WESTPORT — The best way to solve the unsightly — and unhealthful — piles of garbage dumped outside the large trash bin/compactor in Parker Harding Plaza after busy shopping weekends is to push a button.

That’s according to Maxxwell Crowley, president of the Westport Downtown Association, which provides the waste disposal service for merchants in the central business district.

He was responding to photos of the overflowing dumpster, stacks of bagged garbage alongside, taken on recent Monday mornings and circulated via email chains and social media.

Crowley said the problem can be traced primarily to merchants’ employees who neglect to operate the bin’s compacting device, causing it to fill to capacity prematurely. When that happens, garbage that no longer fits is piled outside the dumpster.

In that case, Crowley said, the association either dispatches its maintenance staff or has to pay the trash carting vendor to clear away the mess as soon as possible.

The problem is compounded, he added, when private citizens occasionally add their own garbage to the tower of trash.

He denied, as some have alleged, that town Parks and Recreation Department crews have had to step in to take away garbage spilling into the parking lot.