Community Waste Solutions (CWS) aims to open for prepaid garbage drop-off services six days a week beginning in April after reviewing the results of a customer survey.
The survey, released in December, sought feedback regarding CWS operations and about creating a downtown garbage transfer-station, an issue some members of the borough assembly asked the Solid Waste Working Group to look into.
While only a quarter of survey respondents said they’d use a transfer station, more than half said they wanted the landfill to be open more days of the week and for longer hours.
“I think the ball is in our court. I think we can address this,” CWS manager Craig Franke said at a working group meeting earlier this month.
Franke said he doesn’t have the staff to cost effectively open the landfill to customers more days in the week, but said he could offer an “express lane” to customers who pre- buy and fill compostable garbage bags with regular household waste.
“In a spinoff of the central transfer idea…I can give people access six days a week from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a prepaid bag,” Franke told the working group. “On the days we aren’t open they can come up, drop it off and go. The days we are open would allow us to open an express lane to bypass the line and dispose of their prepaid trash and keep going.”
Franke said CWS would sell the biodegradable bags from the landfill and, ideally, offer a commission to grocery stores and other merchants to sell the bags as well.
“I love the sound of these bags. People could give them as gifts,” said working group member Tom Morphet “It sounds like a very plausible way to meet this desire for additional days or hours. I think it’s ingenious. I don’t see a downside to it.”
The survey yielded 127 responses. It was posted online and sent in the mail. When asked what would be the most beneficial service option for landfill customers, 24% said a transfer station, 45% said more days and 13% said more hours.
About 50% of customers said they were least satisfied with the days and hours the landfill was open, 25% said cost and 15% said wait time at the dump.
When asked what role the borough should play in CWS operations, 45% said only in safety and environmental concerns, 25% said no greater than in any other business, 15% said no role and 10% said most aspects of its operations.
At the meeting, Franke said he’s unsure as of yet how much bags would cost and that they would likely come in three different sizes.
