Middletown Approves $24.3 Million Waste Contract, Keeps Manual Collection

Middletown is sticking with manual trash collection.

After two weeks of near-constant talk on social media and around neighborhoods, the Middletown Board of Supervisors voted to rehire Waste Management for waste collection for 2020 to 2024 for a price of $24.3 million.

The new contract will maintain twice-weekly trash collection and once-a-week recycle pick up. Yard waste will be collected from April 1 to January 31.

The cost will be spread out at $401 per household per a year. It marks a $61 increase over the current rate.

Waste Management’s bid came in below one submitted by J.P. Mascaro and Sons.

Lisa Berkis, the township’s special projects manager, said earlier this month that the rate increase was due to new regulation for trash haulers and because the market for recycling items has collapsed in recent years.

The new deal has Waste Management operating a dedicated phone number and customer service team assigned to handle calls and complaints from Middletown residents. Under the existing deal, the township staff has had to act as an intermediary between upset residents and Waste Management.

In summer, township officials said multiple township officials had to take time from their regular duties to deal with trash-related issues, especially around the holiday season.

The township’s proposal to consider switching from manual trash collection to automated was met with push back.

Each household would have received a 96-gallon wheeled trash and recycling tote that can hold six to eight trash bags. Instead of employees working on the back of the truck, a driver would operate an arm that would pick up the can and dump it. The idea is that it would be quicker and safer.

“No one is losing their job. We have other work for them,” a Waste Management official told the Supervisors earlier this month of crews who work on the back of trash trucks. 

However, township officials said they heard from hundreds of residents offering feedback leading up to Monday evening’s decision. 

“The majority wanted to stay with the manual,” Supervisor Chairman Tom Totsi said.

Other supervisors said they heard a lot of feedback in-person and on social media. The majority of the feedback was to keep manual pick up.

Totsi said he though automated collection, which would have saved $2 per household each year, would have been the better option, but he listened to the residents.