NAHANT — With the town’s Waste Management contract set to expire this June, Nahant will be forced to explore other options as global trash disposal prices reach an all-time high.
“Change may be coming,” said Town Administrator Tony Barletta, referring to Nahant’s current waste disposal methods. “The intent is to limit the increase in cost to the consumer.”
Although Nahant isn’t the only community affected by price hikes, Barletta explained the expiration of its contract with Waste Management comes at an especially inopportune time.
“Disposal rates went up fairly recently, so (Nahant’s) challenge is that … our contract will expire while there’s the most uncertainty around future recycling costs,” he said.
Recent price increases are the ripple effect of China’s 2018 National Sword Policy, which imposed strict regulations on the type of waste China will accept from other countries. According to npr.org, until two years ago, about 70 percent of the world’s plastic garbage was bought and processed by China every year.
In the wake of policy changes however, that number has dropped considerably.
“It’s a tough recycling market,” said MassDEP spokesman Edmund Coletta. “China used to take a massive amount of waste from other countries, (but now that it doesn’t), it’s caused quite a backup and created a difficult issue for folks here.”
Nahant’s current disposal rate is $76.54 per ton of trash, and $62.85 per ton of recyclable materials. Once its contract with Waste Management expires at the end of the fiscal year, the town could face cost increases of up to 25 percent.
To combat the inevitable strain on taxpayer wallets, Barletta said officials are considering multiple options.
“We could go out to bid, which is what the town did three years ago when we ended up with waste management,” Barletta said. “We can reach out to other trash hauler service companies on our own and get quotes that way, or we can renegotiate an extension or brand new contract with Waste Management.”
Barletta added the town is in talks with Waste Management about potential new contract options but as of now, nothing is set in stone.
“Because our rates were agreed upon prior to this national change in costs, Waste Management isn’t in favor of extending the contract under the current terms because their rates have gone up as well,” he said.
Board of Selectmen member Joshua Antrim said he is open to any ideas that will ease the burden of rising costs for residents.
“As a selectman, protecting taxpayer money is the primary importance, but I recognize people struggle with change sometimes,” he said. “It’s not necessarily a one-size-fits-all situation.”
