East Brunswick Mayor Addresses Issues With Waste, Recycling Pick-Up

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — With many East Brunswick residents still having issues over waste and recycling pick-up, the Mayor addressed the matter in a recent letter to the community.

Mayor Brad Cohen admitted that the situation gets especially worse during hot, sweltering days, on holidays and when the Municipality changes the pick-up schedule from once per week to twice a week.

Cohen informed residents that there was a massive “consolidation in the refuse industry” which leaves very few companies who want to bid for municipal contracts.

In such a scenario, opting for commercial and industrial contracts is less of a hassle. In fact, many neighboring towns have had to eliminate this service and have opted for residents to hire their own private haulers, Cohen said.

“Besides being expensive, this means that there are many different haulers coming to pick up solid waste on all different days and times during the week. Many will not provide bulk pick-up and if they do – there are additional charges,” he said.

Over the past 10 years, East Brunswick has had two five-year contracts. During that time, the contractor’s company was absorbed by a larger company two times, Cohen said.

During both bidding periods, only one company responded.

Add to that, many companies are facing a worker shortage. In the past 12-18 months, the current hauler has had to deal with the issue of decreasing staff.

“There simply are not enough people to fill the roles of refuse haulers. Men have walked off the jobs in inclement weather, many fail to show up for work, many inform their superiors that they have completed routes only to find out later that there were areas that were missed, several have been hurt or suffered from heat exhaustion while working, and there is simply no one to replace these lost workers,” Cohen said.

“It is difficult to send out alerts to residents if the management was under the impression that routes were all serviced. This is not to say that all workers are irresponsible, it is a few that give the others a bad name – but this is hard job and there seems to not be enough people signing on.”

The township meanwhile has penalty clauses in their contracts for missed services. Cohen said it made sense to impose the fines at the end of the contract - December 31. But added that they couldn’t really blame the company for employee issues.

The Mayor noted that often trucks fill up well before they can finish a route. The truck then needs to wait in line at the landfill before returning to town.

“Thankfully, the landfill is in the township. However, the amount of refuse and recycling has increased over the years – especially during the pandemic and now while many folks can work from home. Home improvement projects have skyrocketed, and this all adds to the inability to finish routes,” Cohen noted.

Cohen also attributed missed pick-ups to residents failing to adhere to township rules. “Folks have put plastic bags in the recycling bins, had overweight garbage, put out more cans than are allowed, put out items that are clearly not picked up by the hauler, put solid waste or recycling out on the wrong days (especially around holidays), etc. We will not hold the hauler responsible for those that do not follow the rules,” he said. Recycling and waste pick-up rules can be found the township webpage or on paper in the Recycling Center and DPW Department office.

Cohen told residents that municipalities have faced 50-100 percent increases in solid waste and refuse contracts in the last year.

Such is the issue that the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and the New Jersey Legislature have allowed towns to consider these costs as outside of the 2 percent property tax cap.

“Like healthcare, pensions, and interest rates, it is now recognized that these costs are outside of the control of local governments. As such, townships are allowed to raise property taxes above the 2 percent cap if this is one of the reasons. Since taking office, municipal property tax increases have averaged under 1 percent per year-this could easily change that,” Cohen said.

The administration is considering the following steps to tackle the problem:

• The bid documents for a new contract, effective January 1, 2024, have been made public and bids are due back in the next month.
• The bid package will ask haulers to bid on an all year once per week and/or twice per week solid waste pick-up schedule. We will need to evaluate the cost differential.
• The hauler will need to switch to one arm automated garbage trucks. This will cut down on the number of workers needed- the number one reason for missed pick-ups.
• The township will replace all receptacles with the much larger cans.
• Loose leaf pick-up will be eliminated, but bagged leaf pick-ups will continue. Loose leaf pick-up is too difficult as there are limited staff for this function and leaves generally all fall at the same time throughout the township. Additionally, loose leaves narrow the roads, cause automobile accidents, and have been associated with collisions between cars and people (especially children).
• Bulk pick-up will continue, but residents will be asked to call and schedule such pick-ups. This allows for better determination of trucking needs and reduces the likelihood that a truck will fill before finishing a route.
• The Township Administration is considering taking this function in-house. They are looking at the costs, logistics, and sustainability of providing this service on our own. This service will however be very expensive. “However, if we must face the same cost increases in a new contract, we must be ready to have an alternative,” Cohen said.