by John Osborn ·
Friday, April 10, 2026
Harvard residents will pay more for Transfer Station access and town trash bags starting this month, after the Select Board concluded that current fees do not fully cover the cost of operating the facility and disposing of trash.
At its April 7 meeting, the board voted unanimously to increase the nonsenior Transfer Station sticker price by $10 to $140, while keeping the senior sticker price at $130. Seniors are defined as age 60 or older.
Stickers for the new year will be on sale shortly at Town Hall, even though the new sticker year does not begin until July 1. Stickers are valid for one year, from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027.
Select Board member Eric Ward and DPW Director Eric Ryder presented an analysis separating operating costs from disposal costs. Stickers are intended to pay for day‑to‑day operations of the Transfer Station—staffing, site maintenance, and related expenses. Ward and Ryder reported that sticker revenue is currently just about covering those operating costs, but with little margin. The $10 sticker increase is meant to keep operations and revenue aligned for the next year. Ryder said approximately 1,160 of Harvard’s 2,200 households bought dump stickers this year, though the number has been declining.
Trash bags, by contrast, are meant to cover disposal costs—the cost of hauling and dumping the town’s waste. Here, the picture is worse. Ward and Ryder said Harvard is running a significant deficit, with the cost of shipping and disposing of trash exceeding what current bag sales bring in. To close most of that disposal‑cost gap, the board voted to double bag prices. Starting July 1, the price of a small 5-gallon bag will rise from $1 to $2, and the large 15-gallon bag from $2 to $4.
Board members acknowledged that higher prices will be unpopular, but said they see little alternative if the Transfer Station is to remain financially sustainable, especially with additional costs looming from PFAS monitoring and potential remediation related to the former landfill.
Residents have complained recently about difficulty obtaining bags after some retailers stopped selling them. In response, the board backed Ryder’s plan for a trash bag vending machine, initially located inside Town Hall and operating on a cash‑only basis. Ryder said the machine should qualify for grant funding from the Recycling Dividends Program and estimated six to eight weeks to order and install it.
To allow time to install a vending machine and notify vendors, the board set July 1 as the effective date of the bag price increase, which coincides with the start of the new sticker year. Board members also urged Ryder to install the first machine at a location other than Town Hall, which is open only four days a week and closed on Saturday, the busiest trash day of the week.