Mid-Coast Solid Waste Corporation, serving the Towns of Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport, gives notice of bag fee increases effective July 1, 2018.  The pricing change was reviewed and approved by the Select Boards of Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport, and by the MCSWC Board of Directors.

Beginning on July 1, 2018, the larger 30-pound yellow P.A.Y.T. bags will be sold for $2.50 per bag in quantities of 4 per package for $10 and the smaller kitchen size yellow P.A.Y.T. bags will be sold for $ 1.50 per bag in quantities of 10 per package for $15.  B

ags of either size can be purchased at the MCSWC Gatehouse and all four town offices.  Large bags are also stocked for sale at local stores including: EBS Building Supply, French & Brawn, Hannaford, Hope General Store, Lincolnville General Store, Megunticook Market, Rankin’s Hardware and Western Auto Young & Hickey.   For further information contact Jim Guerra, Manager, MCSW.

One by one, the four towns that take their trash to Rockport for transport to a larger disposal facility are approving a price increase on the mandatory yellow trash bags. The goal in putting more of the cost back on the user is to reduce the fiscal effect on the taxpayer, and, hopefully, staff say, encourage more recycling. That will then add more revenue to the bottom line of Midcoast Solid Waste Corporation.

The new rates are expected to be implemented in July, and will take the cost of a single yellow trash bag from $2 to $2.50. The loose trash dumping fee, which affects commercial haulers, will go from $133 to $166 per ton.

The large 33-gallon bag packages, which are sold in local grocery stores, at  town offices and at the transfer station, will contain four bags in each bundle, instead of five, and will be sold for the same price of $10. 

The smaller kitchen waste bags will still be sold in packages of 10, but the price will increase to $15 from current price of $12.

So far, three of the four towns that comprise MidCoast Solid Waste Corporation have approved the price increase. Camden and Hope approved the fee increase March 21 at their regularly scheduled select board meetings. Rockport’s Select Board approved the hike at its March 13 meeting. Lincolnville has yet to address the proposal.

The four towns collectively own the facility on Union Street in Rockport. Since the mid-1980s, the facility has buried demolition and other debris, and hauled household trash to an incinerator in Orrington. This year, the towns have switched their household trash destination to ecomaine, in Scarborough, following the closure of the PERC incinerator.

To deposit trash at the transfer station, residents are required to first seal it in the yellow garbage bags. The user fees, or the “pay as you go” policy, had been instituted more than a decade ago, and have served to reduce the facility’s financial draw on the taxpayers of the four towns.

Midcoast Solid Waste’s 2018 budget is $2.1 million. Revenue is anticipated to be $1.6 million, leaving $560,720 to be raised by taxing the property owners of the four towns. Click here to see the full budget.

Raising the yellow garbage bag fees is to result in reduced tax assessments, said MCSW Director Jim Guerra.

With the price hike the assessment for Camden will be approximately $217,000. Without the price hike, the assessment would be $292,000.

For Rockport, with the price hike, the assessment will be $156,000, without, $210,000.

And in Hope, $50,000 to $57,000, while in Lincolnville, $87,000 to $116,000.

Guerra is also banking that with costlier trash bag fees, the public will make more of an effort to recycle, which pushes the amount of baled recyclable material up and increases revenue for the facility.

In Rockport, the Select Board agreed that higher bag prices produce a better incentive to recycle.

“Jim’s rationale makes a lot of sense,” said Rockport Select Board Chairman Ken McKinley, on March 12. “The last time the fees were raised was five years ago. $2.50 is not an unreasonable jump.”

He added: “It costs us more to get rid of our stuff because there’s less space to get rid of our stuff.”

While Midcoast Solid Waste’s board of directors has yet to vote on whether to move to single-stream recycling, the conversation continues.

“If we go to single stream, then people will be able to recycle more easily and there will be less demand for yellow bags,” McKinley said.

Board member Owen Casas agreed: “Single stream makes sense. It is still the right way to go.”

The issue concerns technological ability to adequately sort, and produce a purer separation of recycling material.

“The technology will improve,” he said.

On March 21, Camden’s Select Board had a similar reaction to the bag price hike, with added comments concerning the rising costs associated with recycling, in general.

Resident Beedy Parker told the board that the overall goal is to reduce trash, “and maybe fees will help reduce that.”

Another Camden resident commented that she had moved from Lake Placid, New York, where, 12 years ago, similar transfer station trash bags cost $4.50 each.

“And Lake Placid is not a big town, nor a wealthy town,” she said.

Guerra told the Camden Select Board that he will attempt to improve the quality of the yellow bags, whose most recent iteration has been less substantial than those that preceded them. 

 In Hope, on March 21, the selectmen also listened to Guerra’s proposal. 

Selectman Dick Crabtree made the motion: “Based on the financial state and the budget of Midcoast Solid Waste, we see no other choice but to accept the proposal to increase the bag fees; large bags will cost $10 for 4 bags, small bags will cost $15 for 10 bags and weighted trash will increase from $133/ton to $166/ton rather than raising taxes."

It was seconded  by Selectman Michael Brown. All five selectmen unanimously voted in favor of the motion, according to Hope Town Administrator Samantha Mank.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657