Hopkinton’s pay-by-bag program that requires residents to dispose of their trash using green bags has had issues with compliance over the years. Despite the program’s intention to create an incentive to reduce waste through green bag usage, the transfer station sees a rainbow of colored bags dumped daily.

At Monday’s select board meeting, discussions centered on the green bag program and whether to better enforce it or get rid of it. Ultimately the board opted to maintain the status quo.

The select board decided that it was too late to put forward a warrant article at the town meeting to ask residents to decide the fate of the program.

“This has been this sort of intractable problem for the town for more than a decade,” said Sabrina Dunlap, select board chair. “I’d be in favor of just not changing anything and we sort of muddle along in this bizarro nether-world where nothing actually makes sense – some people use green bags and some don’t.”

The decision to retain the program was accompanied by the select board’s commitment to invest more time to come up with a comprehensive strategy to address the issue.

Despite the program’s challenges, the pricing structure for green bags remains unchanged, with large bags priced at $1.25 and small bags at 75 cents. These green bags play a role in generating revenue, contributing $100 per ton to offset the tipping costs at the transfer station.

The tipping fees for commercial and residential waste haulers who fail to adhere to the program were raised from $93.13 to $100 per ton.

In an effort to tackle the compliance issue, select board member Thomas Lipoma proposed a residential curbside pickup service exclusively for residents using green bags, similar to the purple bag program used by the city of Concord.

He said that such a service might alleviate the inconvenience associated with bringing bags to the transfer station, potentially encouraging adherence to the program.

The pay-by-bag system was introduced to reduce waste and to collect user fees for town services.

As the select board continues to decide the future of green bags, Bonnie Christie, a member of the waste reduction committee, emphasized the importance of shifting the focus from the pay-by-bag program toward broader waste reduction initiatives.

“What we need to do is focus on unit-based pricing. Green bag is one form of unit-based pricing,” said Christie. “If we are going to have a discussion about getting rid of green bags hand-in-hand, we have to talk about what we would use in its place.”