Over a Barrel
By Thomas M. Keane Jr.
Boston City Councilor


You've just sucked down a delicious watermelon Slurpee and you're wandering down Charles Street, an empty cup in your hand. You look to your right, you look to your left. There's no place to throw it away. You look across the street, peering through the interstices between the parked cars. No luck. So you look around slowly. No one seems to be watching. You casually drop the cup in the gutter and hurry on.

Okay, so maybe you don't drop the cup. Maybe you carry it with you the rest of your journey and dispose of it when you get home.

Unfortunately, a lot of people aren't you, and many of those people — residents, tourists, concert-goers, workers, and the like — would just as soon leave their trash behind and carry it with them.

The solution seems obvious enough: have the city put trash barrels out on sidewalks. But in Boston things are never that easy.

Several years ago, the city did place trash barrels out on sidewalks. A host of problems ensued. Some residents and store owners objected to the barrels, not wanting them in front of their property, so the city's public works department was obliged to remove them.

In many cases, residents and business owners started using the barrels to handle their own trash. The barrels quickly filled up, so that the trash from passersby ended up scattered around the trash cans.

In still other cases, a passerby will toss a crumpled paper bag towards a barrel and, with the same skill as last year's Celtics, completely miss and leave it lying on the ground. Sometimes an errant car door or a stiff wind will upend a barrel, strewing garbage over the streets.

To make matters worse, from the city's perspective, the presence of trash barrels created more work and more complaints. Successfully managing the trash barrels required multiple pickups, including weekend pickups, which increased costs, particularly from overtime. And it was a thankless task, since no one called to thank the public works department when a trash can was properly emptied. They only called to complain about the full or overturned cans.

Indeed, there are people within the public works department who are convinced that public trash cans in effect breed their own messes. Take away the cans and people will be forced to be more responsible; put the trash cans in and one inevitably finds trashy messes around the cans.

Like the economic cycle, there are trash barrel cycles. Once they were in favor, then they weren't. Next they were in favor again, then they weren't. Now we're back to the "in favor" phase of the cycle.

The public works department has agreed once again to place barrels along commercial streets such as Charles and Cambridge. This time around things are being done a little differently, in the hope that the barrels will be more successful.

First, the city is working with their neighborhood to identify precisely where barrels should be placed. A few days ago a groups of representatives from the mayor's office, civic association and Charles Street and Cambridge Street business associations walked the streets of Beacon Hill, pens in hand, marking down their preferred barrel locations.

Second, no barrels will be put in place unless there are sufficient resources available to monitor and empty the barrels on a frequent basis.

Finally, the city will start vigorously enforcing its antidumping ordinance. Putting household or business trash into a street side barrel warrants a $1,000 fine. Violators can be found out by searching for an envelope or letter with an address on it.

These measures will help somewhat. But making the on-street barrels a success will require, more critically, the cooperation of residents and businesses. Without it, the voices of those who dislike the barrels will again be in ascendance and the barrels will disappear.

Comments on this article? Email Tom Keane