Fewer Trash Bags Means Less Trash Cash

Trash receipts in Norfolk are way down — not so much because fewer people are using the dump, either.

It’s just Norfolk residents appear to be throwing fewer things away at the dump.

Trash receipts in Norfolk were about $380,000 in fiscal year 2009(which ran from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009), said Town Administrator Jack Hathaway. This current fiscal year, which ends June 30 of this year, the town would be lucky to get to even $310,000, he said in an interview this week.

The town has sold about the same number of dump stickers for vehicles this fiscal year, albeit a higher percentage at the discounted fee for senior citizens.

“But really it’s the number of bags that are being thrown away that’s the dramatic dropoff,” Hathaway said.

Selectmen last year increased dump sticker fees by $5 (to $60 for most residents, up from $55 previously; and to $45 for senior citizens, up from $40 previously). They also increased the cost of pay-per-throw trash bags by 40 cents per bag, to $2.50 per bag (from $2.10 per bag before that).

The pay-per-throw trash bags system is meant to encourage people to maximize the amount recyclable materials people separate out and put into recyclable containers, since they aren’t charged for recycling but are charged for household trash that goes in the trash bags.

Norfolk residents appear to be husbanding their pay-perthrow trash bags.

A sign of tough times, perhaps, Hathaway said he has heard anecdotal evidence of people taking a bag of trash with them to work to dispose of there.