Garbage Changes OKd

(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Nov. 3, 2010)

 PERTH AMBOY — The most-far-reaching changes to the city’s Garbage Ordinance since it was adopted in 1975 were adopted by a unanimous City Council last week following a lively public hearing.

The Amendments, which were proposed in reaction to a system which has been costly and inefficient, were moved by Councilman William Petrick, seconded by Councilman Kenneth Gonzalez and adopted 5-0.

However, Council President Kenneth Balut indicated that the list of changes is not complete. “I think we’re going to have to sit-down and discuss some stuff so we have a meeting of the minds,” he said.

A provision requiring that all garbage-cans have fitted lids remains in the measure even-though Gonzalez noted his own personal experience that lids seem to “evaporate to parts-unknown,” which drew laughter from the audience.

“Let’s try to get-through this without the ‘lid police,’” Balut, a retired Perth Amboy police officer, remarked.

“We’re not going to immediately issue summonses,” Interim Business Administrator Gregory Fahrenbach said. “We’re going to have to be certain that everyone understands what’s in-place.”

Resident Anna Daily complained that garbage-collectors “just throw the cans any way they want to, and the tops are broken.” She asked if the city would provide garbage-cans to residents.

But resident Stanley Surokowski disagreed, saying, “A garbage-can costs $15, and they (residents) should be forced to buy them. We’re not Big Mommy or Big Daddy.”

“For a town this size, I can’t believe the amount of garbage,” resident Orlando Perez said. “You have a money-crisis because of garbage.”

Lisa Nanton, who has been active for years with the Royal Garden Club by the Bay, suggested that household waste be picked-up separately and taken to a “city compost-pile.”

“We’ll look-into that,” Fahrenbach said.

“The worst thing that ever happened was Glad black-plastic bags,” resident Alan Silber declared.

At a Special Meeting of the Council which was held at the Training Room at Fire Department Headquarters, New Brunswick Avenue, in late July, Public Works Director Paul Wnek joked about Perth Amboy’s garbage-trucks arriving at the Edgeboro Landfill, East Brunswick, and their drivers being asked, “How-many cities are you collecting?”

Wnek showed officials photographs of massive apartment-complex collections, many of the city’s 300 street-baskets overflowing less than one hour after they were emptied, various bulk-item collections, and opened bags displaying construction-material being thrown-out as trash.

“We have around 58 full-time employees daily out of a total of 72, and we’re getting a lot of work done,” he said. “But one of the changes we really-need is to require a list of what’s on a ‘special pickup’ so we don’t get the neighbors piling their stuff on-top-of that.”

Wnek said he believes that “some absentee-landlords with properties in other cities are bringing-in stuff at-night from properties they own in other cities where they’d have to pay.”

Some pickups involve “a half-a-block of plastic bags piled six- to eight-feet-tall,” he said. “It’s just-not-normal what’s out-there.”

Wnek said the average Perth Amboy home generates “2,000 pounds of garbage and 750 pounds of recyclables” when it should be in reverse-order.

Among the Amendments are changes in definitions and placement, a new requirement to containerize sweepings, a mandatory 10-day deadline for removal of rubbish and refuse, and return of garbage-cans to storage-areas by 8 p.m. of the pickup day.

Also, the collection of bulk-items through a fee system that imposes a flat fee for four items in any one pickup, using color-coded stickers to identify different types of items, with charges depending-upon collection-costs involved.

Also, limits of the number of “special collections” per year per address, with one yearly citywide amnesty or FREE day, to be called “Citizens Cleanup Day.”