July 1 was a tipping point for trash disposal in the State (pun intended.) That was the date that tipping fees — the amount of money each municipality has to pay to unload their trash at the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) Central Landfill — went up from $47 to $54 per ton. That’s about a 15% increase.

“As far as I know, that’s the single biggest one year increase, ever,” said Department of Public Works Director Chris Parella. “At the same time, they clamped down hard on the municipal agreements that each town had with the State.”

That meant that, also effective July 1, businesses could not bring commercial trash to the transfer station, and residents will be restricted to 4,000 pounds (2 tons) per year.

The policy is codified in state law 23-19-5 which states that “Municipal solid waste does not include solid waste generated by residents of a municipality in the course of their employment or that generated by any manufacturing or commercial enterprise.”

“You can only send there what you need for the health of your community,” said Parella. That has long been the law. The difference is, RIRRC started enforcing it in July.

While at first glance it would seem that the cost of the rule enforcement would be borne only by commercial businesses that were using the Transfer Station, the fact is the Town of Bristol was collecting substantial fees from commercial dumpers. Since the rule was put in place, the quarter that included July, August, and September saw gate receipts at the Transfer Station drop by over $65,000 — while money saved on fees at the Central Landfill dropped less than $20,000.

Despite those numbers, Parella is not sure that, in the final analysis, there will be a dramatic shortfall, or a need to make big changes to the trash-hauling budget. For one, less trash collected at the Transfer Station means less trips to the Central Landfill, and along with that, less gas, wear and tear on vehicles, and man-hours allocated.

“It’s a big impact, but we have been sitting back to reassess before we make any changes,” said Parella. “A lot of these savings should offset the additional costs.” He doesn’t expect to take a really deep dive into the numbers and make any official decisions until budget time.

Bristol still has a good trash deal
He maintains that Bristol residents have a good deal compared with other municipalities. “I live in East Providence, and if something doesn’t fit in your bin, you have to get it to Johnston yourself,” he said. “Or you have to request and pay for a special pickup.”

The (relatively) new automated pickup system is also paying dividends that will offset costs in the long run. “It’s just so much cleaner,” Parella said. “When we bring recycling we are much less likely to have a load rejected because it’s too wet.” That’s something that used to happen about four times a year. Now, it happens maybe once.

Other elements of the current system, including the compacting of recycling at the Transfer Station, not only reduce the number of trips required to go to the Central landfill, it also makes for a much cleaner Station.

In fact, cleanliness had increased town-wide under the new collection system. “The biggest thing to me is how much healthier it is,” said Parella. “Rodent issues are almost non-existent because everything is contained.”

It's also more efficient. The DPW only has to staff one person per truck. They do have to send an advance team out two days a week to move barrels around in certain neighborhoods — notably on the east side of Hope Street, downtown, where there is virtually no shoulder on which to place the cans.

“I think it was very difficult at first but the issues with trash I've seen significantly dropped,” Parella said. “We don’t get too many trash calls any more. I think it's been a good partnership with the learning curve; we’ve all done it together and it's actually working well now.”

Notably, one of the key reasons for making the change to the automated truck was the number of injuries being sustained by DPW trash collectors. According to Parella, injuries relating to trash collection duties have declined precipitously.

Another benefit Parella sees to Bristol’s system is the fact that we are keeping it all in-house. “All the employees are Bristol employees, supervised by Bristol directors who are all accountable to the Town,” he said. “It's our equipment, if there's a problem they call here.”

Friendly curbside reminders
Parella would like to remind residents to be aware about the importance of placement when putting out your bins.

“It may not make sense to you, but sometimes it's because drivers have to back in and that's why they want them on a certain side.” Also, he asks people to be very aware of what can and cannot be recycled. “We don't want loads rejected at the Central Landfill, and if we see something that's not allowed we will have to reject it at the curb.”

Looking ahead to winter, Parella suggested that his department may be more likely to delay trash collection due to a snow event than they have been in years past. “We're going to try to be more proactive about canceling trash because it really hard to remove snow and get the trucks around with the snowbanks. It’s just very difficult.”

For more information about what can — and more importantly, cannot — be recycled, visit http://www.rirrc.org/recycling-composting-disposal/what-to-recycle-in-your-bin-cart.