WESTBOROUGH – The town has started to seek alternatives on ways to dispose of its trash and recycling now that E.L. Harvey has decided to shut down public access to the transfer station in June 2024.
Currently, residents with dump stickers have access to E.L. Harvey’s trash and disposal facility on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
According to the Town Manager’s Report for January, Town Manager Kristi Williams and Board of Health Chair Alan Ehrlich met with Ben Harvey of E.L. Harvey/Waste Connections on Jan. 11. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Board of Health’s contract with Waste Connections and also to bring some questions forward from the Waste Management Exploratory Committee.
“During this meeting, we were informed by Mr. Harvey that Waste Connections does not intend to continue operating a transfer station after June 30, 2024,” according to the report.
For fiscal 2023, the new rate for waste disposal will be $85 per ton, the rate for fiscal 2022 was $50 per ton.
Ehrlich said that Waste Connections planned to close the facility for several reasons. There are much-needed upgrades to the area, and the cost was felt to be too much to be worthwhile. Additionally, there have been liability concerns with having people driving in and out of an area that is busy with trucks and other commercial vehicles.
Ehrlich also said there have been incidents of harassment of the staff at the transfer station. At times, police details have been necessary, and again, the company feels this is too great a liability to be endured indefinitely, he said.
“The date of July 1, 2024, was intended to give the Town of Westborough sufficient time to develop alternative options,” he added.
Town staff and members of the exploratory committee “will investigate other avenues to dispose of our waste moving forward,” according to the Town Manager’s report.
The committee includes Sustainable Westborough’s Nathan Askew, Select Board member Shelby Marshall and the Board of Health.
“There will be community engagement as part of the decision making, and Sustainable Westborough will support that outreach,” said Peter Dunbeck of Sustainable Westborough.
The committee plans to have an article before Town Meeting in October.
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