A new Solid Waste and Recycling Equipment sinking fund has been approved to support Branford’s transition from its current curbside trash and multi-stream recycling collection services, to the type of automated solid waste and single-stream recycling collection employed by most towns statewide. A target date of July 1, 2023 has been set for the Town to have a hauler contracted to begin the new service.

The new fund is there to provide for the purchase of 64- or 96-gallon solid waste and and single-stream recycling containers for the entire town (container size to be determined by the contractor selected for the service). There are currently 8,295 collection stops in Branford. The new program would provide 2 containers, one for solid waste and one for single-stream recycling, for each stop. The containers will be owned by the Town and marked with the Town seal.

With support from the Board of Finance (BOF) on January 30, followed by a final vote of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) on February 8, monies were approved to create the sinking fund. The fund will be established with $925,000 from Branford’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, together with approved Town budget transfers totaling $423,101 ($323,101 from capital budget transfer station improvements and $100,000 from general fund).

Much of the work to deliver Branford’s new curbside hauling program was undertaken by members of Branford’s Solid Waste Management Commission. Led by chair Paul Muniz, the commission’s research included a study, meeting with several firms to assess the current program and learn about alternatives, and drafting Request for Proposal (RFP) details for contractor curbside collection and disposal of municipal solid waste and recycling. The commission unanimously approved a final RFP draft at its November 9, 2022 meeting, according to minutes of the meeting.

The Need to Change

Due to rise of the successful automated pickup and same-day trash and single-stream recycling collection services, Branford’s new program will attract more bidders and curb rising costs tied to multi-stream recycling of collected materials. The Town’s current, shared-risk contract for its recycling collection means Branford pays more when the market is unfavorable. With the new program, the cost for recycling will be adjusted to a fixed-rated agreement with the contractor selected.

While Branford has benefited, in terms of recycling, through its multi-stream collection efforts (separating paper, cardboard, cans, glass, plastics etc.), the industry and markets have shifted, creating greater costs to the Town. The dilemma was described during a brief overview of upcoming Town projects provided by First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove to the BOF at its November 28, 2022 meeting,

“As you are fully aware through the budget process, the cost of handling our municipal recycling and solid waste has been volatile throughout the years, and escalating every year,” said Cosgrove.

An industry-wide change in practices is also resulting in a dearth of contractors still providing Branford’s current collection services, he added.

“We’re not finding contractors that will collect and want to collect,” Cosgrove said, noting Branford’s most recent request for bids for trash hauling received only one bidder, and just 2 bids for recycling hauling.

“It's labor intensive. It's capital intensive. To get that type of truck you need to do that type of collection is not as readily available as the single-stream type trucks,” said Cosgrove. “That's curbside collection. When it comes to the disposal end, a lot of our recycling is just what they would consider contaminated. It’s difficult to maintain a clean, segregated recycling stream.”

Additionally, facilities processing collected materials are making investments geared toward handling single-stream recycling.

“We're not going to be able to bring our paper or cans to a facility that handles that, and have the level of quality they would be looking for. It’s not a large enough market for them,” said Cosgrove. “So we're going to be transitioning to single-stream.”

Cosgrove also noted the Solid Waste Commission had drafted an RFP to solicit for proposals for the Town’s July 1, 2023 contract date for curbside collection and disposal of municipal solid waste and recycling.

The November 28, 2022 Branford Board of Finance meeting was video taped and live-streamed by BCTV and can be viewed at BCTV on Facebook.