The number of runs each week, the timing of those runs and the cost to drop
off trash at the transfer station have all been altered
By Kyle Stucker
Hampton-North Hampton Patch , May 7, 2013
[The following article is courtesy of Hampton-NorthHampton.patch.com
The Hampton Board of Selectmen unanimously approved three different changes — ones that will affect residents and businesses — to the town's refuse and recycling collection procedures Monday night.
A new, three-week trial residential recycling and trash collection policy will begin on May 27 and end right before the start of daily commercial collection at Hampton Beach on June 17.
The trial period, which will reduce the overall number of pickup days from five to four, among other things, will be conducted as a way of determining whether cost-saving and efficiency-maximizing changes will improve a program that currently has confusing pickups and fairness issues.
Town Manager Fred Welch said "if it goes well" in the first week, "[town] counsel will be asked to draft a sidebar amendment" to the public works union's contract in order to implement the changes full-time. The amendment would need approval from the union and selectmen.
The board also approved Monday the addition of a second residential trash and recycling collection day each week at Hampton Beach during the summer months. Residential trash previously was collected only one day a week — Mondays — due to board-approved efficiency and fairness changes made in November.
Curbside collection will be conducted on Mondays and Fridays, and the idea was one Selectman Dick Nichols raised last week as a way of ensuring beach streets are more clean during the summer and that rental properties can dispose of trash and recycling more quickly before it starts to accumulate and rot.
The commercial portion of the town's recycling policy also got changed Monday, as selectmen voted to unanimously end a "credit" that allowed all commercial entities to bring up to 1,000 pounds of trash a day to the Hampton Transfer Station at no charge.
The credit was brought to light last week after selectmen learned the Ashworth By The Sea — which is no longer bringing trash to the transfer station — and the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom were each able to drop off almost completely free of charge 80 tons and 100 tons, respectively, last year.
Officials said last week that the longstanding credit was created by "handshake" deals years ago because Hampton didn't have to pay to collect the trash. The town was paying to dispose of it, though, and the deals were in violation of the town's solid waste ordinance, which is why selectmen voted to end them Monday.
"We have to cease that with immediate effect," said Selectmen Ben Moore of the credit, the elimination of which he said could now make it tough for transfer station employees to determine whether trash coming in is from residential or commercial sources. "The town should enforce the ordinance."