If Special Town Meeting approves its purchase next month, Harvard’s Transfer Station will soon have a second trash compactor for the collection of paper and cardboard.
The Capital Planning and Investment Committee voted unanimously at its Monday morning meeting this week to recommend purchase of the new unit, as requested in August by Department of Public Works Director Tim Kilhart. The estimated cost of the compactor is $37,000, and committee members voted unanimously to recommend paying for it with money in the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund, which has a current balance of more than $3 million.
The volume of cardboard and paper being recycled at the dump has increased due to residents’ growing use of online shopping, Kilhart told the committee in August. By Wednesday afternoon each week, he said, the existing compactor is frequently 75 to 80 percent full and must be hauled away to make room for Saturday’s recyclers. The cost of hauling compacted paper is $275 per load, Kilhart reported. A second compactor would help DPW better manage its costs, he said, and provide additional capacity for the further increases in volume that implementation of a pay-per-bag trash policy would generate.
In making their recommendation, the five CPIC members first rated the project using their standard rating form, assigning it a favorable total score after considering such factors as urgency of the need, quality of cost estimates, useful life of the equipment, and its impact on the operating costs of the department. The Select Board must now prepare an article for the Oct. 22 Special Town Meeting authorizing the purchase.
