Gloucester's trash bill jumps to $4.9 million. Here is who pays, and how it compares

Gloucester's new trash carts come with a much bigger city trash bill.

The city budgeted $4.92 million for trash and recycling for the year that began July 1. That is up 69% from $2.91 million the year before, the largest single increase in the city budget. Most of the jump is the new Casella contract, which replaced Republic Services and the purple bags on Oct. 1.

Here is where the money goes, who pays it and how a Gloucester household's cost compares with its neighbors.

Where the money goes

The contract line in the budget is $4.77 million. Almost all of it is the price of curbside pickup, $4.08 million, plus about $605,000 in disposal fees for an expected 7,200 tons of trash. The rest pays for downtown barrels, roll-off containers, the compost site and the yearly hazardous waste day.

The curbside pickup price alone works out to about $297 for each of the 13,750 households in the city program. That is almost exactly the $300 standard fee.

Who pays

Before the switch, purple bag sales brought in $1.44 million in the year that ended June 30, 2025, about 53% of what the city spent on trash. The rest came from the general fund, which is mostly property taxes.

This year the budget counts on $2.77 million from the new cart fees. The public works director told the Budget and Finance Committee on Sept. 3 that he expects about $2.5 million. Either way, fees cover a little more than half the cost. The city's chief administrative officer has said the general fund has paid about half the cost of trash service and will again this year.

The budget also uses $1 million of one-time money from the city's capital stabilization fund, a savings account for big purchases. The budget book says it is to offset the cost of trash carts and other items. That money will not be there next year.

Counted per household, the city's trash cost rose from about $196 two years ago to about $358 this year. Fees went from about $105 to about $182 per household, and the share from the city budget went from about $91 to about $176. Using the budget book's higher fee estimate, the budget share is about $157.

The average fee is $182, not $300, because seniors pay half, some homes chose the $200 smaller cart and some opted out for a private hauler. The city has not said how many did each.

What you pay

Every eligible home got the standard service unless it asked for a change: a 65-gallon trash cart and a 65-gallon recycling cart for $300 a year. A smaller 35-gallon trash cart is $200. Residents 65 and older get half off at their own home. The public works director said a typical household spent about $208 a year on purple bags.

How Gloucester compares

For a household that puts out one large bag a week, Gloucester's $300 is about the same as Rockport, where a $140 transfer station sticker plus bags comes to about $296 but you drive it to the dump yourself. Essex is higher, about $358 in sticker and bags. Manchester's cart is $100, and Hamilton and Ipswich charge nothing for the first bin.

Those low prices are not the whole story. Towns that charge less at the curb pay more from the tax bill. When each town's average budget share is added, Gloucester comes to about $476 for that household, Manchester about $425, Hamilton about $427, Essex about $387 and Ipswich about $339. These are town averages, not anyone's tax bill, which depends on a home's value.

What to watch

• Next year's budget. The $1 million in one-time money and a disposal fee that rises 5% a year mean the trash budget will need more from fees or taxes next year unless costs come down.
• Trash tonnage. Gloucester threw away about 976 pounds per household in 2025 under purple bags. Statewide, towns with carts throw away more than towns that charge by the bag. The city has not published tonnage since the switch.

Earlier coverage

• Gloucester's $179 million budget, line by line (Oct. 5), with the full city budget and a tax calculator
• Casella takes over Gloucester trash pickup Thursday as purple bags end (Oct. 1), on the contract, fees and bulk items
• Gloucester carts bunched at the curb on Casella's first pickup day (Oct. 1), with a guide to setting out carts
• Manchester's new trash carts: who pays more, who pays less and how the neighbors compare (Oct. 6), with a full town by town comparison
• Also in this series: Rockport's trash costs and Essex's trash costs