On June 16, Lexington voters will decide whether to overturn Article 31, which authorizes a trash collection system with fees for excess trash.
My concern is that voters are being asked to approve a significant policy change before key details have been clarified.
What size bin will be included? How much will households pay for larger bins or additional capacity? What accommodations will be available for larger families, caregivers, or residents with special needs?
Supporters often say the first bin will be “free,” but it will still be funded through taxes. The real question is whether residents should approve a new fee structure for ‘excess trash’ without knowing what amount would be excess or how much it would cost.
Reasonable people can disagree about pay-as-you-throw programs, but voters deserve clear information before granting authority to implement one.
The Town should provide a fully developed proposal so residents can evaluate the fees, bin sizes, exemptions, and costs before making a final decision. Unless those details are clearly described and residents can be confident the program will be implemented fairly, voters should vote No.
Steve Kaufman
Two letters today refer to PAYT, but the plan proposed by the town is not PAYT – it provides free trash pickup for the first bin, and only fees beyond that. The town has made bins available for people at the library, the community center, and the farmers market to specify what size works for them. And we don’t have to worry about what accommodations will be made for medical waste and low-income folks. If larger families are not low-income, they will pay $100 – $200 / year for a second bin. We charge families by the kids for recreational programs, why not for trash?
Bin size is not determined. It could be small like in Concord, which would mean higher fees, or larger like in Arlington, with lower fees. The town referenced smaller bin sizes in its Q&A, but we don’t know. We also don’t know fees, exemptions or anything else. When you don’t know vote No!
FUN FACT:
Under the old bylaw that was adopted more than 100 years ago there is no requirement whatsoever for the town to provide trash pickup at all.
The town is only required to provide a free place somewhere for residents to dump refuse.
The Select Board can completely eliminate trash pickup entirely as long as they provide somewhere for us to dump our trash at no charge.
*Only* with the new wording adopted by Town Meeting is the Town obligated to provide us with trash pickup.
“No” voters~ be careful what you wish for.
Don’t leave the SB with limited choices such as:
– Reducing trash pickups to every-other week.
– Reducing the allowed pickup amounts and leaving you to pay an outside company to pick up your excess.
– Eliminating trash pickup altogether leaving you to pay your own commercial trash hauler
– Reducing town expenses… You choose: less road maintenance, teacher/firefighter/DPW layoffs, slower or reduced snow removal etc. etc.
Something has to give.
Vote Yes to allow the SB to continue seeking resident input to develop an equitable, reasonable response to a state-wide problem that has already been addressed this way in Belmont, Arlington, Bedford and hundreds of other municipalities in Massachusetts
Select Board Members have discussed at great length Article 31 and their expectations and requirements for approving an updated trash disposal policy. Video of the discussion is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxzu7x7BPd8
We aren’t voting on a trash plan. Here’s what we’re actually voting on:
Shall the Town vote to approve the action of the representative town meeting whereby it was voted to amend section 90-9 of the General Bylaws to
(1) provide for free residential trash disposal up to a threshold level to be set by the Select Board; and
(2) permit the Select Board to charge reasonable fees for trash disposal in excess of that baseline?
If the NO vote prevails, we still don’t know the plan.
The Select Board could vote still vote to allow a single 32-gallon bin as free trash, with no provisions for excess pickup – or a 48 gallon, or a 64 gallon bin. They could still vote to allow accommodations for disabled citizens to use trash bags instead of bins.
What we do know is that garbage costs have been skyrocketing, and that one of the few effective ways to reduce trash in a town is to make people aware of how much it costs – by charging a fee for excess trash. Communities that introduce a trash fee reduce their trash by an average of 30%.
If we can’t charge the fee, and people are still throwing out hundreds of pounds more trash than other communities (including 38% compost), the Town has to do something else. We either
– Limit free trash pickup to one bin, no exceptions
– Take money from the rest of the town budget, or
– Pass an operating override and raise taxes.
There ain’t no such thing as free trash. Vote Yes for fiscal responsibility.