ARTICLE 26
COLLECTION, TRANSPORTATION AND DISPOSAL OF
SOLID WASTE INCLUDING GARBAGE
SECTION 1. Purpose.
Having voted to close the town's landfill effective May 1, 1985, and having authorized the Selectmen (Board of Health) to enter into a long‑term contract with SEMASS for the delivery to and disposal of solid waste, including garbage, at a solid waste disposal facility to be constructed, operated and owned by SEMASS in Rochester, Massachusetts; and recognizing that solid waste, particularly garbage, "is widely regarded as an actual and potential source of disease or detriment to the public good" and that, therefore, a "municipality, acting for the common good of all, (may)...either take over itself or confine to a single person (firm) or corporation the collection, transportation...and final disposition of a commodity which so easily may become a nuisance (with the result that) private interests must yield to that which is established for the general benefit of all;" it is the purpose of this By‑Law to:
1. Define the public's responsibility.
2. Authorize the Selectmen to publicly let a contract to a single contractor for the collection and delivery of solid waste to an approved sanitary landfill outside the geographical limits of Sharon until SEMASS's solid waste disposal facility is constructed and in operation (presently estimated sometime between March 1, 1986 and September 1, 1989) and thereafter to a solid waste disposal facility or transfer station for retransfer to such a facility, operated and owned by SEMASS.
3. Insure the service provided the public is safe, economical and comprehensive.
4. Insure that the charges to the public are just, fair, reasonable and adequate to provide necessary public service.
SECTION 2. Definitions.
For the purposes hereof, the term "solid waste" shall mean:
a) Mixed household and municipal solid waste, including garbage, which is normally produced by residences, schools, and offices within municipal buildings and which is picked up from the solid waste stream by standard packer‑type refuse trucks from within the community (but which need not be obtained from the community), including leaves, twigs, grass, plant cuttings, branches and tree trunks of less than two feet in diameter.
b) Solid waste shall not include mining or agricultural waste, hazardous wastes (except any insignificant quantities of such waste as are customarily found in household and municipal office waste and which, separately or when aggregated with all of the waste delivered by the community, do not satisfy the definition of "hazardous waste" contained in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 and the regulations thereunder) as defined by any federal, state or local law, as each may from time to time be amended, sewage sludge, other sludge (including septage) or slurry, liquid chemical wastes, non‑putrescible construction or demolition debris, or explosive, corrosive or radioactive materials.
Excluded from the definition of solid waste are items of a size, durability or composition that are not acceptable at the sanitary landfill, at which the contractor engaged by the town shall, until SEMASS' solid waste disposal facility shall become operational, deliver solid waste collected in the town or which cannot be processed by SEMASS' solid waste disposal facility when operational or which may materially impair SEMASS' structures or equipment. Examples of such items which cannot be processed by SEMASS' facility are solid blocks of rubber or plastic greater than two cubic feet in volume, rolls or carpet or furnishing over twelve inches in diameter, steel or nylon rope, chains, cables or slings more than four feet long, thick‑walled or solid metal objects such as castings, forgings, gas cylinders or large motors, tied or unbroken bales of paper, cardboard or cloth, and tree stumps.
SECTION 3. Exclusive Contract or License; Public Bids.
A. The Selectmen are authorized to engage a single contractor to collect, transport and dispose of solid waste.
B. No contract or license for the collection, transportation or disposal of solid waste, except in cases of special emergency involving the health or safety of the people or their property, shall be awarded unless such proposals for the same have been invited by advertisement in at least one newspaper published in the town, such publication to be at least one week before the time specified for the opening of said proposals. Said advertisement shall state the time and place for opening the proposals in answer to said advertisement, and shall reserve to the town the right to reject any or all such proposals. All such proposals shall be opened in public. Such a contract shall be for a period not exceeding five years unless the disposal is in a sanitary landfill or in any other sanitary manner approved by the Department of Environmental Quality Engineering, in which case the contract may be for a period not exceeding twenty years, provided that such contract has been authorized by a majority vote of a town meeting and the terms thereof have been approved as reasonable by the Emergency Finance Board.
SECTION 4. Provisions of Contract.
A. Every contractor, engaged by the town to pick up solid waste within the town and deliver the same directly to a sanitary landfill outside the geographical limits of the town until SEMASS's solid waste disposal facility is constructed and operational, and thereafter to SEMASS's solid waste disposal facility, or, at the town's option, to SEMASS's transfer station for retransfer to SEMASS's solid waste disposal facility shall agree to charge fees approved in advance by the Selectmen.
B. The contract, which the contractor shall sign, shall provide that such fees shall, in the aggregate, be sufficient (but no more than enough) to cover:
1. All fees paid by the contractor either to the operator of the sanitary landfill or to SEMASS for the solid waste accepted for disposal in the said land fill or in the solid waste disposal facility, as the case may be;
2. The contractor's direct costs for collecting, transferring and disposal of the solid waste;
3. A reasonable amount for the contractor's indirect costs and overhead;
4. A reasonable profit.
5. The cost of a hazardous waste collection program.
C. The contract shall also provide that once SEMASS's solid waste facility becomes operational, the contractor shall provide the town with a surety company performance bond, in a form and in an amount satisfactory to town counsel, securing the performance of all of the contractor's obligations to the town.
SECTION 5. The Public's Responsibility
A. No solid waste can or container, other than a stationary dumpster, shall exceed either sixty pounds gross loaded weight or thirty‑two gallons in size.
B. Each can, container or stationary dumpster shall be made of a rigid material and shall have a cover capable of being securely attached.
C. Each cover shall always be securely attached, except when solid waste is being deposited in the can, container, or dumpster.
D. Plastic bags shall be securely tied and contain no garbage unless the bags containing garbage are placed in an appropriate can, container or dumpster.
E. Each can, container or bag shall be left at the front of the lot, adjacent to, but not on the sidewalk, if any, or if there is no sidewalk in front of the building, adjacent to, but not on, the pavement of the street, not before 12 noon on the day before the scheduled collection and by no later than 7:00 A.M. of the day on which collections for the building on the lot are scheduled.
F. No stationary dumpster shall exceed the safe loading design limit or operational limit of the vehicle provided by the contractor for serving the building. Each stationary dumpster shall be situated on the lot in a place easily accessible to the contractor's vehicles.
G. The Selectmen may waive any fee whenever in their opinion it is, in a particular instance, in the public interest so to do.
SECTION 6. The Owners' Responsibility and Rights; Liens
The owner of each building from which solid waste is collected shall be responsible for the prompt payment of all fees charged by the contractor for the collection of solid waste from that building.
SECTION 7. Penalties
The penalty for violation of this article shall be as follows:
for the first offense, $50.00; for the second offense, $100.00; and for each subsequent offense, $200.00.
SECTION 8. Severability
The invalidity, unconstitutionality or unenforceability of any section, subsection or provision of this article shall not affect or impair any other section, subsection or provision.
SECTION 9. Tipping Fee Escrow Fund.
The Selectmen are authorized to establish a fund to be known as the Tipping Fee escrow Fund. The contractor shall be directed to regularly deposit into this fund, on at least a monthly basis or as otherwise specified by the Town, the amounts due under the contract for defraying the cost of SEMASS tipping fees and household hazardous waste collection. The Town, through the Department of Public Works, shall use the monies in this fund to pay tipping fees due to SEMASS and to pay for the cost of household hazardous waste collections. In the event that Town‑sponsored recycling programs reduce the amounts of solid waste disposed of at SEMASS, the Selectmen may authorize the expenditure of amounts not needed for tipping fees or household hazardous waste collection to defray the costs of Town sponsored recycling efforts or Town beautification projects. In no case shall the amount expended for these purposes exceed the tipping fee times the number of tons of solid waste that has been certified as recycled according to the SEMASS master agreement.