Camden's Pilot Program Involving Toter Cans on Hold

CAMDEN – City administrators and elected officials will have to wait to assess the potential of collecting residents' garbage via toter cans.

On July 10, the city public works director and the mayor announced a six-month pilot program that would start in September for residents who live in the box created by North Dudley Street, Westfield Avenue, 36th Street and Lemuel Avenue and who place trash in the toter cans.  The director and mayor also indicated the pilot program, if adopted citywide, would partially automate the trash pickup process and potentially lower its cost.

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When a TAPinto Camden reporter asked on Tuesday, Oct. 8, how the toter can pilot program was going, Communications Director Vincent Basara said the city had not yet received the toter cans.

“It is a supply-chain issue,” Basara said. Shortages of materials and qualified workers have impacted the supply chain of materials needed to make some products, according to Business Insider. That problem was exacerbated by Hurricane Helene last month and the port strike last week, according to the Associated Press and CNBC.

TAPinto Camden has reported that Camden's longtime trash collector, Waste Management of New Jersey Inc., chose not to renew its contract with the city when it expired in September 2023, citing its inability to use an automated method described on Suburban Disposal’s website.

Camden City Council filled that void by awarding Suburban Disposal a $9.75 million contract to pick up trash and Seaside Waste Services of Hammonton a $2.28 million contract to pick up recyclables. Those contracts were well within the $13.5 million the city had allocated to trash and recycling collection expenses in 2023, but significantly higher than the $9.19 million the city allocated in 2022.

The July 9 City Council meeting agenda discussed a resolution that would authorize the purchase of 702 toter cans from Rehrig Pacific Company using $45,875 from the $17.5 million the city set aside in the 2024 budget for garbage removal, trash removal and related expenses. Rehrig Pacific Company did not immediately respond to TAPinto Camden's request for comment on the afternoon of October 8. Basara did not provide a timeline for when the toter cans might arrive.  He said city officials and administrators hoped to assess the pilot program involving toter cans based on “cost savings, efficiency and feedback from residents and other city officials and administrators."

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