Around New England

Fall River Mayor Wants To Toss Pay-As-You-Throw Trash Policy

May 11, 2018

In August 2014 the city of Fall River started requiring residents to put their trash in purple bags that they had to buy in order to get the city to pick up their trash.

The contractor who pitched the idea to city officials said it would bring in significant revenue to the city and reduce waste by half, according to the Fall River Herald News.

Instead, residents rebelled, many disregard the purple bags, and the dissent helped lead to a recall election that ousted the mayor. The new mayor tried to save the program (and revenue projections) by implementing a $10 monthly fee on top of the purple trash bag purchases, but that also failed, and he was defeated in the November 2015 election.

Under the third (and current) mayor, the city started issuing fines for not using purple bags for trash, but as of September 2016 only five people had paid the fines, according to the Fall River Herald News. Subsequent attempts to ticket scofflaws also failed.

Finally, on Thursday, May 10, 2018, the mayor proposed a budget that gets rid of purple bags and pay-as-you-throw altogether.