The Select Board voted to charge residents $160 annually for a second trash cart and $50 annually for an additional recycling cart.

Automated trash and recycling pickup will begin the week of August 3. New recycling carts will be delivered the week of July 27, while households will continue using their town-issued 35-gallon black trash carts. Residents do not need to be present for the drop-off.

Automated collection has become the industry standard for waste and recycling services. Under the system, a mechanical arm on the collection truck lifts and empties carts without requiring workers to leave the vehicle.

Households that need an additional recycling or trash cart may lease one for the approved annual fees. Residents can fill out a request form at swampscottma.gov/trash.

Connors noted that seniors and residents with disabilities will be prioritized to receive additional carts.

The new contract’s per-resident trash service cost, including fuel, is $122.51, according to Select Board Member Wayne Spritz. In the 2021 fiscal year, that was $88.48. The service cost per ton was $128.93 and is now $203.06.

Based on weight alone, an additional 35-gallon black trash cart would cost between $144.56 and $177.70, according to Spritz.

“The impact is more than just assuming that you’re compacting a second barrel,” Spritz said, noting that residents who use a blue bag still will have less impact on the entire pickup infrastructure, as the bags have less weight capacity and space.

In the 2021 fiscal year, blue bags cost $3. The town charged residents “an extra dollar that we were putting toward service costs to be in the enterprise fund,” according to Spritz.

“That slowly degraded because tipping fees rose and the cost of bags rose a couple of cents,” Spritz said. “There are 40 to 45,000 bags per year. What we saw in FY21 was $43,000 supplementing the service costs. We’re down now somewhere between $34,000 and $16,000. We lose 20,000 bags because people are getting carts.”

Select Board Vice Chair Danielle Leonard said there is no need to profit off of blue bags.

The Select Board voted 3-2 to keep the price of blue bags at $3, with Spritz and Select Board Member Mary Ellen Fletcher voting against the measure.

Select Board Chair Katie Phelan argued that “people are either going to buy the bags or they’ll buy the barrels.”

“I don’t think we’re going to have a bunch of people go ‘trash happy’ because they have the barrels to fit it,” Phelan said, asking that the board re-evaluates the issue in six months to potential increase the fee “if we determine we’re not drawing enough to cover the amount of tonnage.” 

Fletcher disagreed, suggesting that people may become more relaxed with their consumption if there is additional space. She also said that when a resident is using a service they should pay for said service and not have it divided out among the town.

“For me, the service is already paid for,” said Connors. “The average user right now is two-thirds of a ton. If we’re saying someone that already is a heavy user and we’re asking them to pay more, that’s what we’re doing. We’re asking them to pay for the added capacity.”

The service charge is fixed, with no impact on how many barrels are used throughout town. 

For recycling, Spritz suggested that a household with a second barrel is producing six times the amount of waste than the average user in town. Leonard pointed out that the numbers come from national numbers, not ones specific to Swampscott.

“I really don’t think we’re going to have a lot of people that need this,” Spritz said.

Phelan, however, noted that some residents may need additional space simply because they cannot break down enough cardboard to fit into one cart. Spritz did say there is a cardboard collection at the end of the month to “relieve some of that pressure.”

“We are disincentivizing people from recycling by charging them $102 for a second recycling bin,” Leonard said. “Ultimately, people recycling more helps this town, so we’re going to penalize them by recycling doesn’t make any sense to me.”

As part of the transition, the town will replace recycling bins with standardized 95-gallon carts designed for automated collection. 

“Your current recycling barrels and bins are yours to keep,” the Solid Waste Advisory Committee wrote. “Repurpose them, give them to a friend, or set them out for the town’s one-time special collection in August.”

Connors previously said the town plans its first curbside pickup of old recycling barrels during the week of August 10.

The town also plans to move to every-other-week recycling collection in early 2027, as discussed at the last Select Board meeting.

All carts must be placed at the curb by 7 a.m. with no items leaning against them. The arrows on the lids should face the street, with the handles facing the house. Carts should be placed about one foot from the curb and at least three feet from mailboxes, trees and other objects.