Published: 5/5/2022 5:42:14 PM
Modified: 5/5/2022 5:40:43 PM
With the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District’s former waste disposal company having filed for bankruptcy, towns in Franklin County are facing price increases as the district grapples with trucking trash to another facility.
Jan Ameen, executive director of the Greenfield-based Franklin County Solid Waste Management District that manages waste disposal for most Franklin County communities, said “the vast majority” of Franklin County towns had been trucking their waste to Community Ecopower’s waste energy incinerator in Agawam at a rate of $81.10 per ton. Community Ecopower sold its incinerator to USA Hauling & Recycling’s Connecticut-based F&G waste management company in April, opting to not honor previous contracts and spike prices. This, Ameen said, sent the district on a three-week hunt for the most affordable alternative, leading Ameen to contract with Republic Services for waste disposal at Springfield’s McNamara Transfer Station starting April 18.
“The minute we needed to have another place to go, we were looking at other facilities, getting pricing and doing our due diligence,” Ameen said.
The change in waste disposal services translates to a roughly $13 to $14 increase per ton, bringing the per-ton cost of hauling solid waste to $96 when coupled with a naturally scheduled $2 inflation rate.
Ameen noted that hauling, currently handled by Waste Management of Massachusetts, has not increased in price. Each town’s price increase primarily results from the tonnage being accepted by the disposal facility.
“Obviously, the more trash you have, the more is shipped out,” Ameen said.
Some smaller towns, such as Charlemont, annually truck fewer than 200 tons of waste for disposal, while other towns, such as Deerfield, truck around 530 tons and are hit harder by the price spike.
“It’s unbudgeted, so it’s unanticipated,” Deerfield Selectboard member Carolyn Shores Ness said. “We’ll absorb it, but we’re just getting hit with these disposal costs.”
Deerfield is experiencing the highest cost increase for fiscal year 2023, according to data from the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District, with a jump of $6,064. Shores Ness expressed that the town is feeling “stuck” and is faced with having “to look at all (of its) revenue streams again” due to Deerfield’s FY23 budget having already been set at Annual Town Meeting last month. For now, she said, the unanticipated cost will have to be absorbed by general funding coming from taxpayer dollars.
“We’re pretty much at the limit of what you can charge for bags before you start to see trash on the side of the road,” Shores Ness added.
Lou Bordeaux, town coordinator in Bernardston, a community facing a $3,656 increase for FY23, mentioned stabilization funds and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding as potential sources Bernardston might use to absorb the impact.
“We are winding up budget season right now, so this unanticipated (expense) might come from different sources in the town,” he said.
Ameen highlighted recycling revenues as a reliable potential offset for rising waste disposal costs. In April, she said, towns made $27 per ton of recycled material. For this reason, she encourages residents to be more diligent than ever at separating recyclables from garbage.
“If there was ever a time for people to look at their trash … this is a really good time to start,” she said.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.