A plan to charge residents for trash by the bag—and sell those bags—could provide a solution to the Village of Cobleskill’s ongoing garbage pickup problems.
Codes Enforcement Officer Mike Piccolo, who’s in charge of enforcing the new Vet’s Disposal regulations on what will and won’t be picked up curbside, was the first to float the “bag” idea; last Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Sandy MacKay made it formal and the rest of the board agreed it was worth looking into.
“Currently, we have a system for dealing with the collection and disposal of garbage that makes no one happy,” Mr. MacKay said.
“Perhaps we need to rethink our garbage system entirely.”
Under Mr. MacKay’s proposal, residents would pay for 30-gallon garbage bags from the village or retailers in a distinctive color and clearly marked “Village of Cobleskill.”
The bags would be priced to cover the cost of the bag as well as the cost of its pickup and disposal, Mr. MacKay said.
At first, that cost would probably be just an estimate from the total tonnage now collected and it may have to be adjusted a few times to find the right price.
“This may take a little time, but we should be able to reach a point fairly quickly where the bag price becomes set,” Mr. MacKay said.
Mr. MacKay said the beauty of the per-bag idea is that people would pay for as much—or as little—garbage as they produce.
Plus, he said, once it’s in place, the bag system “would remove the cost of garbage collection from our village tax bill.”
Mr. MacKay said his proposal also calls for a return to the monthly collection of recyclables at no charge—something he believes would encourage recycling.
Also, he’s suggesting that during the fall, the village could add a separate leaf pickup with the leaves either burned or composted on village property.
The rest of the village board was receptive into exploring Mr. MacKay’s proposal and delayed adopting a new local law regulating trash collection to look into it.
Instead, Mayor Mike Sellers and trustees agreed to set up a committee to study the plan with the hopes of acting on it by January.