Does the Town Make Money off Trash Bags?

Welcome to You Ask, Patch Answers, a column where you send us questions about anything at all going on in town and we get them answered. Got a question? Send it to krista@patch.com.

Question: Does the town receive any profit from the sales of trash bags to supplement the two can limit? Does the town set the trash bag price?

Answer: We pointed this question to Jennifer Almeida, of the town's recycling office. Here is what she said:

The answer to both questions is yes: the town gets some money back from the bag sales – that’s really the whole point: if a resident goes over the trash limit we are looking for a way for that resident to help pay for the disposal of the extra trash (rather than spread that  additional cost to everyone).

And the town sets the cost of the bag. The aim is to help the town cover the cost of the disposal, but also to be both high enough to encourage maximum waste reduction but not so high as to be prohibitively expensive as an occasional purchase. Ideally no one would ever have to buy the bags (or even go to that second barrel!).