Dive Brief:
- Residents in Hillsdale, New Jersey are up in arms about their community trash collection service because garbage is only picked up once per week.
- Pick-up was changed in September 2012 from twice weekly to once per week in order to reduce costs, but many households don't approve of trash accumulating in bins for longer than a few days.
- Mayor Mark Arnowitz surmised the only place to find extra money to increase the frequency of services is in the personnel budget while a Borough Administrator suggested simply adjusting the schedule to Wednesday instead of Fridays.
Dive Insight:
New Jersey has a cap on taxes, so the additional $50,000 to $100,000 it would cost to implement bi-weekly collection must come from somewhere else. Mayor Arnowitz said "We have people coming up here complaining their taxes are too high, but the same people also say 'I want two day a week garbage and I want more police.'"
