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Wayland Board of Health
Press Release
Wayland Transfer Station – All Aboard!
By now you have likely heard that the Wayland Sanitary Landfill, one of the few remaining active landfills in Massachusetts, is nearly full!
There have been a number of rumors surrounding what’s to follow, but what does this really mean to the folks who regularly use “the dump”? Well, primarily this means that we will no longer be able to bury trash locally as we’ve been able to for the past 28 years. The material, once compacted, must now be trucked off site to be disposed of which introduces over $200k in new costs to the equation.
To put some folks’ minds at ease, these plans do not change where we take our trash, recycling materials and/or give & take items. What changes is what’s done with the material once it’s compacted on the back end, and the fact that new costs have necessitated an increase in sticker prices.
The Landfill Working Group, comprised of representatives from the Board of Selectmen and FinCom, the Town Administrator, the Landfill Superintendent and a recent Board of Health Chair, took many factors into account when determining how to handle off-site trucking and disposal. The Board of Health adopted the working group’s recommendation as the best option available to both contain costs and support current employees as best possible. By striking a balance between limiting the cost increase to retain landfill participants and avoiding the option of eliminating positions entirely, the hope is that there should be minimal change to the landfill experience.
Despite the increased sticker price, the Town is hopeful that residents will continue to support this environmentally friendly institution and consider the many good reasons for using these services:
- Landfill recycling reduces Wayland taxes by an estimated $50,000 per year
- Strong landfill usage versus curbside pickup helps avoid the increased presence of garbage trucks navigating our neighborhoods and trash barrels lining the streets with the typically associated issues (spillage, wind blown trash, odor, animals, insects, trash out multiple days due to vacations, etc.)
- Under a curbside pickup plan “give and take” items are usually not covered, there is an additional cost for recycling and additional barrels significantly increase the cost difference
- Where will our politicians go to get ballot signatures, charities to raise funds? ;-)
Also of note are plans under consideration (“Pay As You Save” otherwise known as “Pay As You Throw”) that may reduce the overall landfill cost of disposal (and therefore sticker prices), will likely increase recycling efficiency and should better allocate costs among users. This program would take some time to roll out, but the Board of Health is reviewing and hopeful that a program could be put into place possibly by next year and certainly by 2010. We are fortunate to have George Russell as our Landfill Superintendent who rolled out a similar plan in Natick not long ago.
For these reasons and others we hope
residents make a choice to continue their use of or switch
to using the town offered disposal services now and into the
future.
Michael Wegerbauer
Member, Board of Health