# Solid Waste & Recycling: what the town votes for it

One of twelve departments in the omnibus budget Town Meeting votes each spring. [All twelve together](/analysis/town-budgets).

## What it is

Trash and recycling. The fastest-growing line in the budget by rate, and small enough that the rate moves the total very little.

## The department

| | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| voted | $312,634 | $352,775 | $469,775 |
| a year | 22.6% |  |  |
| share of the budget | 1.1% |  |  |
| pull on total growth | +0.21 |  |  |

## Its lines, as printed

### FY2023

| line | label | voted |
|---|---|---:|
|  | Solid Waste/RecyclingProgram | — |
| 73 | Recycling Program | $312,634 |
| | **total** | **$312,634** |

The page prints **$312,634** for this department. The lines above come to the same.

### FY2024

| line | label | voted |
|---|---|---:|
|  | Bldgs | — |
|  | Solid Waste/Recycling | — |
|  | Program | — |
| 73 | Recycling Program | $352,775 |
| | **total** | **$352,775** |

The page prints **$352,775** for this department. The lines above come to the same.

### FY2025

| line | label | voted |
|---|---|---:|
|  | Solid Waste/ReckclingProgram | — |
| 73 | Recycling Program | $469,775 |
| | **total** | **$469,775** |

The page prints **$469,775** for this department. The lines above come to the same.

## What moved

Lines that appear in FY2023 and FY2025 under the same printed label, biggest move first.

| line | FY2023 | FY2025 | change |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| Recycling Program | $312,634 | $469,775 | +$157,141 |

## What this cannot show

- What any department ASKED for. The omnibus is what Town Meeting voted, which is already balanced — the difference between a request and a vote is where a cut lives, and the annual report prints only the second.
- What was actually spent. Voted and spent are different quantities and rule 1 forbids mixing them in one calculation.
- Whether any department reduced SERVICE. A department can hold its dollars and cut its hours, and a dollar figure will not say so.
- Why any line moved. The omnibus states an amount and gives no reason for it, so every explanation of a movement here would be a hypothesis.
- Anything about FY2026 below the total. The FY2025 annual report prints no department figures at all.
- That growing faster than the levy cap is a problem. Proposition 2½ limits the LEVY, not the budget: the budget is the levy plus state aid, local receipts and transfers, and new growth raises the levy limit on top of the 2.5%. The cap is used here as a common reference point every board in town already uses — it is not a ceiling anybody breached.