Yellow trash bags wait on the curb in Falmouth. Kate Irish Collins / File photo, The Forecaster

Falmouth town councilors are grappling with shortfalls in the town’s trash collection program, which could lead to a 50% increase in bag prices over the next two years.

At a special Town Council meeting on Feb. 10, councilors discussed the dual problems of increasing volumes of trash and apparent decreasing compliance by residents.

Falmouth’s pay-as-you-throw program requires residents to purchase yellow plastic bags for their trash in order for it to be picked up. The revenue from the bag purchases funds the cost of the trash removal services. Pay-as-you-throw models significantly decrease household waste in their communities because it puts the cost of the service on those who use it most, according to studies.

Falmouth’s program began five years ago. In fall of 2023, the town began using an automated waste collection system with Casella Waste Systems, which uses trucks with an automated loader to pick up the town-owned trash and recycling carts. While yellow bags are still required for trash pickup, the automated system no longer has a person checking that households have met this requirement.

In 2024 the weight volume of trash collected in Falmouth increased by 7% compared to 2023, but the purchase of yellow trash bags decreased by 10%. This discrepancy led some councilors to believe that some residents were tossing trash without the required yellow bags. However, the potential increase in noncompliance last year was mostly anecdotal.

“I can’t drive by now on trash days and not notice the barrels that are overflowing with trash and not a speck of yellow in them,” said Councilor Sean Mahoney.

“We’re faced with a situation where, with cheaters, we are now raising less money with yellow bags even though the volume of trash has increased and tipping fees are going up,” said council Chair Jay Trickett. “Cheaters are forcing everybody else to pay for them.”

Councilor Janice de Lima and others questioned what the “cheaters” were doing with their trash before the automated system, or if their consumption and subsequent waste disposal had increased in 2024.

In the fiscal year 2024, Falmouth paid Casella Waste Systems $527,046, with an anticipated increase to $545,000 in FY 2025. Payments to the recycling service ecomaine, which totaled $276,093 in FY 2024, are expected to reach $348,608 in FY 2025, according to Falmouth Finance Director Heather Perreault.

The total revenue for the waste disposal program, generated from the sale of yellow bags, was $709,890 in FY 2024, a decrease of over $10,000 from the previous fiscal year. It is expected to decrease in FY 2025, with budgeted revenue $641,987.

Overall, Falmouth’s waste disposal program saw a net loss of $186,644 in FY 2024 through a combination of increasing disposal costs and decreasing revenues from yellow trash bag sales. In FY 2025, the budgeted net loss may nearly double to $307,342, according to Perreault.

To address the shortfall, Town Manager Nathan Poore proposed increasing the cost of the yellow bags. Currently, a large yellow trash bag costs $3.54, with a pack of 10 costing $35.40. The proposed 25% increase on July 5, 2025 would bring the cost of large bags to $4.43, with a second proposed 25% increase a year later bringing the cost to $5.54 per bag.

At the special Town Council meeting, councilors discussed what other revenue streams could cover the costs of the service.

Councilor Tommy Johnson was “vehemently against” the use of the yellow bags following the implementation of the Casella Waste Systems automated bins. The discussion on Feb. 10 was prompted by him bringing up the issue of the bags to the annual work session; he wants to eliminate the additional plastic waste caused by using the yellow bags.

“The rest of (the councilors) sitting to my right are hypocrites. They want to sit there with a straight face and say, ‘We’re going to pass a Climate Action Plan, but we’re gonna still say it’s OK to throw an extra 15 tons of yellow plastic into the landfill,’” said Johnson.

He proposed funding waste services with increased property taxes or an automated pay-as-you-throw system that does not use bags but instead tracks the usage of the town trash bins by households. He said the increase in taxes would cost a Falmouth households roughly the same as the cost of buying the yellow bags, about $120 per year.

Overall, councilors agreed there needs to be increased compliance with the yellow trash bag requirement while the program is still in use. In addition to public outreach and education, this may include an audit of what goes into residents’ trash and recycling bins.

“I think what we can agree on is that we want to reduce plastic,” said Councilor Bryce Hach.

“This information provides us (with) some helpful insights, but it doesn’t necessarily give us the right pathway. That’s gonna take some real consideration from all of us to get us to a destination that we all feel is in our community’s long-term best interest,” he said.