A town that cares as much about the environment as Barrington does should have thought twice before approving the production/creation/distribution of more than 12,000 extremely large plastic trash and recycling carts. 

The battle over a synthetic turf field at Barrington High School (or any other location in town) lasted years — literally years. But the decision to switch from manual trash and recycling collection to an automated service (and the subsequent need to deploy 12,000 new, 95-gallon trash and recycling carts) lasted just a few hours. The Barrington Town Council opened the discussion at one meeting earlier this spring and then voted unanimously in favor of the change at the next meeting. Residents hardly had time to digest the information before it was too late to suggest a change or alternative. 

Here is the trade-off: The automated option was about $190,000 cheaper than staying with the manual labor refuse and recycling pick-up service. Mega Disposal, which currently handles all trash and recycling collection in Barrington, was the only company to bid on the services. Mega submitted a two-part bid: the automated collection option was for $1,497,190, while the man-powered option was for $1,689,212.

(Insert conspiracy theory here: Keep watch to see if the Mega bid was a deliberately low “honeymoon rate,” designed to entice the switch, thus helping the private company reduce its labor force in favor of machines, to then escalate the rates in future years, after the town has made the transition.)

Members of the Barrington Town Council offered a variety of reasons for supporting the change back in April: It was less expensive; Mega promised to offer laborers impacted an opportunity to work in a different town or be trained as a truck driver; the new trash cart lids will stop trash and recycling from getting blown out of the bins; better worker safety for Mega employees; and the general, inevitable shift toward automation. 

But very little discussion focused on the amount of new plastic created by the shift in collection services. Why? It’s hard to imagine that a town which battled so fiercely against plastic in one area would go silent over plastic in another. 

In addition to the creation of the new 95-gallon trash and recycling carts, some residents also face this question: What do I do with the old bins and barrels? The town has an answer for that. Detailed in this week’s front page article is Barrington’s plan — starting on the week of June 29, a large container will be provided at the Barrington Recycling Center for residents who want to discard their old recycling bins; town officials are encouraging residents to reuse their old trash and recycling cans for lawn waste or other purposes, but the town will also be accepting the old ones from Aug. 17 through Sept. 18 at the recycling center.