Hi!
Thank you for creating this format for discussion.
We have a family of 5 and do our best to reduce our waste. We pay for compost service with OneCompost Can and are very selective in our product purchases, opting for used items, avoiding plastic, and choosing paper/zero packaging wherever possible. I know many residents who feel similarly.
The summer frustrates me because there is trash pick up twice a week and recycling pick up only every other week. On average we only generate a single bag of trash a week (mostly #5 plastic food packaging that we can't avoid), but we generate 3-4 bins worth of recycling over 2 weeks. Because the recycling bins don't have lids, they take up space indoors so that the paper in them doesn't get soaked.
Looking down the street, our neighbors also generally only put their trash out once a week and have 2-4 bins of recycling every 2 weeks.
I think that the 2x a week trash pickup during the summer is excessive and unnecessary.
I would much rather have recycling pick up every week and stick with 1x a week trash pick up throughout the summer. Less trucks on the road and (in my probably biased opinion) closer to the actual needs of residents. Of course I dream about having township wide curbside compost service, but I don't think the industry is ready quite yet.
Hi Laura. Thanks so much for your comment. I'm totally with you, as I have the same patterns in my household of 1. My recycle buckets outnumber my trash buckets by a factor of at least 3 to 1!
The Waste Management service, which is a contract directly between the township and the service provider, will be up for renewal next year and I suspect the twice a week summer collection schedule will be removed, albeit mainly due to its prohibitive cost. Some folks will be unhappy about this change.
Recycling is contracted via the County. Increasing the frequency is something on my list of topics to discuss with the County. Everything has a cost to it though, and I imagine that an increase in frequency will be very costly.
I too am very interested in composting services. Again, it's a cost issue, as the cost to provide such a service is more than the savings from the reduced waste collection needs. At some point in the future, the township will need to reevaluate our spending and reprioritize which services are important to us.
You can help do your part by making your voice heard! Please consider expressing the thoughts you just shared here with the Mayor and Council. They can be reached at Mayor@westwindstwp.com and Council@westwindsortwp.com
Also, there is a group of High School students who are offering a free food waste composting service. I'm meeting with them this week to learn more about their project and will share what I learn.