Twice-Weekly Trash Pickup Returns

This week, residents can expect to have their trash bags picked up twice, for the first time since last September.

The township posted the following notice on its website:

Starting April 1, 2012 the Township residential curbside garbage pick-up will return to two times per week and continue as such through September 30, 2012. Residential curbside garbage pick-up will resume to once a week starting October 1, 2012 through March 31 2013. This same schedule will continue for 2013.

The revised schedule was as part of township budget proceedings. According to township administrator Brian Campion, the 2012 proposed township budget advised the town to switch from Suburban Disposal, Inc. to a different waste removal company, which would save the township about $20,000. The mayor and administrator proposed using the savings to pay for the additional two months of more frequent pickup. The cost to the township for the increase would be negligible, Campion said. The overall cost for trash removal would go from about $775K last year to about $776K this year, he said.

According to Mayor Bill Laforet, the additional pickups were proposed as a response to public demand. “It’s not about the volume of trash, it’s about the smell during the so-called ‘stinky months,’” he said when the tentatively approved the switch in February.