[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Meeting of the Town of Sharon
as Art. 10, § 21, and Art. 26 of the Town Bylaws. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
No person shall dump or deposit any refuse or waste material
upon any privately owned property in the Town without permission of
the owner of said property.
Having voted to close the Town's landfill effective May 1, 1985,
and having authorized the Select Board members (Board of Health) to
enter into a long-term contract with SEMASS for the delivery to and
disposal of solid waste, including garbage, at a solid waste disposal
facility to be constructed, operated and owned by SEMASS in Rochester,
Massachusetts; and recognizing that solid waste, particularly garbage,
"is widely regarded as an actual and potential source of disease or
detriment to the public good" and that, therefore, a "municipality,
acting for the common good of all, (may)... either take over itself
or confine to a single person (firm) or corporation the collection,
transportation...and final disposition of a commodity which so easily
may become a nuisance (with the result that) private interests must
yield to that which is established for the general benefit of all,"
it is the purpose of this bylaw to:
A.
Define the public's responsibility.
B.
Authorize the Select Board members to publicly let a contract to
a single contractor for the collection and delivery of solid waste
to an approved sanitary landfill outside the geographical limits of
Sharon until SEMASS's solid waste disposal facility is constructed
and in operation (presently estimated sometime between March 1, 1986,
and September 1, 1989) and thereafter to a solid waste disposal facility
or transfer station for retransfer to such a facility, operated and
owned by SEMASS.
C.
Ensure the service provided the public is safe, economical and comprehensive.
D.
Ensure that the charges to the public are just, fair, reasonable
and adequate to provide necessary public service.
A.
For the
purposes hereof, "solid waste":
(1)
Shall
mean mixed household and municipal solid waste, including garbage,
which is normally produced by residences, schools, and offices within
municipal buildings and which is picked up from the solid waste stream
by standard packer-type refuse trucks from within the community (but
which need not be obtained from the community), including leaves,
twigs, grass, plant cuttings, branches and tree trunks of less than
two feet in diameter.
(2)
Shall
not include mining or agricultural waste, hazardous wastes (except
any insignificant quantities of such waste as are customarily found
in household and municipal office waste and which, separately or when
aggregated with all of the waste delivered by the community, do not
satisfy the definition of "hazardous waste" contained in the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 and the regulations thereunder)
as defined by any federal, state or local law, as each may from time
to time be amended, sewage sludge, other sludge (including septage)
or slurry, liquid chemical wastes, nonputrescible construction or
demolition debris, or explosive, corrosive or radioactive materials.
B.
Excluded
from the definition of "solid waste" are items of a size, durability
or composition that are not acceptable at the sanitary landfill, at
which the contractor engaged by the Town shall, until SEMASS's solid
waste disposal facility shall become operational, deliver solid waste
collected in the Town or which cannot be processed by SEMASS's solid
waste disposal facility when operational or which may materially impair
SEMASS's structures or equipment. Examples of such items which cannot
be processed by SEMASS's facility are solid blocks of rubber or plastic
greater than two cubic feet in volume, rolls of carpet or furnishings
over 12 inches in diameter, steel or nylon rope, chains, cables or
slings more than four feet long, thick-walled or solid metal objects
such as castings, forgings, gas cylinders or large motors, tied or
unbroken bales of paper, cardboard or cloth, and tree stumps.
A.
The Select Board members are authorized to engage a single contractor
to collect, transport and dispose of solid waste.
B.
No contract or license for the collection, transportation or disposal
of solid waste, except in cases of special emergency involving the
health or safety of the people or their property, shall be awarded
unless such proposals for the same have been invited by advertisement
in at least one newspaper published in the Town, such publication
to be at least one week before the time specified for the opening
of said proposals. Said advertisement shall state the time and place
for opening the proposals in answer to said advertisement, and shall
reserve to the Town the right to reject any or all such proposals.
All such proposals shall be opened in public. Such a contract shall
be for a period not exceeding five years unless the disposal is in
a sanitary landfill or in any other sanitary manner approved by the
Department of Environmental Quality Engineering, in which case the
contract may be for a period not exceeding 20 years, provided that
such contract has been authorized by a majority vote of a Town Meeting
and the terms thereof have been approved as reasonable by the Emergency
Finance Board.
A.
Every contractor, engaged by the Town to pick up solid waste within
the Town and deliver the same directly to a sanitary landfill outside
the geographical limits of the Town until SEMASS's solid waste disposal
facility is constructed and operational, and thereafter to SEMASS's
solid waste disposal facility, or, at the Town's option, to SEMASS's
transfer station for retransfer to SEMASS's solid waste disposal facility,
shall agree to charge fees approved in advance by the Select Board
members.
B.
The contract, which the contractor shall sign, shall provide that
such fees shall, in the aggregate, be sufficient (but no more than
enough) to cover:
(1)
All fees paid by the contractor either to the operator of the sanitary
landfill or to SEMASS for the solid waste accepted for disposal in
the landfill or in the solid waste disposal facility, as the case
may be.
(2)
The contractor's direct costs for collecting, transferring and disposing
of the solid waste.
(3)
A reasonable amount for the contractor's indirect costs and overhead.
(4)
A reasonable profit.
(5)
The cost of a hazardous waste collection program.
C.
The contract shall also provide that once SEMASS's solid waste facility
becomes operational, the contractor shall provide the Town with a
surety company performance bond, in a form and in an amount satisfactory
to Town Counsel, securing the performance of all of the contractor's
obligations to the Town.
A.
No solid waste can or container, other than a stationary dumpster,
shall exceed either 60 pounds gross loaded weight or 45 gallons in
size.
B.
Each can, container or stationary dumpster shall be made of a rigid
material and shall have a cover capable of being securely attached.
C.
Each cover shall always be securely attached, except when solid waste
is being deposited in the can, container, or dumpster.
D.
Plastic bags shall be securely tied and contain no garbage unless
the bags containing garbage are placed in an appropriate can, container
or dumpster.
E.
Each can, container or bag shall be left at the front of the lot,
adjacent to but not on the sidewalk, if any, or if there is no sidewalk
in front of the building, adjacent to but not on the pavement of the
street, not before 12:00 noon on the day before the scheduled collection
and by no later than 7:00 a.m. of the day on which collections for
the building on the lot are scheduled.
F.
No stationary dumpster shall exceed the safe loading design limit
or operational limit of the vehicle provided by the contractor for
serving the building. Each stationary dumpster shall be situated on
the lot in a place easily accessible to the contractor's vehicles.
G.
The Select Board members may waive any fee whenever, in their opinion,
it is, in a particular instance, in the public interest so to do.
The owner of each building from which solid waste is collected
shall be responsible for the prompt payment of all fees charged by
the contractor for the collection of solid waste from that building.
The penalty for violation of this bylaw shall be as follows:
The invalidity, unconstitutionality or unenforceability of any
section, subsection or provision of this bylaw shall not affect or
impair any other section, subsection or provision.
The Select Board members are authorized to establish a fund
to be known as the "Tipping Fee Escrow Fund." The contractor shall
be directed to regularly deposit into this fund, on at least a monthly
basis or as otherwise specified by the Town, the amounts due under
the contract for defraying the cost of SEMASS tipping fees and household
hazardous waste collection. The Town, through the Department of Public
Works, shall use the monies in this fund to pay tipping fees due to
SEMASS and to pay for the cost of household hazardous waste collections.
In the event that Town-sponsored recycling programs reduce the amounts
of solid waste disposed of at SEMASS, the Select Board members may
authorize the expenditure of amounts not needed for tipping fees or
household hazardous waste collection to defray the costs of Town-sponsored
recycling efforts or Town beautification projects. In no case shall
the amount expended for these purposes exceed the tipping fee times
the number of tons of solid waste that has been certified as recycled
according to the SEMASS master agreement.
[Added 5-6-2019 ATM by
Art. 23]
A.
Purpose. The purpose of this bylaw is to protect the Town of Sharon's
natural beauty and irreplaceable natural resources by reducing the
number of single-use plastic check-out bags that are distributed and
used in the Town of Sharon, and by promoting the use of reusable bags.
B.
CHECK-OUT BAG
RECYCLABLE PAPER BAG
RETAIL ESTABLISHMENT
REUSABLE CHECK-OUT BAG
THIN-FILM, SINGLE-USE PLASTIC CHECK-OUT BAGS
TOWN OFFICIAL
Definitions.
Shall mean a bag provided by a store to a customer at the
point of sale. Check-out bags shall not include bags, whether plastic
or not, in which loose produce or products are placed by the consumer
to deliver such items to the point of sale or check out area of the
store.
Shall mean a paper bag that is 100% recyclable and contains
at least 40% post-consumer recycled content, and displays in a visible
manner on the outside of the bag (1) the word "recyclable" or a symbol
identifying the bag as recyclable and (2) a label identifying the
bag as being made from post-consumer recycled content and the percentage
of post-consumer recycled content in the bag.
Shall mean any business facility that sells goods directly
to the consumer, whether for or not for profit, including, but not
limited to, retail stores, restaurants, pharmacies, convenience and
grocery stores, liquor stores, seasonal and temporary businesses.
Shall mean a sewn bag with stitched handles that is specifically
designed for multiple reuse and that:
Shall mean those bags that are less than 4.0 mils thick,
constructed of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene
(LDPE), linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), polyvinyl chloride
(PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or polypropylene (other than
woven and nonwoven polypropylene fabric), and typically with handles.
Shall mean an official within the Sharon Board of Health
or Health Department.
C.
Regulated conduct.
(1)
No retail establishment in the Town of Sharon shall provide thin-film,
single-use plastic check-out bags to customers.
(3)
Retail establishments that make available exempt thin-film plastic bags, as described in Subsection D below, are required to provide for in-store collection and proper recycling of returned thin-film plastic bags (with the exception of bags used to wrap and transport meat). In-store collection locations must be prominently displayed and easily accessible. Retail establishments with a floor area less than 3,500 square feet that make available exempt thin-film plastic bags are not required to provide for in-store collection/recycling of these bags if another drop off location or no-fee option is available in the Town of Sharon.
D.
Exemptions. Thin-film plastic bags, typically without handles, which
are used to contain newspapers, produce, meat, bulk foods, wet items,
dry cleaning, and other similar merchandise are not prohibited under
this bylaw.
E.
Enforcement.
(1)
The Town official shall have the authority to administer and enforce
this bylaw.
(2)
The enforcing authority, upon a determination that a violation of
the bylaw has occurred, shall issue a written notice to the establishment
specifying the violation, in the form of either a warning or fine
according to the following schedule:
(3)
No more than one penalty shall be imposed upon a retail establishment
within a seven-calendar-day period.
F.
Effective dates. This bylaw shall take effect six months after approval
of the bylaw by the Attorney General[1] or on November 6, 2019, whichever is later, for retail
establishments with a floor area equal to or exceeding 3,500 square
feet or with at least two locations under the same name within the
Town of Sharon that total 3,500 square feet or more. This bylaw shall
take effect one year after approval by the Attorney General for retail
establishments less than 3,500 square feet. The Town Official may
exempt a retail establishment from the requirements of this section
for a period of up to six months upon a finding by the Town Official
that (1) the requirements of this section would cause undue hardship;
or (2) a retail establishment requires additional time in order to
draw down an existing inventory of thin-film, single-use check-out
plastic bags.
[1]
Editor's Note: This bylaw was approved by the Attorney
General 7-22-2019.
G.
Regulations. The Town Official may adopt and amend rules and regulations
to effectuate the purposes of this bylaw.
H.
Severability. If any provision of this bylaw is declared invalid
or unenforceable the other provisions shall not be affected thereby.
