CONWAY — In a tight budget year, the town is exploring options to save money on Transfer Station costs, while also trying to include residents on those savings.

Conway generates more pounds of trash per user at its Transfer Station than larger, neighboring towns like Deerfield, and the Selectboard is exploring a change in policies to reduce the amount of waste generated, which will also save residents money, as their tax revenue funds waste disposal. While the board works through this process, it is inviting resident feedback through public forums and a “Resident Feedback” link on the town website.

Currently, residents are able to buy a Transfer Station sticker for $10, which allows them to stop by the station on Old Cricket Hill Road and throw away bags of trash. Since Conway is also the only town in Franklin County that does not have some form of pay-as-you-throw system for trash collection, stickers are the only revenue source for the town in operating the Transfer Station and the Selectboard believes that their cheap policy is leading out-of-towners to dump large amounts of trash there.

“Our town is an outlier [compared to] all other towns in our county and surrounding area. … When you’re an outlier, you’re either doing something right or doing something wrong,” Selectboard member Chris Waldo commented during a public forum last week. “I do not think the people of Conway are disposing of more trash than the other towns — if anything I’d think it’d be the opposite of that.”

In fiscal year 2022, the town spent $100,000 on trash, which doesn’t include composting. Conway accepts bulky waste and disposes of it for $109 per ton, but only charges people for mattress disposal. Ashfield and Deerfield accept bulky waste and charge for items, leading the Selectboard to believe out-of-towners and contractors are bringing bulky waste to Conway.

Selectboard members have volunteered at the Transfer Station over the last few months to see how things have been working and Chair Philip Kantor said he observed a Buckland resident using the Conway Transfer Station. Kantor noted the person was honest and said they were able to apply for a Conway sticker online, despite not living there.

Summing up the situation, Kantor said the high usage of the Conway Transfer Station is costing all of the users additional money, even if they only visit once a month.

“Too much money, too much trash and too much unfairness,” Kantor said by phone Monday. “Right now, everybody subsidizes the heaviest users.”

One option on the table — and the most widely discussed one — involves changing the system to a modified pay-as-you-throw program, where residents purchase a windshield sticker to gain access to the Transfer Station and then receive 104 trash bag stickers at no cost. If you use up all your bags for the year, then you can purchase another sticker from the town to get more bags, which will also roll over to the next year.

Pay-as-you-throw programs have led to less trash in other county towns over the last few years, according to a slideshow prepared by the town and the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District. Rowe switched to a pay-as-you-throw program in July 2019 and its trash tonnage decreased by 31 tons, or 25% per year. In August 2021, Erving also changed its policy and reduced its tonnage by 160 tons, or 34% per year.

“The spigot is on right now,” Waldo said, “and we’re trying to close it a little bit.”

While an overhaul of the system has yet to be decided, the Selectboard did vote at its April 10 meeting to increase the sticker price from $10 to $20, which needed to be done sooner rather than later because stickers expire in June, according to Kantor.

Residents are encouraged to share feedback with the Selectboard and attend a third Transfer Station forum, which has not been scheduled yet.

“One of the things that unites us is our weird fondness for the Transfer Station,” Kantor quipped during the second forum.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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