Bowdoinham to hold hearing on trash tag fee increase

A Bowdoinham household using one trash tag a week would pay about $13 more a year if the town raises the price from $3.00 to $3.25, while a two-tag household would add roughly $26 a year. For families that put out three bags a week, the increase would amount to about $39 over 12 months.

The Select Board will hold a public hearing Tuesday, May 26, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in the Kendall Room at the Town Office, 13 School Street. The meeting will also be available by Zoom. The proposal would amend the town’s Solid Waste and Recycling Rules and set the tag price for FY27, with an effective date of July 1, 2026.

Bowdoinham says the trash program is designed to pay for itself through a usage-based fee that covers collection, transportation and disposal. The town’s draft rules require every trash bag to carry a valid tag, limit bags to 25 pounds or 30 gallons, and keep regular curbside pickup on Thursdays. The supporting calculation sheet, labeled Self Sustaining Trash Tag Calculations FY27, signals that town officials are recalculating the full cost of the system rather than making a symbolic change.

Town records show the tag price has shifted before. Materials from 2024 referenced a self-sustaining price of $3.58 per bag in FY23 and a 4.7% increase for FY24 to FY25. More recent town documents list the current fee at $3.00, before this proposed move to $3.25. The fee change is part of a longer effort to keep the solid-waste system balanced as costs move.

That pressure comes as Bowdoinham continues to manage a tightly regulated waste operation at 121 Pond Road, where the Solid Waste and Recycling facility is open Tuesdays from noon to 6 p.m. and Thursdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The town’s solid waste director is Bryan Benson, and the Solid Waste Committee includes Wendy Cunningham, Paul Denis and Patrick McDonough.

Committee minutes from May 6 say the Maine Department of Environmental Protection had 12 days left in its 180-day review period for the town’s transfer station license application. The same minutes note that residents have been using trash bags that exceed the town’s size and weight limits, adding enforcement and safety issues to the budget pressure.

Bowdoinham’s recycling history also helps explain the strain. Town committee materials say the town accepted sorted, clean glass until 2020, when the Material Recovery Facility in Medford, Massachusetts, closed. That kind of market shift can push local disposal and recycling costs higher, and it suggests the proposed $0.25 increase may help bridge today’s gap without ending the pressure on waste fees in the years ahead.