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People who are not authorized to use the town’s newly relocated garbage compactor in the Playhouse Lot are dumping their trash there anyway, Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the Board of Selectmen during its regular meeting last Tuesday at Town Hall.
Garbage all around the trash compactor at the Playhouse Lot. Photo published with owner’s permission
The compactor, which is intended for use by downtown merchants and businesses, was recently relocated to a newly constructed enclosure cut into the hillside below the Park Street Lot as part of a broader overhaul of the Playhouse Lot.
Mann said the issue has come to the town’s attention and that steps are being taken to address it.
A close-up of the garbage that missed the receptacle. Photo published with owner’s permission
“We are having some people that are not supposed to be using the compactor using the compactor,” Mann said. “We’re working on putting up some signage and looking at potentially putting in a camera so we can start to identify those who are using it and should not be.”
Mann said the town is also looking at whether the hours the compactor is accessible may need to be changed.
“We’re going to be limiting the hours that people can access it,” he said. “Right now it’s too easy.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson asked whether there was any sense of who was using it improperly.
Garbage all around the trash compactor at the Playhouse Lot. Photo published with owner’s permission
“Is it residents just dumping household garbage?” she asked.
Mann said the town believes it is a mix of people.
“It’s a combination,” he said. “Some of it looks like it could be household garbage and some of it could be business-related.”
Carlson said she hoped the signage and camera would help deter the behavior.
“Once people know there’s a camera, hopefully that changes the behavior,” she said.
The compactor’s new location is part of a town initiative to move delivery traffic off Elm Street by giving merchants a centralized waste facility accessible from the renovated alley between The Playhouse and Le Pain Quotidien. A new accessible ramp, also useful for deliveries, has been installed where the compactor used to be located.