What trash costs town by town, from free stickers in Freetown to a $365 curbside bill in Wareham

SOUTH COAST Wareham's curbside trash service bills $365 a year, Seekonk's annual trash fee is $333.10 and Swansea's is $230, while Freetown gives each household two transfer station stickers free and sells green bags for its curbside trash, so the cost of getting rid of a household's trash runs from a few dollars a bag to several hundred dollars a year, depending on the town.

Two towns raised prices this summer, and a third is weighing an increase. Dartmouth's SMART program fee went from $110 to $140 a year this summer, and its orange bags went up July 27. Taunton's orange bags went to $15 for a roll of five on June 30. Dighton's selectmen had a public hearing on their Wednesday evening agenda for a Board of Health request to raise its town bags to $30 for a large roll and $15 for a small one.

What each town charges

Trash fees, transfer station stickers and town bags, as each town posts them

Town	How residents pay	What it costs
Dartmouth	SMART fee and orange bags at curbside	$140 a year. Rolls of five bags are $12 for 33 gallons and $6 for 14 gallons
Dighton	Town trash bags	$28 for a large roll and $14 for a small roll
Freetown	Green bags at curbside and a transfer station sticker	Five 33-gallon bags $12.50, five 15-gallon bags $6.25. Two stickers free, more at $30 a year
Lakeville	Transfer station sticker and town bags	$70 sticker, $10 for each added vehicle. Five 30-gallon bags $15, five 17-gallon bags $10
Marion	Transfer station sticker, curbside carts	$50 sticker, $40 for residents 70 and older and veterans
Seekonk	Annual trash fee and blue bags	$333.10 a year with the landfill capping charge. 10 large bags $15.30, 10 small bags $9.14
Somerset	Pay per bag and a transfer station pass	$3.50 for a 33-gallon bag, $2.25 for a 16-gallon bag. Pass $25 a year or $10 a day
Swansea	Annual fee and town bags	$230 a year. $3.50 for a 33-gallon bag, $2 for a 15-gallon bag, sold in packs of seven
Taunton	Orange bags at curbside	$15 for five 35-gallon bags
Wareham	Curbside carts or a transfer station sticker	Curbside $365 a year with one free sticker, or $245 for low-income seniors and seasonal residents. Sticker alone $125, or $62.50 for the same groups
Westport	Transfer station sticker and punch card	$50 sticker, $40 at 65 and older. $45 for 10 bag punches, $25 for five

What a bag costs

Among the towns that post how many bags come in a roll or card, a large bag costs the most in Westport, where each punch on a 10-punch card covers one bag of up to 33 gallons and comes to $4.50, or $5 on the five-punch card. A 33-gallon bag is $3.50 in Somerset and Swansea. Large bags come to $3 each in Lakeville and Taunton, $2.50 in Freetown, $2.40 in Dartmouth and $1.53 in Seekonk.

For a household that fills two large bags a week, or 104 a year, the yearly cost comes to about $492 in Seekonk and $594 in Swansea once the annual fee is added. The bags alone for that household come to $260 in Freetown, $312 in Taunton and $364 in Somerset.

Dartmouth's own comparison puts a family of four using about two large bags a week at $392 a year under SMART, against $527 to $1,183 a year for four other trash services it compared, and a single person using one small bag a week at $206.

What changed this year

Dartmouth's Board of Public Works voted July 22 to raise the SMART fee, and from July 27 a roll of small bags went from $5 to $6 and a roll of large bags from $10 to $12. The town said the increase was due to "rising operation costs and a need to build reserves for capital expenses, like new equipment." The fee covers weekly trash and recycling pickup, use of the transfer station and brush drop-off, seasonal yard waste collections and curbside bulky item pickup, which carries a fee per item. Through SMART, residents pay $25 a ton to dispose of trash against a market rate of $110 a ton, and the town projected more than $530,000 in savings for the 2026 fiscal year.

Taunton's roll of five 35-gallon orange bags has sold for $15 since Tuesday, June 30. The city's list of stores that sell them names 30, two of them in Raynham.

In Dighton, the Board of Health asked the selectmen to raise a large roll of bags from $28 to $30 and a small roll from $14 to $15, saying in an Oct. 20 letter that the town keeps falling into a deficit on disposal. SC360 reported on the request ahead of Wednesday's hearing and will report the selectmen's decision: Dighton selectmen weigh $30 trash bag rolls and higher health permit and burial fees Wednesday.

Somerset's current transfer station prices took effect March 17, 2025, and the station has not accepted punch cards since Nov. 16, 2024.

Other costs to know

Wareham curbside customers get a 64-gallon trash cart picked up weekly and a 96-gallon recycling cart picked up every other week, billed in two payments of $182.50. An extra trash cart costs $95 a year and an extra recycling cart $105. Curbside trash needs no town bags, which are required only at the transfer station. Only one residential hauler has been licensed in town since April 1, 2021, now EL Harvey.

Swansea's annual fee pays for curbside trash, recycling and yard waste, and the roughly 300 households that hire their own hauler are not eligible for the town's recycling and yard waste pickup. The town has no transfer station, and a tag for one curbside bulky item costs $35.

Recycling drop-off is free at the Westport and Freetown transfer stations, and Westport sells a $15 day pass. Seekonk charges $10 for a bulky waste curbside sticker, $16 for an appliance sticker and $65 for a mattress or box spring. In Fall River, where the city collects curbside, a bulky item pickup generally costs $12 for one to three items, and Taunton charges $35 to recycle each mattress or box spring at its Convenience Center on East Britannia Street.

Trash is one of several household bills SC360 is tracking town by town. See also Average single-family tax bills rose in all 19 South Coast communities as 18 wait on new rates.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.