Weston Select Board adopts pay-as-you-throw at $4 per bag, eliminates sticker fee

WESTON — April 13, 2021 — Weston Select Board endorses pay-as-you-throw with $4 bags and free transfer station access. The board voted 3-0 on April 13 to adopt a working-group proposal eliminating the transfer-station sticker fee and charging $4 per 33-gallon bag, projecting a 20 percent household trash reduction and roughly $264 in annual bag costs for a typical household versus a $255 current sticker. Chair Lori Bent, who led the working group with members David Ayer, Tom Darling, Elizabeth DiPietro and Phil Saunders, said "as a society, we can no longer tolerate the environmental impact of the open buffet trash system." The board also backed Article 26's $250,000 Memorial Pool design appropriation — driven by a $500,000-to-$750,000 filtration replacement on units nearing 30 years old — and Article 23's roughly $1 million Birch Lane duplex by the Weston Affordable Housing Foundation, despite unanimous Finance Committee opposition on cost-per-unit grounds. Positions on the four Riverside zoning articles were deferred pending the April 14 Planning Board continuation.