Concord officials say now is the time to bite the bullet on a price increase for purple trash bags.
According to the city’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2017, the price of the purple bags would jump 25 percent. The cost of a 15-gallon bag would go from $1 to $1.25, while a 30-gallon bag would increase from $2 to $2.50. The increase would be the first in the program’s seven years. If the Concord City Council approves the budget as proposed, the new prices would take effect July 1.
With the solid waste fund in trouble, the Concord City Council considered the same change last year. With a 4 percent tax rate increase looming as part of the fiscal 2016 budget, they said no – or, at least, not yet.
But the solid waste fund continues to dip closer to the red, and city officials say the delay cannot continue.
“It’s no longer sustainable at the current prices,” said Ward 7 Councilor Keith Nyhan, who is the chairman of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee.
Not everyone agrees.
“It’d be one thing if our taxes didn’t go up,” Tom Thorne said. Thorne is the store manager at River Hill Market, which sells the bags even though vendors do not make a profit off the program.
“Now, they’re hitting us on both ends.”
The pay-as-you-throw program in Concord started in 2009. At the time, skyrocketing tipping fees would have added roughly 3 percent to the tax rate. Instead, city officials introduced the purple bags and free weekly pickup for recycling. The goal was to reduce waste and encourage recycling, and the prices were expected to remain steady for five years.
It worked. In the first year, Concord residents threw away 43 percent less and recycled 25 percent more. Since then, the numbers have remained consistent.
Two years ago, the city also left its contract for trash and recycling collection with Wheelabrator Technologies. The 10-year deal with Casella Resources saves Concord roughly $500,000 each year over the previous agreement. To improve efficiency, the city has instituted single-stream recycling and split-body trucks.
But those changes weren’t enough, officials said. The solid waste fund still loses money every year, because revenue from the bags doesn’t cover the cost of disposing trash at Casella’s facility in Allenstown.
The Solid Waste Advisory Committee studied several options – a staggered increase in bag prices over several years, a one-time increase, a blanket 25 percent increase, a varied increase depending on bag size. Last year, the committee recommended a one-time, 25 percent increase for both bag sizes. The city wouldn’t need to bump the prices for six more years.
But when it came time to vote, the council took a pass.
“I think the manager was very responsible in coming forth with a proposal to increase the rate, and I think at some point we’re going to have to do it,” Mayor Jim Bouley said before the vote last year. “I don’t know that this year is the time we have to do it.”
In fiscal year 2016, the fund is on track to lose more than $240,000. If the bag prices stay where they are, the balance would drop below zero in fiscal year 2018. By 2021, that fund would be at a negative balance of about $1.4 million.
“Without the increase in bag price, the fund would no longer be solvent,” Nyhan said. “ It would require an additional transfer from the general fund into the solid waste program, which would require an additional tax rate increase above and beyond what we’re going to end up with.”
A price increase, however, would save the fund from immediate debt. By 2018, revenue from the pay-as-you-throw program is projected to slightly exceed the cost of dumping trash. The price increase would likely keep the fund in the black for five extra years. “Somewhere along the line, you have to make a decision about what to do,” City Manager Tom Aspell said.
For a family that uses one 15-gallon purple trash bag per week, the cost right now is $52 a year. Next year, the annual cost for the same 52 small bags would be $65. The city’s human services department would still offer the bags at no cost to households that can’t afford to purchase them.
Nyhan compared the bag prices to a rate based on usage, like the city’s water rate. He said recycling more allows a resident to reduce his or her waste, and therefore reduce the amount of money personally spent on trash bags.
“It’s not fair for a family of two that may generate less than one trash bag a week to have to pay for the irresponsible trash disposal of a family of five that doesn’t recycle,” Nyhan said. “Much like someone’s water bill, you pay for what you use.”
At Riverhill Market on Carter Hill Road, Thorne does not think his customers will see it that way. He sells between $200 and $400 worth of the bags each week. But all the money goes to the city, and when customers pay for the bags with a debit or credit card, the market has to eat the transaction cost.
“They grumble all the time,” Thorne said. “If there’s an increase, I probably won’t carry them any longer. It’s not worth the hassle of hearing people complain about them.”
Quality Cash Market on Eastman Street also sells the bags. Store manager Liz Duncan heard about the increase through the manufacturer, and she said she struggled to find details about the increase from officials in City Hall and the city website.
“Nobody knows about this,” she said. “That was my biggest issue. What’s going on?”
She questioned the value of the entire program, saying the city hasn’t communicated enough information about why pay-as-you-throw is best for Concord. She plans to attend the public hearing and budget vote in a couple of weeks, and she posted a sign in her store to let her customers know about that meeting as well.
“That’s my hope, that I’m going to be able to be there just to get an insight as to what the philosophy is, why we need to increase them,” Duncan said.
For information about Aspell’s budget proposal, including a pro forma for the solid waste fund, visit concordnh.gov. A final public hearing and vote will take place June 6 at 7 p.m. in council chambers.