TOWN OF MANLIUS – Residents of the town of Manlius trash district may soon be outfitted with 95-gallon trash containers.
The town is considering entering a five-year contract for trash hauling with Syracuse Haulers, which has had the contract in the town of Manlius for the past 17 years. Syracuse Haulers was the only company to submit a bid for the service.
Syracuse Haulers presented the town with two bids, a three-year bid for traditional trash service, in which residents use their own trash cans, and a five-year bid with automated service in which residents are provided two 95-gallon trash containers – one for trash and one for recycling. The 95-gallon containers are lifted by an arm on the side of the garbage trucks, which eliminates the need for someone to manually dump the contents of a garbage can into the truck.
The labor shortage has been a significant challenge in the trash removal business, said Rocco Grosso, president of Syracuse Haulers.
The town is expected to address the issue again at its next meeting on Nov. 3. If it moves forward with the five-year contract, it will take six to eight months for Syracuse Haulers to convert to the automated service, Grosso said. Residents will receive a letter from Syracuse Haulers indicating when their new trash containers will be delivered and when automated service will begin.
“If we move forward, we’re not going to be able to automate right away anyways,” Grosso said. “Nobody has any help.”