By Chloe Shelford

editor@warehamweek.com

Chair of the Board of Selectmen Patrick Tropeano took advantage of the comment period at Tuesday’s meeting to defend the town’s carry in, carry out policy which has been the subject of many recent complaints.

“Just so you know, if there were barrels out there, it would only make the trash worse,” Tropeano said. “We already know this because we used to put barrels out there. People didn’t throw the stuff in the barrel, they threw it next to the barrel. And then it blew all the way down the beach and everywhere else.”

The town adopted the policy requiring people to bring their trash home with them from public places about five years ago, according to Town Administrator Derek Sullivan.

Most of the complaints seem come from Onset, which is a destination for many tourists and has very few trash barrels. There are no barrels at all by the beach, although the Onset Bay Association has provided plastic bags in an attempt to encourage people to follow the policy.

“Believe it or not, the amount of trash around is very much reduced since we’ve gone to carry in carry out because 90 percent of us, or 99 percent of us are doing the right thing,” Tropeano said. “It seems to work very well.”

Tropeano also noted that discarded nip bottles make up a good percentage of the litter around town.

“You could put a barrel the size of Wareham and those nips are not going in it,” Tropeano said. “All they’re gonna do when they drink those nips is they’re gonna throw them no matter where they are and the barrels don’t mean anything.”

Jim Munise pushed back, acknowledging the town’s volunteers who help pick up litter who might use barrels.

“Jim, barrels don’t work,” said Tropeano, who ended the conversation.