Plenty of 'trash talk' going on in Hatboro's Borough Council

There has been a lot of trash talk in Hatboro, but not in a negative way. Instead, the Borough has held recent town halls to discuss restructured rates for waste removal.

Borough officials are deciding what makes the most sense for residents moving forward, as they’ve discussed the matter for the past two years. In 2023, the Hatboro Borough Council even made a presentation to the public in order to explain the issues at hand.

Assistant Borough Secretary Deena DeRenzis prepared the slides in order to explain the discrepancy the borough had discovered after much research. The open and public conversations have been ongoing to decide on the best route for the 2025 budget, and the council has said it was to “help to educate residents on the actual costs for trash and recycling collection.”

“It was learned that commercial businesses place more trash and recycling in many instances, versus residential [consumers],” said the council’s site. “But some residential [customers] were paying just as much.”

To resolve the issue, the borough is considering a revised fee structure to better position the borough to “properly charge going forward.” To do so, the borough has been broken into four sections, mapped here.

    Image courtesy of Hatboro Borough Council
  

Each of the quadrants will have two weekly trash pick-ups, two weekly yard waste collections, and once weekly recycling. If a holiday should conflict with usual pick-up days, two weeks in a row, such as the week between Christmas and New Years, the borough will decide on special recycling days for those impacted.

Of the major concerns, the council has said that increased disposal costs from both Republic Services and Covanta have upped the costs, not to mention the fuel to run a fleet of trucks. Additionally, costs of the tolls to and from disposal sites in New Jersey continue to rise, as well.

An aging fleet of garbage trucks adds to the concerns and costs, as the fleet owned by the borough has been costing the residents more and more. In 2023, the Council estimated a new truck to cost upwards of $300,000.

    Image courtesy of Hatboro Borough Council
  

Lastly, an increase in labor costs (salary, benefits, and insurance) continue to cost more each year. The Council said that each truck needs a single driver, but two laborers, and a collection day requires around four or five trucks on the street to gather all of the refuse. The Public Works Department staff spends a better part of each week collecting trash, and that leaves additional work undone or requiring overtime.

Council estimated the costs last year to run around $13,748.07 each week to operate the program. In 2024, the cost went up to about $14,173. 60. For each household in the Borough that utilizes all services, that total breaks down to about $350.10!

While many surrounding municipalities have long-since resorted to contracting out the roles, Hatboro is one of the few in the state that handle the trash collection and disposal on its own. On Sept. 25, the Borough hosted its Town Hall to gather the feedback from area citizens.

In order for any changes in procedure or costs to hit the 2025 budget, the changes must take place in 2024 prior to the year’s end. Officials said that the meetings were well attended and provided solid feedback.

“Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend this meeting and participated in the discussion,” the Council said on its Facebook page. “We received valuable feedback from everyone who attended and will be working on drafting a new refuse ordinance in the coming months.”

The Council has asked the residents to “stay tuned” for more updates. Horsham Now will provide additional information as it is made available.