Fairfield solid waste director: MSW down about 1,400 tons; projected revenue to fall

The Fairfield Solid Waste & Recycling director reported that municipal solid waste tonnage for FY26 fell by nearly 1,400 tons compared with the prior year — about 800 tons from commercial accounts and roughly 200 tons from residential collections — and that recycling tonnage also declined. “In the MSW, we’re down, almost 1,400 tons,” the director said during the meeting.

Staff said the decline reduces the revenue the town expected to receive from MSW fees and will partially offset savings from lower operational expenses. The director presented a year-end projection of about 29,500 tons of garbage for the coming year and roughly 4,300 tons of recycling, saying those figures were derived by carrying FY26 trends forward.

The director and commissioners emphasized that recycling contamination enforcement in FY26 — which resulted in some loads being reclassified and billed as garbage — contributed to the fall in reported recycling tonnage but also reduced disposal costs. Commissioners said they would factor the lower tonnages into the FY27 budget discussion and asked staff for preliminary budget figures at the next meeting.