Allentown, city Environmental Advisory Council partner for city-wide trash container survey

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — As the city’s Environmental Advisory Council has argued before, the city’s litter problem mostly likely stems from lack of containers — they just have to prove it.

During Monday’s city Environmental Advisory Council meeting, members and city officials planned to launch a trash survey, focused on containers, as well as discussed a possible pilot program.

Brett Stout, the city manager of recycling and solid waste, said trash bags break because they’re often thrown to the curb already ripped or too heavy.

Animals, as well as high winds, can cause issues, too, Stout said.

“In my opinion, the litter issues that we have are based on how people place out their trash,” he said. “I would not be able to truthfully back it up with any kind of data unless we ran a pilot test.

"But if there was containerization, you are going to see a significant decline in litter almost instantly.”

'Skewed our results a little bit'

City Council in October approved a new trash contract with J.P. Mascaro & Sons, which began June 1. It will cost the city $16.3 million for the first year.

Ahead of the new contract, city officials launched a survey to collect residents’ experiences with its trash and recycling services.

The survey found a majority of residents — 62% of respondents — expressed support for requiring trash to be both bagged and containerized.

During last month’s EAC meeting, members discussed recommending residents be mandated to use containers, based on that finding.

However, there’s more to the results, city Recycling Education Manager Jessica Armbruster said.

Many of the respondents were from the 18104 ZIP code, the city’s West End neighborhood, and an area with many single-family homes, she said.

"That probably skewed our results a little bit, but majority of the residents were in support of requiring trash to be placed out in containers," Armbruster said

"And then there was also strong support for, if we did have to go to containerization, the possibility that we would have to let residents keep their trash bins out front."

“Given the bias on where a majority of our respondents were from, I’m not sure the same could be said if we ran the survey again and really focused on different parts of the city."

Those in favor said containerization would be helpful to combat litter, and wheeled containers would be needed for seniors, she said.

Those opposed cited street parking as an obstacle for haulers picking up from containers, as well as the aesthetics of cans kept out front of homes if there’s no other place to store them.

Another survey — capturing responses from Center City, the East Side, South Side and the West End, focused on containers — would be beneficial, Stout said.

"I think that getting a pool of surveys back from all four quadrants would be very beneficial on our end, because it will give us a little bit of guidance or understanding about what people want in all areas and not just, not just the West End itself," she said.

"It's not really feasible or practical for us to do something in one area of the city and not do it in all."

‘All areas of the city’

Stout and Armbruster offered to help members come up with questions, but the EAC would drive the effort.

Members discussed survey questions such as "Would you support a requirement for a container?" or "Would you support an ordinance that does not require a container, but where people are encouraged to put trash into containers?"

Requiring containers would not impact the new contract, Stout confirmed. And, as the ordinance is currently written, containers are required to store trash outside between collections.

City Councilman Santo Napoli asked who would pay for new containers.

"I think residents are gonna be all for this, and then you're gonna say, 'Well, you have to buy a bin,'" Napoli said. "And they're going to be, like, 'Well, I don't want to buy a bin. So, now I'm not all for it.'"

If the city couldn’t pay for them, the EAC would seek grants or sponsorships, Tinku Khanwalkar, EAC co-chair, said.

If the survey goes well, and a pilot is launched, Stout said he could support the effort by completing a litter assessment before, during and after “just to show that it has made a difference.”

EAC Chairman Kyle Ropski said the council has "a good sense of the marching orders.”

“The first step in that process is definitely going to be to get a more robust survey,” Ropski said. “We have to cover all areas of the city.”

Editor’s Note: Tinku Khanwalkar, who is quoted in this report as co-chair of the Allentown Environmental Advisory Council, also serves on the board of directors of Lehigh Valley Public Media, the parent organization of LehighValleyNews.com. Her involvement with the board had no influence on the reporting or editorial decisions related to this story.