The dumpsters provide an important service for residents who miss pickup or cannot get a truck to their homes, but the town says the current arrangement creates safety and liability concerns.
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The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Maine Seacoast Mission.
MOUNT DESERT—The dumpster dilemma in Northeast Harbor continued to create discussion at its Selectboard meeting this week.
The concern about the current dumpsters at the town garage is that they are a significant liability for the town. That’s what the Maine Municipal Risk Assessment determined earlier this year.
That risk is because of the site’s unrestricted access and other variables, Public Works Director Brian Henkel explained.
The three dumpsters at the town garage have an express use, he said.
“These are for people that have missed trash day for whatever reason—or they’re going to be gone ahead of trash day—and they’re going to drop off a few bags of their household trash in lieu of taking it to EMR or leaving it out or the bears might get it or raccoons or whatever because of timing and whatnot,” Henkel told the Selectboard.
Currently the conditions at the site allow for 24-hour unrestricted access.
“Even without the dumpsters, a 24-hour unrestricted access to a public works site is not a great idea, but put the dumpsters there and it becomes sort of an any hour’s go-to for getting rid of any and all manner of things,” Henkel said. “That was sort of the thing that triggered Maine Municipal to kind of flag it as as a potential liability risk for the town. We have health and safety risks for residents if they’re there at whatever hours if it’s dark out and we don’t have adequate lighting or even if it’s during the daytime and they’re intermixed with all of the other activities that are happening at that same location. There’s no monitoring of anything that’s happening, so, we don’t know what has been placed there and what it could potentially mean for someone else coming in later: sharps, broken glass, open metal, whatever it is. They’re bringing in their personal vehicles in amongst a place that has very large trucks moving around.”
That’s also a liability.
Data collected this summer indicated that in just one week in August, 20.8 tons of trash was left at the town garage. Approximately 40.7 tons of garbage was picked up throughout the town via roadside collections. He estimated 35% of all the town’s solid waste ends up in the dumpster at the town garage.
At the busiest time of the year, that means that town employees empty those dumpsters at the town garage three times every work day. That process can take up to an hour if there is a lot of trash in the dumpsters.
Those dumpster at the town garage are supposed to be only for household trash. Sometimes people have a hard time getting their trash to the designated places for roadside pickup. Henkel wants those people to reach out to him so that they can find a way to take care of it.
That’s happened before.
“There are other circumstances where I’ve talked to people and they’re on a road and there’s six houses on it and there’s no way to get a trash truck down there. So, we can’t make accommodations for everybody, but I can’t make accommodations for anyone that I don’t hear from. So, please, by all means, let me know and and we can do a lot of things to try,” Henkel said.
The crew at the location are typically mechanics.
Each year, the town pays $480,000 in tipping fees. Those are fees paid to dispose of waste in a landfill. It’s usually based on the amount of waste dumped. One third of that cost (the dumpsters) is approximately $160,000. Those figures do not include bulky waste nor Mount Desert Residents bringing their own trash to the EMR Transfer Station in Southwest Harbor. Simple household trash brought to EMR from Mount Desert does not have to be weighed, Henkel stressed.
Henkel spoke of potential paths forward for the town.
If someone misses trash day for that kitchen style trash, they just need to call public works and they will pick up that trash, he said.
“We have trucks running around all the time and we are very able and willing to grab something that has been missed,” said Henkel.
Henkel said he’s looking into upgrading the camera system at the site. However, that could require dedicating staff to watching the cameras. Enforcement needs to happen, but it’s not a silver bullet, he said.
Some Selectboard members worried that if they simply gated it off all the time, people would just leave trash outside of the gates. For the property to be an official transfer station would require extensive work to comply with state regulations.
Other potential changes could be a garbage hotline, restricting access, changing the site of where those three dumpsters exist.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
The Town of Mount Desert uses Municipal WasteHub will be starting “One Bin, All In” recycling beginning May 2026.
EMR Transfer Station – 47 Long Pond Road, Southwest Harbor
Residents can take up to 2,000 lbs of waste to EMR yearly without cost. (link)
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