SAUGUS — Town Meeting member Ron Wallace introduced Article 38 on Monday night, which focused on trash and recycling receptacles due to a large amount of trash being found on the streets around town.

The article read, “Whereas the Town of Saugus has invested significant monies in recent years for state-of-the-art parks, playgrounds, and community projects such as the Northern Strand Rail Trail and our beautiful new pickleball courts and street hockey rink at Anna Parker. The increased use of these amenities has brought much enjoyment to residents and families from both in and out of town and fostered a new sense of community in our town. But a natural side effect is an increase in litter.”

“This is an article I’ve wanted to write for a couple of years now,” Wallace said. “… This article is to address all the litter around town. It’s really bad. And a large amount of it comes from the recycling system that we have.”

Wallace said many people use the small bins or cardboard, leading to the trash blowing everywhere.

“We filled six contractor bags. Probably half of that trash is from people’s stuff blowing around,” he said.

He continued by saying that just a few days after Precinct 5 had a clean-up day, he found more trash in the streets while walking his dog.

Town Meeting member Stacey Herman-Dorant asked Town Manager Scott Crabtree for an update on the new trash contract and the possibility of automated pickup.

“There is obviously a cost with this with the bins (and) emptying them. It seems like all the public bins in town can be overflowing… They’re not emptied on a regular basis (so) it creates that problem as well,” Herman-Dorant said.

Town Meeting member Arthur Grabowski showed support for the article, but said that residents were a problem when it came to trash being found all over the ground.

“If their stuff blows around, they should go pick it up,” he said, continuing that people are dumping their own in-house trash bags into public bins, causing them to overflow.

Town Meeting member Martin Costello also showed support, but also asked about the new receptacles and automated pickup.

“I think the article that’s presented is a great idea. I think there’s obviously a balance where residents should be able to put their recycling in something that’s covered. It’s really an enforcement issue, I think, in some ways,” Crabtree responded.

He said he’s open to getting the new receptacles, but he’s waiting for someone to spearhead it.

“As everyone knows, if it’s my idea… it may not go over so well. I’m happy to entertain anybody that’d be willing to move forward with that. I think whenever you make changes, even when they’re positive, they can be very stressful for residents (and) become stressful for politicians,” he said.

The non-binding article passed unanimously, 47-0.