New PAYT trash bag fees pushed to February

The cost of Grafton’s controversial green trash bags was supposed to go up on January 1, but the New Year arrived with the same old 2021 price tag.

Town Administrator Evan Brassard said the new fees — $7 for a roll of small bags, $12.60 for a roll of large bags — will not take effect until February 7.

“The Town’s supplier of trash bags, WasteZero, requires 45-days of lead time to increase or decrease the in-store cost of bags,” Brassard said in a news release. . “This is due to the barcode system that the company utilizes.”

The Pay As You Throw program was first introduced in 2009 as a method to both lower trash costs and reduce the amount of trash incinerated by the town. At the time, recycling was a cost savings, as well as healthier for the environment, and the bag cost managed to fund 50 percent of trash costs. Due to increasing costs and market forces, the bag fees now only cover 34 percent of the total cost of the program. 

The town is also working with two vendors to procure different bags — ones that hold up to use better than the easily ripped current type. Brassard said last month he hopes to have the new bags within the early months of 2022.

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