Is Mahwah's Once-A-Week Trash Pick Up Schedule Inconvenient?

Residents in Mahwah have gotten used to a revised trash pick-up schedule this year. Beginning with a , trash is picked up once a week from October 1 through May 31, and twice a week during the warmer months, June 1 through September 31.

At last week’s town council meeting, Blue Ridge Lane resident Brenda Calandrillo told the council some of her concerns about limiting the pick-up to once a week. “It is a big inconvenience. A lot of people who live in condo communities don’t have room to store additional bags of trash outside, so they are piling up in our garages [while we wait] for the once a week pick-up,” she told the council last Thursday.

She also said her elderly neighbors accumulate too much garbage over a whole week to carry it to the curb.

“I don’t think there was enough consideration given to multi-family communities when this decision was made,” she said of the council’s decision to switch from the old schedule, which had twice-a-week pick up all year long.

Town Council President John Roth told Calandrillo that the decision was made as a “cost saving measure. It was a recommendation from administration at the time,” he said. According to Roth, the cut-down schedule saves the township $65-70,000 a year. He said the council has not had too many other complaints about the new schedule since twice-a-week pick up is still in effect during the “warmer months, when trash odor becomes an issue.”

The resident asked the council to consider reinstating the old schedule when reviewing the township’s 2012 budget.

So, Patch wants to know, has the new trash pick-up schedule been an inconvenience for you?