Some Stonington residents are having trash troubles, concerned that their town-required garbage bags are falling apart and possibly getting smaller.
"Every week the drawstring breaks," posted one resident on the Stonington Community Forum Facebook page.
"They are truly terrible. Very thin. Not worth the price," posted another resident.
"They definitely are a lower quality. Thinner, appear to be smaller…," posted a third.
There is a thread of comments about the town garbage bags that residents are required to purchase.
"The bags fall apart! I don’t like these old bags! We need new bags and we’re going to get new bags," said Stonington First Selectman Rob Simmons.
He said he’s seen a quality problem for the past several months.
Local
The town’s five-year contract with current vendor WasteZero, based out of North Carolina, expired at the end of October, said John Phetteplace, Stonington’s solid waste director.
"We’ve complained to them and complained to them," Simmons said.
The town is now soliciting bids for a new contract.
One issue was that the plastic at the top of some garbage bags wasn’t sealed properly, so when someone pulled the drawstring, it fell out, Phetteplace explained.
It was caused by an issue in production, Phetteplace said. The machine used to seal the plastic wasn’t hot enough. Those bags should have been discarded, but weren’t.
As for concerns about the bag’s size, Phetteplace said it’s remained the same, but the way the drawstrings are now being sealed reduces the circumference of its opening. Though there have been inconsistencies in color, the bag’s strength has stayed the same, too.
"(WasteZero’s) shipping them out is inconsistent. All the cases aren’t the same. So it made it difficult for us to do inventory. They weren’t able sometimes to get the bags to us before we were closed," Phetteplace said.
He said the problems don’t appear to be batch-wide. And the company seems like it’s fixed the issues.
With the exception of the last several months, Phetteplace said the program has run well. A few years ago that the town received bags with no side seams, but Phetteplace said WasteZero came to town and replaced them all.
Many residents haven’t noticed any issues with the trash bags. Like Linda Santos who said she hasn’t experienced any problems with the garbage bags in her 18 years living in Stonington.
Mark Dancy, president of WasteZero, said he had employees in town last week to look at every case of garbage bags to make sure they were up to standard.
Part of the issue with the color was because their supplier was hit by Hurricane Harvey so the product was delayed, Dancy said.
As for any defects, Dancy said, "As a manufacturer, you strive to have no defects but the reality is the manufacturing process is not perfect. Whenever we make a mistake we let our customers know to please call us. That’s why we put an 800 number on our product. And we encourage people to call us and let us know. When we have quality issues, we get back to the customer right away. It’s something we take pride in. And again, I’m sorry anyone in Stonington had a bad experience with our product."
The bag program, where residents are required to purchase yellow bags to dispose of their trash, started in 1992. Phetteplace said it has significantly reduced the amount of waste disposed of in town.
One 33-gallon bag costs $1.25; one 15-gallon bag costs $0.75, according to the town website. Sleeve options are also available.
