The transition to a new garbage collection service in the Village of Pelham will likely begin near the end of the year, with the exact timeline dependent on the delivery of the trucks the village ordered to start an in-house sanitation department.

The trucks are currently being built, according to Mayor Chance Mullen.

“For now, the tentative schedule is in late November/December we will be distributing the new toters, and then we’ll be able to launch the service in mid-January,” said Mullen in an interview with the Pelham Examiner.

Toters are specialized trash cans with lids the village will be providing to households. 

In November 2021, the village board voted to buy four diesel-garbage trucks, paving the way for village-run trash collection rather than contracting out the service.

To stay informed, Mullen suggested signing up for email updates and following the Village of Pelham Facebook page. 

There is also the new MyVOP smartphone app that allows users to apply for parking permits, pay tickets, view the calendar, make service requests, along with several other actions. The app will have a new module once the in-house garbage department is ready, allowing residents to make requests for extra pickups or file reports.  

Under the plan for garbage collection, the village will supply a single family household with three trash cans: a 64-gallon toter for household waste, one 64-gallon toter for paper/cardboard recycling, and one 32-gallon toter for mixed recyclables. The main difference between the old and new pickup arrangements will be the toters. Rear-yard collection for household garbage and curbside pickup for recycling and bulk items will remain the same.  

All the toters “have lids so it will be a much cleaner look at the street level, and then instead of taking all of that (trash) out of the can to put it into the truck, our staff will be able to roll the trash can directly to the truck,” said Mullen. “Everything that’s in the trash can will go directly into the truck” instead of taking bags out “and garbage going everywhere.”

The current system allows for a lot of waste and for recycling to be left on the street, making the new approach cleaner and more sustainable, he said.  

“I’m really excited about this because I think it will be a really important upgrade to our service—we’re going to have much cleaner streets,” Mullen said. “You only get to make this transition once.”