A YES vote on June 16th will re-affirm a 2026 Annual Town Meeting decision to proceed with economically necessary changes to our trash collection.
If YES prevails, the Select Board will designate a standard bin size for continued “free” (tax supported) residential trash collection, and will set fees to collect trash that’s in excess of what fits in the standard bin. They will do so after public hearings, and after receiving recommendations from the Waste Reduction Task Force, town staff, and various town committees.
According to a survey of 1,400 residents, 83% now use 48 gallon or smaller bins. My guess is that the Select Board will designate a 48 gallon bin as standard, providing an option to use a 35 gallon bin instead, while also accommodating special cases (medical needs, group homes, etc.) that require bins that are larger than the standard.
So most residents’ trash will fit within their standard bin, and if YES prevails their weekly trash collection will remain “free” like it is now.
For trash in excess of what fits in the standard bin, fees will be set to recover its cost of collection and disposal, and will be in line with what’s charged in neighboring towns. Fees for excess trash will provide an effective incentive to divert more of it to composting and recycling.
Bins will be provided by the town at no cost to residents.
Our new Pay-Above-a-Threshold system will be part of our broader transition to automated trash collection, where bins are emptied by the truck’s pick-up arms rather than by humans.
We’re not making this change to improve our current already excellent manual trash collection service. We’re doing this because trash haulers are automating. They are either withdrawing entirely from providing manual trash collection or are making it economically unattractive.
A negative vote on 16 June could delay our transition to automated trash collection, perhaps indefinitely, with the result that we’d face increased and rising costs since the few haulers that still offer manual trash collection will impose a substantial cost premium.
Increased costs for trash collection and for its disposal — because many of our in-state landfills have closed and others are approaching that point — will divert money from already tight budgets for our schools and other town functions.
We can put a lid on such wasteful and avoidable increased costs by voting YES on June 16th.
Peter Shapiro
Town Meeting Member, Precinct 4
The trash fee referendum on June 16th does not block the town’s efforts to move to automated trash collection which will save the town millions of dollars. I will be voting NO to new trash fees but I’m supportive of automated collection. Proponents of trash fees are intentionally conflating automated collection and trash fees in order to strengthen their desire to reduce town services while at the same time charging new fees to residents. However, trash fees are not a pre-requisite in order to achieve cost savings through automated collection.
Assuming that we proceed with automated trash collection, YES on June 16th would permit the town to charge for bags for occasional excess trash, or for a second bin in addition to the town-provided standard-size bin. Without this option, weekly trash collection would be limited to what fits in the single standard bin with no provision for curbside collection of excess trash. Although this would affect only the small proportion of residents for whom the standard bin is not sufficient, it would impose on them a much worse burden than having to pay reasonable fees. I doubt that the Select Board would approve this approach.
Which is why I expect that a negative outcome on June 16th would require that we postpone our transition to automated trash collection.
To be clear, if YES prevails it will provide a significant cost benefit by encouraging a reduction in the volume of Lexington’s trash, as has happened in other towns. Enabling the shift to automated trash collection would be an important additional component of the cost savings (or avoidance of cost increases) resulting from YES on June 16th.
Peter Shapiro
I will be voting no on the proposal to impose fees for trash collection.
I object to the precedent of a new tax. The fees will become permanent and only increase over time. The time to say no is now. There will never be a proposal to remove the tax.
I object to the claim is that the town’s trash spending will decrease. The total spending will remain the same, but will only be allocated differently.
I am concerned about the unintended consequences to this new tax.
Residents will look for alternative ways to dispose of their trash. Will trash be left in the public collection sites on our streets meant for passersby? Or perhaps to utilize the bins behind restaurants and office buildings?
I fail to see how fairness to all residents is truly a concern when the cost of the new school is charged to all residents whether they have children or not. I have no children yet I believe schools should be a community responsibility. As should trash collection – the cost of which pales in comparison to the school.
I could not agree more that public schools are a community responsibility. My children graduated LHS more than a decade ago, and I continue living here, grateful for the education they received in this generous town, and proud to support this and future generations of Lexington’s children with my taxes. However, our tax dollars cover the costs of our public schools only up to a baseline. Beyond that, families pay out-of-pocket for school supplies, calculators, field trips, academic enrichment, test prep, and more—and none of us objects, or expects it to be otherwise. Similarly, our YES votes will retain a generous baseline for fee-free trash pick–up. It will also provide us with the convenience of additional curbside trash collection for a reasonable fee—all in the service of protecting our schools and other vital services from soaring trash costs. Additionally, my Lexington neighbors have given me every reason to hold them in high esteem. I cannot picture them cheating any new trash system that gets put into place.