Easton Starts New Schedule for Trash Collection: New Refuse Contractor Begins. City is Divided into Five Sections, Each of Which Will Have a Designated Pickup Day.
By William J. Ford, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
Jan. 2–Every Tuesday night for the past 25 years, Easton City Council President Sandra Vulcano places her garbage at the curb near her South Side home where a hauler collects it the following morning.
But that same routine will change for Larry Kinchen because his trash will now be picked up on Fridays. Kinchen, of W. Grant Street, lives almost seven blocks from Vulcano.
Starting today, Kinchen and other residents will begin a new trash and recycling collection schedule.
The city’s new contractor, Raritan Valley Disposal of Whitehouse Station, N.J., will collect waste each day in five designated sections of the city five days a week.
Because New Year’s Day was Monday, pickups will be pushed back one day. Kinchen’s refuse this week will be collected Saturday.
“I have been setting my stuff out on Wednesday for who knows how long,” Kinchen said Saturday outside his home. “[But] Friday will not bother me. As long as my garbage is picked up, I’m fine.”
Trash service last year by Waste Management Inc. was Wednesdays on College Hill and the South Side and Thursdays in the downtown and West Ward. Recyclables will remain every other week.
Raritan was hired in October for a seven-year, $16.6 million contract.
“What we are doing now is better because pickups will be every day,” Easton’s Public Services Director Dave Hopkins said Friday.
Hopkins said if residents miss their collection day, a Raritan truck will drive to that neighborhood and pick it up.
“But no one is allowed to transport trash or recyclables to another section of the city,” he said.
Hopkins said 8,500 color brochures were mailed to households with a map outlining the pickup days, a 2007 recycling calendar and what items are permitted.
Mellisa Morris of Spring Garden Street said Saturday she didn’t recall receiving the mailer.
When shown one highlighting trash pickups in the downtown now on Tuesday, Morris said, “It doesn’t matter to me what day [trash and recyclables] are picked up.”
Collection is mainly geared for residential customers.
Hopkins said business owners, landlords who own a building with seven or more apartments and mix-used properties hire their own hauler.
Meanwhile, Easton is being sued by another hauling company, J.P. Mascaro & Sons of Montgomery County, claiming city officials illegally awarded a contract to Raritan because the company did not comply with bid specifications.
A hearing in Northampton County Court is scheduled for 11 a.m. next Tuesday — a week after Raritan begins working in Easton.
william.ford@mcall.com
610-559-2142
—–
Copyright (c) 2007, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
NYSE:RSG, NYSE:WMI,