kristen Lawton, OCRRA’s director of recycling and abatement.
Carts are large, 60- or 95-gallon containers. They create less waste because the recycled items are inside a closed bin.
Lawton said recycling should be as easy as possible for residents and believes carts are the best option. But it’s a choice that municipalities have to make. It’s not something OCRRA sends, she said.
“This is the way the industry is going, and we want to help municipalities that are interested transition to carts,” Lawton said.
If municipalities are concerned about the cost of purchasing bags for their residents, there are grants available to help offset those costs, Lawton added.
Costs can also be negotiated through a waste contract with the hauler, said Tammy Palmer for OCRRA.
DeWitt’s Ruckdeschel said officials realize they may eventually have to use an automated system, but are putting it off as long as possible.
“We like the price and the service we’re getting now,” he said. “That’s why we want to use the sticker system for now.”
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