Cohasset increases sticker, disposal fees to fund waste management

To meet increasing operating costs for the recycling transfer facility, which collects and processes trash and recycling for the town, the Select Board raised bin sticker fees and bulky waste permit prices in a Feb. 10 meeting. The prices will increase March 1.

The first sticker fee will rise from $150 to $165, and the second sticker fee from $75 to $90. The cost of disposing of some categories of bulky waste will also rise: furniture, rug, TV, monitor, appliance and barrel frees will all go up between $5 and $20.

Interim Town Manager Michelle Leary estimated that the higher sticker fees will contribute an additional $41,000 in revenue to the recycling transfer facility, enough to pay for one part-time employee. She also said that the bulky waste fees will raise $50,000 in revenue.

Together, the new revenue from increased fees is projected to fund 13% of the recycling transfer facility’s operating budget in fiscal year 2027.

Leary said Cohasset’s trash and recycling fees in fiscal year 2026 are lower than Scituate’s, Hanover’s, Plymouth’s, and Duxbury’s, and that the higher bulky waste fees will be more consistent with nearby towns.

She also said that contracts are the biggest cost driver for the recycling transfer facility, and they are involved in most of its services, including union, hauling, disposal and landfill monitoring contracts that last for three years.

“After a three-year period, we do go back out to bid and see if we can improve our costs,” she said.

But these contracts have largely increased in cost over the last few years, according to Leary’s presentation to the Select Board Feb. 10. The largest dollar increase in a contract between fiscal year 2026 and 2027 is $5,000 for landfill monitoring.

For more South Shore news, subscribe to our newsletter. 

About the South Shore Times

The South Shore Times is an independent, locally-owned digital news platform, free to readers, that covers communities south of Boston. Our articles are written by South Shore reporters, not AI.