The goal set by the Board of Selectmen, Department of Public Works and Recycling Committee is to reduce Andover's total trash from almost 13,500 tons in 2003-2004 to 11,000 tons of trash per year.  Last year the tonnage had been reduced to 12,800.

Though this is an aggressive goal, now is the right time according to Jack Petkus, Public Works Director, because the end of the NESWC contract means the end of our guaranteed annual tonnage requirement. According to Petkus, "In the new contract, there is no penalty for recycling and we get paid for our cardboard and recycled paper instead of paying someone to burn it."

Any paper and cardboard collected by Waste Management for the Town will be sold and half of the proceeds will be returned to the Town, so long as the price is above $45 per ton.  The current price is at or around $70 a ton.

To meet the goal, each Andover household will need to reduce its trash by five to six pounds per week. That means if each household puts out six fewer pounds of trash each week, Andover would save $100,000 per year.

This would help counter the current trends of trash prices rising every year by 2-3% and the amount of trash increasing even more.

The Andover Recycling Committee encourages residents to increase recycling of cardboard, junk mail, magazines, old files, and newspapers.  Of course, leaves, computers and television sets and appliances must also be recycled, but NOT at the curbside.  Note the HHW and CRT events in the next column; stay tuned for announcements on seasonal leave collections.

Any of these items will be left behind by the collectors with a sticker saying "Sorry, State law prohibits collecting these recyclable items with trash!"

 

Neighborhood Recycling Leader program off to a good start

Residents who have what it takes to become a neighborhood recycling leader (a little time to spare, interest in recycling and concern about Andover’s future) are encouraged to call Candy Dann at 978-470-2797 for more information.

• Over 1.5 billion pounds of post-consumer plastic bottles were recycled during 1999, accounting for 22 percent (by weight) of all plastic bottles produced in the United States.
• Post-consumer plastic bottle recycling has increased dramatically over the last ten years, from 234 million pounds in 1989 to over 1.5 billion pounds in 1999.
• 95% of all plastic bottles in the United States market are manufactured from PET or HDPE (48% and 47% respectively).
• HDPE and PET bottles showed the highest recycling rates of any plastic bottles types, at 23.8 and 22.8 percent respectively.
• Domestic capacity to reclaim PET and HDPE plastic bottles significantly exceeds recycled quantities, stressing the need to reinvigorate community collection programs.

The next Household Hazardous Waste collection day will be Saturday, June 7, 2008, and Electronics and CRT collection day in Andover on Saturday, September 29, 2007.  

Curbside leaf collection starts October 15, 2007, and drive - in collection at the Bald Hill compost site, October 1, 2007.  Click for details.

One to six condominium units are served by the town during regular and biweekly collections, so long as the collections are left by the residents on public property.

The Bancroft and West Elementary Schools are "paperless schools", in that all communications to parents are made electronically, saving many reams of paper.  Other schools are working toward that goal.

The Town has demonstrated improvement in the amount of materials recycled over the years of the recycling program.  The latest reports are now available.

101 Massachusetts communities now have a "Pay As You Throw" recycling program.  The average cost to the resident is $1.00 per bag.  See related information on "Pay as You Throw"

Four schools -- West Middle, Pike, West Elementary and High Plain Elementary collected over sixty percent of the total.  Others in order of the number of pounds collected were Shawsheen Elementary,  Sanborn Elementary, Wood Hill Middle, The Children's Place at Philips Academy, Bancroft Elementary, South Elementary, Doherty Middle, and Andover High School.

The Athlete's Corner, DCS and the Andover Hockey Shop also participated.

The Northeast Solid Waste Committee members responded to DEP's reevaluation of their Solid Waste Master Plan goals and processes. 

 North Andover's representative to NESWC requested input from their DPW and Solid Waste Advisory Committee.  Here is the response from the North Andover Solid Waste Committee:

 Do you agree that Massachusetts should maintain a goal of no net import/export for waste disposal?

Ans:  Yes, we believe that Massachusetts should maintain a goal of no net import/export for waste disposal.  This goal should be used to put pressure on Massachusetts communities to decrease disposable trash through reduce, reuse, recycle programs.  It should not be used to justify additional disposal capacity.

 

2.  What should the state do, if anything, to encourage development of more disposal capacity in-state.  What should they do to encourage more recycling?

Ans:  The state should focus on encouraging the expansion of processing capacity for recycling, composting and C&D, etc., but should not be encouraging additional landfills or incinerators. 

 

3.  Should the state maintain its current moratorium on new waste-to-energy capacity?

Ans:  Refer also to #2.  Yes, the moratorium should be maintained.

 

4.  Is it important for the state to maintain its aggressive recycling goal of 70% waste reduction?

Ans:  Achieving the 70% waste reduction goal would eliminate the need for additional trash disposal capacity, so yes, it is important to maintain.

 

5.  Priorities:

a.  Requiring producer responsibility

b.  Implementation of the waste bans at the community level.  Mandatory recycling should be required both residentially and commercially

c.  Supporting recycling initiatives via MRIP, grants, PAYT

 

Another idea:  I think I'd like to see the state require some kind of certification of people working in municipalities that are responsible for managing waste, just as towns have certified engineers, planners, natural resource commissioners, accountants, etc. Having someone in each municipality with a certain minimal level of skills and knowledge about waste would seem like something the state should be pushing for. I suppose it could be set up so that the towns could meet this criteria by having a consultant on retainer that meets the criteria as a way for smaller towns could have access to someone with knowledge.

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Markets for Recycled Plastics

• 56% of recycled PET finds a market in the manufacture of fiber (carpet and clothing).
• Other large markets for recycled PET are for strapping (13%) and new containers (14% -food and non-food).
• 29% of recycled HDPE bottles go into making new bottles.
• The plastic pipe industry consumes 18% of the recycled HDPE.
• Other strong markets for HDPE are for lawn and garden products (such as edging), plastic lumber (decks, benches, picnic tables), film and sheet, and a variety of injection molding products (buckets, crates and automobile parts).