by Julie Gowel ·
Friday, February 6, 2026
People around town are talking trash. The quiet decision of the General Store to discontinue stocking the town trash bags, used at the Transfer Station, has sparked conversations that made it all the way to the Select Board.
For many Harvard residents, buying the town’s official trash bags has always been a routine errand—until recently. The unavailability of the bags in town has prompted a move by the Select Board to review the fairness, logistics, and behind-the-scenes work of running a pay-as-you-throw system. Discussions took place during their Jan. 20 and Feb. 3 meetings.
According to the town’s website, and confirmed by the Press, trash bags are available for purchase by residents at Shop ’n Save, Moore’s Hardware, and Toreku Tractor, all in Ayer; Donelan’s in Littleton, Roche Bros. in Acton, and Market Basket in Maynard. Locally, Westward Orchards stocks the bags seasonally.
“The places that sell the bags are doing us a huge favor,” said Libby Levison at the Feb. 3 meeting of the Select Board. Levison served on the Transfer Station Committee formed in 2018, and worked with town officials and the state Department of Environmental Protection to organize the pay-as-you-throw system. She explained how the system was developed to reduce waste as hauling and disposal charges rise. Levison said since the establishment of the system, the amount of waste leaving the Transfer Station has decreased by 47%.
The reason the bags can’t be resold at a higher price is that there is already an upcharge built into the amount retailers pay to buy and then resell the bags. Levison said the partnership with WasteZero allows the Transfer Station to “pay for itself” with the bag revenue. She added that the money the town gets for the bags pays 100% of the landfill hauling and tipping fees for the town’s trash.
Those fees will amount to $74,000 for fiscal year 2026, according to the Transfer Station’s fiscal 2026 budget.
The General Store had been stocking the bags for years, but recently made the decision to stop.
“We want to be able to do it for the town,” said Katie Croyle, a member of the ownership team for the General Store in an interview with the Press. “But it is truly not sustainable.” Croyle and Scott Hayward, owner of the General Store business, explained the reasoning behind their decision to stop providing the town trash bags.
Hayward said it came down to three main factors, the first being lack of profitability. Retailers are not allowed to mark up bags, which means they cannot make any money on the sale.
Second, the bags create cost to the General Store. Hayward said he is required to front the money to buy the bags from WasteZero. From 2020–2025, the General Store spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on bags. In 2025 alone, Hayward paid $48,600 up front, then paid employees to order and stock the bags, and used shelf space that could otherwise have been used for products that provide a profit margin.
The final factor in Hayward’s decision not to carry the bags came from data analysis he and his team performed. Over time, they found the additional foot traffic generated by carrying the bags did not contribute to store revenues.
“This is a cash flow business,” said Hayward. “If it snows, we get no revenue for two days, but we’ve still fronted the money for the bags. We’d love to be able to provide them, but not at a negative operating cost.”
So why doesn’t the town just sell the bags at the Transfer Station or Town Hall? According to Town Administrator Dan Nason, it’s not that simple.
“Selling bags at town buildings doesn’t easily solve the problem,” said Nason in an email to the Press. “In fact, it opens up more issues relative to logistics, potential software/hardware procurement, security, fraud, theft, errors, and responsibility changes with respect to job descriptions often requiring negotiations and grade changes of employees.”
During last month’s Select Board meeting, committee member Eve Wittenberg suggested selling the bags at the Harvard Senior Center, and using the sales role as a senior tax work-off position. Member Eric Ward went further to suggest just giving the bags to the Council on Aging and not charging older adults for trash.
Nason said at the Select Board meeting Feb. 3 that he is in talks with WasteZero about how the town can make the bags available for purchase at the Transfer Station. The board agreed to discuss the issue further at its next meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
Eric Ryder, Harvard’s newly appointed director of public works, said in an interview with the Press that he has been learning more about the issue as he settles into his role.
“I know it’s something we’re going to have an internal conversation about,” Ryder said. “We have to think through the process of how we’re going to be able to do this and make it efficient for the residents. I don’t want to speak for any other department, but it is a priority of mine. I will say that we’ll have a resolution soon.”
Valerie Hurley and John Osborn contributed to this report.