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Drafted, Updated, and Modernized

The Hartford based trash to energy plant currently disposing of Old Saybrook’s municipal waste will be officially shut down June 30, 2022. This closure means we will need to pay to transport our waste from the transfer station to other plants or landfills. The cost of disposal will exceed $103 per ton, up from $63 just a few years ago. This fee is in addition to the cost of operating the Transfer Station.

The Old Saybrook Waste and Recycling Task Force established by the Selectman’s Office has been meeting monthly to develop methods to divert waste and reduce costs. One new method is food scrap recycling, allowing residents to dispose of their food scraps in special barrels at the transfer station. This method hopes to divert at least 20 percent of the town’s disposal tonnage by transferring scraps to pig farms or combining them with soils to create fertilizers. This method is becoming popular and continues to grow weekly.

A new paint recycling method allows residents to dispose of unused paint in designated bins at the transfer station. The paint is recycled via Paint Care at no cost to the town and no longer included in our mainstream waste, resulting in lower disposal costs.

Our Board of Selectmen has drafted, updated, and modernized the town ordinance governing the Transfer Station (which sits on an aquifer!). The primary change will limit its use to residential vehicles—cars, pickup trucks, and single-axle trailers—and eliminating the constant truck traffic with their massive loads.

On Tuesday, July 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Old Saybrook Middle School, the ordinance change will be presented for town approval. I encourage all residents to attend and support this change enabling the town to control our disposal costs while being good stewards of our environment.

Barry O’Nell

Old Saybrook

Barry O’Nell (D) serves on the Board of Finance.