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Date: 4/11/2023
HOLYOKE — The Board of Public Works Commission met in a special meeting on April 3 where they received the Holyoke waste management study report and recommendations focused on eliminating the city’s trash issue.
Mayor Joshua Garcia has been vocal in the importance of keeping the city clean following multiple issues of trash build up across the city last summer and was in attendance for the meeting and discussions. In his opening remarks, Garcia told colleagues that they “have no idea how excited I am to be at this point of this process.”
Garcia explained this initiative was being done to engage residents in the city’s recycling changes as well as evaluate the city’s trash and recycling practices and understanding the best practices and other initiatives to improve the trash and waste management within the city as a whole.
The public presentation of the report was presented by Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Project Manager Eric Weiss who also worked on the city’s Waste Management Study Committee that was made up of various members of the community from city councilors to city officials. This group worked directly with the PVPC and DPW in this process.
Weiss is the director of economic and municipal collaboration for PVPC and works with towns and cities in Hampshire and Hampden Counties on different projects. Weiss got involved in this project after a Garcia launched the initiative with a goal of improving solid waste management in the city.
Weiss began his presentation by explaining the impact from coronavirus pandemic was a key reason for the city falling behind in areas of waste management. Most notably, the city switched from a dual-stream recycling service to a single stream due to lack of staffing and not being enforced any longer. Dual stream recycling is the sorting of paper from plastics and glass when recycling, while single stream takes everything in one package.
Now three years after the coronavirus pandemic changed how the city was handling recycling, they needed to decide whether to return to dual stream and facilitate sorting by residents or stay with a de facto single stream approach.
“The ultimate goal is to improve recycling in the city to one, acknowledge the city is a green city, and two, To make sure the city is maximizing its potential in that area,” Weiss said.
Historically, Holyoke has used a dual steam recycling program but one of the challenges along with staffing that came from the coronavirus pandemic was that sorting and inspection for sorting was not done in the same way due to concerns of spreading the disease. In this time the discourse on the city’s trash has only grown like mentioned and Garcia has been working to fight against the trash and bring things back to what they once were.
Whether the change in the recycling program was done by intent or lack of power it doesn’t matter said Weiss.
“I know this causes a considerable amount of frustration from within the city government and within the city. It’s a sense of civic pride, a sense of belonging in Holyoke,” Weiss said about city officials and resident’s concerns. “There’s also the question of why, why are people exhibiting these behaviors and what can we do to change that.”
Part of Garcia’s efforts was the formation of a Holyoke Waste Management Study group that featured city officials including members of the mayor’s office, the DPW, City Councilors David Bartley and Israel Rivera, Board of Health Director Sean Gonsalves, and more city officials.
From the work done by the committee it became clear that the first steps forward from this was hiring a recycling coordinator as well as launching a city-wide public information and education campaign focused on dual stream recycling, illegal dumping and littering in a coordinated effort.
One avenue of meeting the recommendation is the city joining Keep Massachusetts Beautiful and other groups to enhance Holyoke’s outreach campaign.
“The real point is you have to centralize the message,” Weiss said. “By doing that not only are you giving everyone the same information, you’re making it easier for neighbors to repeat behaviors.”
Weiss explained that a group like Keep Massachusetts Beautiful, a division under Keep America Beautiful, brings cities campaigns ready to be adopted and utilized. He also noted working with the Holyoke Chamber of Commerce on enhancing downtown efforts and to “take responsibility for the area they’re in” would help in the public messaging of turning this issue around. Weiss compared this option to the work of the Springfield BID in a similar incident.
Initial city outreach efforts will be focused on dual stream recycling as the city looks to get back on track with what has historically been the way for handling recycling. The dual stream recyclables will be brought to Springfield Materials Recycling Facility for dump off where the city could potentially see some financial gain from their recycling.
The plan is to give Holyoke residents a new recycling tote as opposed to the previous bins that were often blown around if not weighed down enough, causing more issues of litter around the city. The city will use a new split truck that will pick up each stream of recycling thus creating a cleaner product to be returned to the MRF.
The city hopes to get new totes out and the program rolling sometime in the summer. The program will have higher revenue and lower disposal costs as Holyoke has signed an 18-month contract running through June 30, 2024 with Springfield MRF.
According to the presentation over the long term as recycling markets improve, the City will see a lower bill in recycling costs and could eventually receive some recycling revenue under the MRF contract. Since the start of the contract recycling revenue has been as high as $32 a ton. MRF is the largest regional recycling program in the country in terms of land area, according to Weiss.
“The bottom line here is what you’re really trying to do is get your recycling costs as low as you possibly can get them as the markets improve. Maybe you’ll get to positive revenue or zero, and you want to make sure you’re not violating any of the rules as materials get dumped at the MRF,” Weiss said.
He also said there has been talk in the city around a “Pay as You Throw” system as a way to generate revenue and increase recycling but added it was a subject of great debate that every town takes on differently. Garcia noted in his closing comments of the meeting he felt this was “a huge, huge opportunity for the city” to better manage trash and recycling issues. He also added there would be future discussions on that before any decision was made.
A “Pay as You Throw” systems is a policy that charged people for the amount of trash they toss out. It’s also sometimes called variable-rate pricing or pay-as-you-waste. Residents are not charged a direct fee for recycling, and this creates a financial incentive to reduce, reuse and recycle more while wasting less.
In closing, Weiss said there was plenty for the city to take on in addressing these issues but felt they had the right team with the right motivations in turning this around.
“What I am really encouraged by is that Holyoke is embracing the idea of recycling and getting the city clean and green much the same way the city is green when it comes to water power, solar power,” Weiss said. “This is another complementor, or piece, of being a green city. Instead of taking money and throwing it out, create that [recycling] loop, make use and recycle.”
DPW Director Carl Rossi who joined the city earlier this year said focus from his department is developing public outreach and education campaign for residents to learn what the city is doing. The DPW has been in the process of putting together a bid package for the purchase of new city issued trash containers with arms to allow for mechanized pickup by the truck and will be supported by ARPA funds.
Work will continue on seeking a funding source for new recycle totes that can also be mechanically picked up. In the meantime, residents are asked to use their existing recycling bins for separation and curb pickup. There are a limited number of extra blue bins for residents at the DPW if needed.
The meeting also allowed for the reiteration that Holyoke is dual stream recycling once again and that is what is expected from residents going forward. The city will also be looking into the formation of a Recycling Advisory Committee as it was one of the recommendations from their work.
Rossi added getting informational flyers out to the public this summer would be a part of re implementing and educating the public further about what is to be expected going forward.
Bartley was the only councilor with questions following the presentation and expressed gratitude for the work being done to clean up the trash issues in the city.
“I’ve said it a hundred thousand times, litter belittles us all,” Bartley said. “That is something I’ve taken to heart when I walk my little guy every morning, we pick up trash, we pick up recycling, you cannot believe the amount of debris by the number of slobs that walk around this city or drive around and throw stuff out the car window.”
Bartley also said when he walked into the council chambers for the meeting at City Hall, he noticed litter building up outside the doors of the city’s more “pristine, beautiful building in the city.”
“I know the wind blows in Holyoke, I get it, but it blows in 350 other towns and cities,” Bartley added, also noting he had seen build up like this multiple times in his career on the City Council. “It’s lined with trash right now. Whose fault is that? Nobody in the room, but all of us collectively.”
Bartley also said in his comments that he could “assure” Weiss that the communication of dual to single stream once the coronavirus pandemic began was never made and “it just happened.” Bartley said he was not going to name names or point fingers, but the change was made even though the there is a city ordinance in place that states Holyoke’s process is dual stream.
“It didn’t happen by osmosis, it happened because it was coordinated by a party or parties in the DPW and possibly in this building … So it’s very aggravating to know that it did happen,” Bartley said.
Chair of the Mayor’s Committee on Infrastructure and Economic Development Mike Sullivan served on the Waste Management Study Group and thought the plan and recommendations they came away with is a “great steppingstone.”
“I’m excited to see how it helps transform the city over the next several years,” Sullivan added.
In his closing comments, Garcia said it sounded like to him that the city needed to work toward zero waste.
“I think what I reviewed here and what I’m hearing from the presentation and what they were hoping to do as we go forward is a cultural shift, start to change the culture of how we treat our waste here in the city of Holyoke,” Garcia said. “What I see is a shift in the culture and how we think, how the public thinks, about getting rid of their trash. I’m all for this.”