Local News

Talking trash: Local haulers keep Central Vermont tidy

By Peter Cobb
Correspondent
BARRE — You may not use them but you have seen their trucks, trailers and welcome signs at dozens of locations statewide, the weekend trash haulers who set up shop in parking lots behind banks, next to auto collision shops and at abandoned gas stations, just about anywhere they can park their gear.

Trash hauling is big business in Vermont, but not for most of the 355 businesses with solid waste permits. For most of them, trash hauling is their job, what they do the make a living or to earn extra money to supplement their regular jobs.

According to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s website, 457 companies — most are Vermont companies but a few are out-of-state businesses — have trash hauling permits in Vermont to haul everything from hazardous waste, to solid waste (basically household garbage), to residual waste and medical waste.

Of the total, 244 have solid waste permits only, 111 have solid waste permits plus at least one other permit and the rest (102) remove hazardous waste, medical waste or septic waste. Most of the weekend trash haulers are small operators with fewer than 10 employees, many with fewer than five and some are basically one or two person operations.

“I’m not able to tell you how many haulers in Vermont are large and how many are small, but my thought is the majority are small haulers,” said Josh Kelly, materials management section chief for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Solid Waste Program.

If Casella Waste Systems, based in Rutland, the largest waste management company in the state (with nearly 2,500 employees and with shares traded on NASDAQ stock exchange) is at one end of the trash hauling spectrum, Heather Grant, of East Montpelier, owner of Grant’s Trash Removal, is at the other end.

Grant and her two daughters, Bridget, 16, and Hailey, 13, collect 2 to 3 tons of trash on Saturday at the parking lot of an abandoned gas station in Plainfield. The weekend bag drop business adds income to her part-time job with the state and to her “clean out” business where she works with property management companies and others to remove debris from homes.

“You never know what you’re going to find. One time we found a mounted elk head and once we found cremated dog ashes,” she said.

Michael Sevigny, of Williamstown, who works Monday through Friday for the Little Debbie company, operates two trash drop-off sites on Saturday, one in downtown Barre and the other on Route 14 in South Barre.

“I do this for the extra income,” Sevigny said. His company collects about 5 tons of garbage each Saturday.

Mike Alyward, a repeat customer to the Barre City operation, said he uses the drop-off service because it is less expensive than the curbside service. Most of the drop-off sites charge $4 to $6 a bag depending on the size of the bag.

“We don’t really generate enough garbage to justify home pick-up.” Aylward said. A retired painting contractor, he lives with his wife, Agnus.

Baylen Slote, of Plainfield, uses the bag drop because he likes the “community” aspect of meeting people at the drop sight and because he doesn’t have a safe place for the big trucks to get his garbage. “I don’t really have a curb,” he said.

Vic “Tiny” Martin, who runs Tiny’s Trash Service, agrees that cost is the main draw for his customers. “No question, this is a cheaper option for them,” he said.

Martin has run his trash hauling business for the past seven years at various locations. Currently he operates from Route 14 in Barre Town. Before that he was a long-haul truck driver.

“I got tired of being on the road,” he said.

In addition to his two trailers and truck, he has a small bus that serves as an office and warming hut.

“Sometimes, it gets really cold,” he said. Martin has missed only one weekend day during the past year, a Sunday last winter when a huge snowstorm made travel impossible.

One of the biggest challenges for his business, he said, is dealing with recyclables.

“Just because it has a recyclable symbol doesn’t mean it’s recyclable in Vermont,” he said. He often gets pots and pans, which are not recyclable “We are not a scrap yard.” Two of the most frequent problems are styrofoam and materials larger that 16 inches. “There is a size limit — most people don’t know that,” he said.

Grant, who has been in the business since she was kid working with her dad, enjoys the work but said the “twisting and turning” required to throw the bags into the trailer has taken a toll.

“I’m going to have hip surgery this winter in Boston,” she said.

Another challenge is the dumping costs. According to Martin, his company currently pays $155 per ton for solid waste and $118 per ton for recyclable materials.

“I’ve had rate increases for my company for seven years in a row, and I didn’t raise my rates, but I had to this year,” he said.

Vermont produced 413,517 tons of waste in 2016. The goal is to reduce that total to 306,772 tons in five years.

According to Charles Schwer, director of the state’s Waste Management Division, this will be achieved through implementation of the state’s recycling law and a variety of new and existing efforts designed to educate consumers in the proper management of waste.

The state met its reduction target for 2018, Schwer said, but has seen an increase in tonnage this year. “The good news is the increase is because of more business in the state, but the bad news is we have more to do,” he said.

Despite the 2019 setback, the state is committed to the 306,772 tons target, he said.

All commercial haulers operating in Vermont are required to obtain a waste transportation permit from the state as well as a permit from the waste district in their region.

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