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Questions trash policy

Sept. 20, 2018 |

Everyone becomes angry at their municipality from time to time.  Once a week, because again unable to meet an impossible standard, is way too often.

A few weeks ago Republic’s blue tag and a letter from East Longmeadow declared our weekly household trash to be in violation.  Jogging that day, I observed blue tags on nearly every trash barrel on Brookhaven and Deerfoot Drives.  A subsequent call to the town established that rising costs necessitated a “crackdown on the couple hundred offenders” who habitually produce more trash than permitted.

When my wife and I moved here in 2015, we assumed from the previous owners a 45-gallon trash container.  Accustomed to Springfield’s weekly allotment of 96 gallons, we found cutting that in half a challenge.  Today our family numbers four, and many weeks I must ferry trash in excess of 45 gallons to my mother’s house in Springfield for disposal.   Now our town has decided to enforce a 35 gallon limit apparently long existing, and we are told that our sole option is to purchase spillover bags at $1.75 per bag as needed.

My objection is not to the strategy to require spillover bags at cost when necessary.  My objection is East Longmeadow’s baseline expectation that 35 gallons of trash per week is a reasonable limit for a family.

I ask our town to shift focus from changing the behavior of “habitual offenders” to adopting reasonable and flexible trash removal options that reflect life’s changing circumstances.  Restricting trash output to 35 gallons a week condemns many East Longmeadow families to a Sisyphean task.  For a $90 annual fee, nearby Springfield allows nearly three times as much.  Even at $1.75 per excess bag, needing to exercise that option weekly for one extra bag adds up to more than a Springfield resident pays yearly for almost 1,500 gallons more allowance.

I’m sure there are logical reasons why the policy and cost structure is set up the way it is today, but if I were part of the municipal leadership I would be looking for ways to not upset residents like me on a weekly basis.  

Brendan J. Kavanaugh
East Longmeadow

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