New Trash Pickup Service Saving Borough 32K Yearly

Tuesday, commissioners voted to adopt a resolution enlisting a new trash pickup service, which will reportedly save the borough $32,000 annually.

According to Commissioner Mike Hall, the borough recently went out to bid for trash pickup services, and after receiving multiple bids, ultimately awarded the contract to South Jersey Sanitation.

"We (went) out to bid for our trash pickup, and received bids last week," said Hall of the process. "South Jersey Sanitation was the successful bidder."

The meeting, which was held in Tuesday morning at 10 a.m., was led by Hall.

Hall and Commissioner Joan Leonard voted in favor of the resolution. Mayor James Maley was absent from the meeting.

This past October, commissioners finalized a plan to join an 8-town trash disposal collective—along with Merchantville, Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Haddon Township, Gibbsboro, Somerdale and Winslow.

In a fashion similar to Tuesday's resolution, the multi-town disposal partnership will yield financial benefits for Collingswood, reportedly saving the borough $10,000 per month, and $90,000 annually.

Read Patch's full story about the 8-town trash disposal program .

While the multi-town disposal back in October—months before Collingswood secured its new trash pickup service Tuesday morning—the mayor touched on why the borough couldn't explore collections yet.

“There are two different parts—(trash) collection and . We’re still under contract with our current collection service, South Jersey Waste, so we can’t explore collection options with other towns,” said Collingswood Mayor James Maley in October. “But I believe we’re in the last year of our collections contract, and when we get out of it, we’d certainly be interested in exploring both parts of the plan.”

And with Tuesday's resolution finalizing both facets of that plan, the borough is set to save approximately $122,000 per year using new trash disposal and collection services combined.

The new South Jersey Sanitation contract was the last piece of a puzzle that will help loosen budgetary constraints in 2012—and according to Commissioner Hall, it was worth squeezing in before the last days of 2011 came to a close.

"This (new trash pickup contract) will save us about $32,000 in next year's trash collection," said Hall Tuesday morning. "Which is a very good thing for our town and our budget."