New trash bags for Granby residents

GRANBY, Mass. (WWLP) - Starting Tuesday Granby residents will have to buy official Town of Granby blue trash bags in order to dump their trash in the town's landfill. 

The 68-acre Granby landfill is operated by Waste Management and it is set to close in the spring of 2013.  Because of this, the town has to pay $65 for every ton of Granby trash. 

According to Waste Management, Granby residents have dumped, on average, 3,000 to 3,500 tons of trash every year.  The town's administrator told 22News this program was put in place to reduce the volume of trash, minimize costs and encourage residents to recycle.  

“We pay for them [Waste Management]  to dispose of our waste.  The bag program was instituted as a way of offsetting those costs because we do not have excess local revenue to be able to pay for those costs,” said Granby Town Administrator, Chris Martin.  

James Curran, a resident of Granby said, “It's a dollar a bag, I think it's fair I think they should have started this 10 years ago. ”

The landfill is open Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays.  Town monitors see close to 400 people on weekdays and on Tuesday had to turn away about 30 percent of those who didn't have the bags. 

You can choose between 15-gallon and 33-gallon bags.  Bags can be found at the Big Y Supermarket and BP gas stations in Granby.