Point-Brick Trash Deal Officially Dead; No Negotiations Ongoing With Other Towns

Point Boro has chosen its trash and recycling hauler for the next year, and it is not Brick Township.

In a move that is expected to save Point Pleasant roughly $566,000 next year, that town's borough council voted Tuesday night to approve trash and recycling pick-up contracts with private contractors, Suburban Disposal and Meadowbrook.

Originally, the borough had considered using its own public works crews to collect trash and recycling, but after further analysis, that appeared to not be cost-effective. The borough had also from Brick to do the job.

However, after the bids came back to the borough last month, it appeared that they were lower than Brick's offer, considering that Brick was not including bulk pick-up or trash pick-up at local condominiums, officials said.

"Unfortunately, politics got into it, and it went down that road," Brick Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said, when asked to comment on the demise of the deal.

Acropolis said that there are no ongoing discussions with other towns on deals which would see Brick picking up neighboring communities' trash and recycling. He said many neighboring towns have switched to private haulers, and Brick officials would continue to be on the lookout for potential deals.

"There are fewer and fewer towns that are picking up garbage," Acropolis said. "We're obviously always looking for shared services agreements with other municipalities."

As for the Point Boro deal: "If they got a good price, they got a good price," said Acropolis. "I'd like to think that the ongoing talks with Brick led to them getting some very, very good prices. I'd say that had a little bit to do with them getting good prices."

At one point, Brick officials had said that a deal with Point Boro could coincide with Brick's purchase of "robo-cans" and trucks to automate Brick's recycling pickup, with displaced workers being deployed next door to Point. But that has been held up, as well, since the Brick township council a bond measure this week that would have provided funding for the purchase of the robo-cans for recycling.