Novel trash cans can save taxpayer money
STAMFORD — It may seem like no big deal to throw away a halfempty bottle of water.
But it becomes a big deal when many others do the same.
The leftover liquid has weight, and it adds up.
Now the city’s trash and recycling chief wants to lighten the load.
Dan Colleluori used part of a state grant to purchase 25 containers that handle solids and liquids. He put one in the Stamford Government Center cafeteria and plans to put one in the cafeteria of each public school.
His hope is that city employees, government center visitors, educators and students will pour the liquids they don’t want into the new containers before they toss the bottle, cup or can.
“Removing liquid waste from the garbage stream can reduce our garbage weight, and weight is how we pay to have it hauled away,” he said. “This is worth the effort.”
Stamford’s annual load of garbage comes in at 52,000 tons, and last fiscal year it cost about $3.8 million to have it trucked, Colleluori said.
The cost is rising, he said.
“It’s become more difficult to hire drivers, so they are being paid more. Our contract with the hauler goes up $2 a ton in October,” Colleluori said. “Not only that but fuel costs have gone up, and the economy is better so there is more garage.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that the amount of municipal waste increases with the amount of money American households spend on goods and services. When the economy improves, spending spikes, followed by a bump in the amount of trash municipalities generate.
“If we can get people to pour away the liquid before they throw away the bottle or can, it will help a lot,” Colleluori said.
About a year ago he got a tip from a Westhill High School graduate who once worked as an intern in his department, Colleluori said. The former student now works in the recycling field and told him about a California company called PourAway.
The company makes a container with a doughnutshaped top. The outer edge of the doughnut is a drain that flows into a onegallon reservoir, and the middle is a trash receptacle.
“When it’s time to empty it, the custodian removes the reservoir, pulls out the stopper and pours the liquid into a slop sink,” he said. “The trash is removed separately.”
Without liquids, the bags of trash custodians lift from containers are lighter, which will reduce the primary causes of worker’s compensation claims — back injuries, slips and falls, according to PourAway’s website.
“It will certainly cut back on the risk of injury,” Colleluori said.
Each PourAway container costs $175.
“It’s a minimal cost with a big potential for savings,” Colleluori said.
It’s the third time this year he has made a move to reduce garbage weight and earn revenue from recyclables, which has become more difficult.
The city in the past has earned as much as $250,000 a year from the sale of all the bottles, cans, plastic, paper and other recyclables collected at the curb each week. But last year the city began having to pay to have recyclables carted away.
The bill for the fiscal year that just ended was $700,000.
It’s because the worldwide market for recyclables is glutted and too contaminated with improper items. Companies don’t want to buy them anymore — except for corrugated cardboard.
A surge in online purchases has spurred a rise in the use of cardboard boxes. There’s a shortage, but too many consumers are not recycling them.
Late last year Colleluori learned that the city can earn $15 a ton for corrugated cardboard, so he set up a distinct dumpster for it at the Magee Avenue recycling center and called on residents to bring their delivery boxes there. He has the recycling center crew remove corrugated cardboard from other dumpsters when they spot it.
It’s starting to catch on, Colleluori said. Each month he sends 20 to 25 dumpsters full of cardboard to the contractor and earns a few thousand dollars for the city.
More recently he contracted with an Ohio company, Simple Recycling, that collects unwanted shoes, clothing and other textiles at the curb. The program, which starts July 15, is free to residents and the city.
Simple Recycling distributed pink bags in the mail for residents to fill and place beside their recycling bins on pickup day. Company drivers will pick them up and tie new pink bags to the bin handle. Simple Recycling pays the city 2 cents a pound for what it collects then sells it to partners that resell items for reuse or to be made into rags, insulation, carpet padding and other products.
The program has the potential to remove 6,000 tons of textiles from the garbage stream and save the city about $420,000 a year, Colleluori has said.
Now there will be specially designed trash receptacles in busy City Hall and school cafeterias.
“Let’s see how well people use them,” Colleluori said. “If they’re successful, we should be buying them, whether it comes out of the city budget or the school budget, it doesn’t matter.”