Emma Stamas: Beware of trash totes

I live in Colrain and we recently were told to get special stickers because only residents of the town of Colrain will be allowed to bring trash and recycling to our town’s transfer station. Evidently people from other towns are bringing in their trash because our transfer station is more convenient even though it is only open on Saturdays. When friends of mine in Greenfield told me that the city of Greenfield officials are considering changing their trash pick-up trucks to the type of truck that automatically picks up those huge wheeled totes that have to be wheeled to the curb, I became very concerned that this change is happening without input from Greenfield residents or from other officials representing the smaller townships in Franklin County that currently operate at low cost because they bring their trash and recycling to a Springfield facility that is able to sell the recyclables and receive income to pay for much of their operating costs.

If Greenfield changes its contract and uses the totes, will this decrease revenue to the Springfield Recycling Facility? Will Greenfield residents try to bring their trash to other transfer stations like Colrain where they can use plastic bags for trash and any size bin for collecting recycling and dump it once a month instead of hauling bulky totes back and forth on specific days? Where will renters or residents of homes without garages or wide driveways put the huge totes in between uses? What will happen when snow banks or ice storms make wheeling these bulky totes to the curb difficult or impossible to do without blocking shared driveways or sidewalks?

There need to be meetings with Springfield Transfer Station officials, FCOG or other local officials as to how these changes will affect their long-term budgets. Greenfield residents need to be able to express their need to continue using smaller and much lighter containers and bags that are easily stored inside their homes or porches and then more easily carried out to the edge of the street and placed on top of the grass or snow where they do not block sidewalks or driveways or turn the street into one lane on trash pickup days.

Voice your concerns to city officials before irreversible decisions are made!

Emma Stamas

Colrain