Town of Enfield

Transfer Station Operation

FACTS SHEET

Over the past 15 years, solid waste management has evolved from "the dump", where we simply threw everything into a hole and buried it, to a highly regulated and costly environmental protection, disposal, and recycling operation. These regulations even include leaf composting which cost the Town over $20,000 per year to have legally done. Most of these changes have been driven by Federal and State laws and contract requirements with trash-to-energy plants. Enfield's transfer station use and fee policy, however, has not changed much since "the dump" days until now.

For fiscal year 04/05 about 12,000,000 pounds of material was "dropped off" by approximately 3,000 permit holders. On average then, each permit holder disposed of 4,000 pounds of material. The average cost to the Town of properly disposing of all the material is five cents per pound (some material less, some material more). This equates to an average of $200 cost per permit holder or $600,000 per year (one quarter of a mill) added to the tax bill. In addition, "cross contamination" of hazardous materials (there are many) can render entire loads hazardous material at a very high disposal cost, so "control" has become a large issue.

The new fee policy seeks to charge, on average, the disposal cost of the material and better control what comes in and with whom. We recognize that there are loads which may cost more and others less, however, separating and weighing separately is unrealistic and very time consuming. Our goal is to provide a reliable and efficient means to ensure compliance with all laws and regulations. We will provide a separate leaf drop area in the Fall at no charge.

Please recognize that the fine people we have working at the transfer facility are charged with enforcing the laws and policies, not writing them. If you have questions they may be unable to answer or should you have further comment please e-mail us at Transfer Station or call 763-7560.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we move into a new era of waste management.