Toters in 96, 65 and 35-gallon sizes

With more than a year still to go on its solid waste collection and disposal services contract, the village is starting to consider ways to tailor the program to community preferences.

This is good news to the residents who have plenty to say about how their waste and recyclables are collected each week. After all, it’s a chore “14,550 single-family collection units” perform 52 times a year — which should make all of us experts on the subject.

One major point of discussion promises to be whether to maintain a program that allows for a choice of vendor-issued carts that are billed monthly and volume-based stickers.

Many small or recycling-conscious families that generate a small amount of garbage aren’t keen on having to pay monthly for a big 64- or 96-gallon cart, which are currently the only sizes available. Neither are the snowbirds or other residents who travel frequently, as Commissioner Marilyn Schnell observed at the Feb. 2 village council meeting.

Other commissioners suggested the possibility of adding a smaller cart for those families. There also seems to be considerable interest on the dais for large recyclable toters. With recycling becoming second nature to more and more residents, the current 18-gallon bins are an inconvenience, at best.

Mayor Ron Sandack said his family puts out several containers of recyclables each week, as do many of the families on my block. Given that paper accounts for much of the material recycled, Garbage Day is often accompanied by an increase in blowing litter on our streets.

There are other disadvantages to the current program, as well, including its complexity, the confusion surrounding the disposal of bulk items and problems with Amnesty Day, such as the tendency of residents to hoard garbage for extended periods.

And then there is the sticker system, which allows residents to opt out of paying for this core service if they don’t put out trash. “However, costs are still being incurred for the basic operation of the vehicle that, arguably, should be spread across all potential users of the system,” staff wrote.

Sticker costs are also likely to rise faster than cart programs, as vendors require towns to meet minimum sticker sales targets to maintain current prices.

Sandack suggested surveying village residents to get their preferences before the time comes to negotiate a new contract or engage in a request for proposal (RFP) process.

Toward that end, you’ll find a survey on the right sidebar to gauge your preferences on ways to tweak the current program.