Lavallette’s Youth Hope to Shape Town’s Future Sanitation Pickup Law

A representative from IPL Global shows off his company’s tipper can (robo-can) for garbage collection, March 2023. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Like nearly every Shore community, Lavallette officials find themselves periodically debating plans to tweak the borough’s sanitation pickup policies to make the community more resistant to wind, rain and – of course – hungry gulls ready to litter the streets. Now, the next generation would like its say.

What began as a civics project for the borough’s Girl Scout troop will get some serious consideration before the town’s Ordinance Committee as soon as next month, when a group of girls will meet with council members to discuss a proposal to prohibit the use of plastic bags left on the street for collection without having been placed in a garbage can first. Under the existing ordinance, residents are not allowed to place white kitchen bags at the curb for pickup since seagulls and other birds can easily rip them open (sending litter blowing through the streets) or they can be taken by the wind. Heavy duty bags, such as contractor bags, may be used and are sometimes the go-to method for part-time homeowners and seniors who find it difficult to carry a garbage can to the street.

Balancing concerns over cleanliness with the logistics of collecting garbage from a population that swings wildly from day-to-day has long been a challenge faced by Lavallette as well as other beach towns, said Councilwoman Joanne Filippone, who chairs the borough’s ordinance committee.

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“Our procedure is to take their idea – and I have invited the girls to join – to the ordinance committee, and the council will decide what it wants to do,” said Filippone.

The Scouts’ plan would call for all trash to be placed in receptacles before pickup, and include a public education campaign with flyers reminding residents to “Put a Lid On It!” to keep Lavallette free of litter. Filippone said she was impressed with both the proposal itself and the signage that went along with the it, but even the best ideas are sometimes subject to compromise.

Lavallette has long debated how to modernize and improve trash pickup. This spring, the borough received its first new garbage trucks in many years with the option to add “tipper” arms that would utilize automated cans similar to those used in Toms River and Brick Township. Under that type of system, residents would be required to place cans out on the street before pickup and retrieve them afterward. A manufacturer of the “robo-cans,” as they are sometimes called, presented its products to the council earlier this year. In the months since, the idea to automate trash collections has waned given both the cost factor as well as concerns over how cans would be brought out and retrieved by part-time residents.

Seagulls targeting a trash can on a New Jersey beach. (Photo: Jackie/Flickr)

While automation has its supporters, Filippone said there is “no consensus” among council members on proceeding with a plan to spend about $350,000 to purchase the tippers and cans. Some of the borough’s senior citizens have also raised concern over bringing large cans out to the curb and lugging them back after collection.

“Garbage cans with a lid can be heavy, and with our senior citizen population – and I’m one of them – I’m not sure how heavy someone can lift to bring them out to the curb,” she said. “A lot of the seniors do use good quality black plastic bags and they sometimes drag them across the stones to get them out to the curb.”

An alternative would be the require the use of non-automated cans, such as the traditional plastic cans that can be purchased from hardware and big box stores. While that would solve the immediate problem of sea gulls breaking into flimsy bags and spreading trash through the streets, it has its own challenges.

“If we demand garbage cans and people are here part time, then they’re going to put the cans out on Sunday night – which is illegal to start with, but we’ll put that aside – and they’re going to be out there for days,” said Filippone. “Then you’d have the cans, which are unsightly, and if the cans are not clean inside you could have a rodent problem.”

Even if those concerns are addressed, employee safety also needs to be considered, as council members have expressed previously.

“People pack these garbage cans with heavy stuff, and we don’t want our guys trying to pick it up and breaking their backs,” said Filippone.

The many sides of sanitation pickup concerns in a resort community are not dissimilar to those shared in other Jersey Shore towns as well as beach communities in Florida and the Carolinas where shifting population trends are similar.

Trash bag. (Photo: Erich Ferdinand/Flickr)

Ultimately, Filippone said, the council may look to tighten its current ordinance and increase enforcement of the ban on low-quality kitchen bags being left at the curb. An updated ordinance may include an “insistence” on the quality of bags that can be placed on the street “perhaps with a proviso that, no matter which type of bags you use, if seagulls break in, you may be fined.”

The borough’s ordinance committee, which consists of about a dozen residents and officials, is planning its next meeting in the beginning of October and will meet with the Scouts on their plan, while kicking off a discussion on what strategy would best address the issue of litter and cleanliness amidst the unique scenario that Lavallette finds itself in as a resort community.