Please visit Portsmouth Recycles for general questions regarding recycling and click here for more details on the Transfer Station

No. The Town of Portsmouth encourages residents to recycle as much as they can. The more you recycle, the fewer bags you will need to purchase and the more money you save.

Purchase a Transfer Station sticker at the Tax Collector’s office at Portsmouth Town Hall and affix it to your passenger side windshield upper right corner, just below the tint. Then, simply buy orange Portsmouth PAYT bags at retail stores throughout the town and nearby area, and dispose of your trash in these bags as you normally would. Only the trash you put in these bags will be accepted.

In general, Portsmouth’s PAYT program may bring municipal, residential, and environmental benefits. • Residents may benefit in a number of ways. – The program is more equitable. Right now, every household, regardless of size, pays the same fee. With the new program, people who generate less trash would pay less by using fewer bags. It reminds people to recycle more. – The more a community can recycle, the greater the chances of increasing its job opportunities in the recycling/reuse industries. – With the choice of how much they want to recycle, residents now have more control of their trash bills. • Environmental benefits come from a slowdown in the growth of landfill space, as well as reduced greenhouse gas emissions and water and soil contamination. • Municipalities benefit from savings in reduced tipping fees and possibly from earnings from recycling revenue.

The official Portsmouth PAYT trash bags covers the cost of transport and disposal of the waste at Central Landfill in RI.

If large families buy more than smaller families, they will have more to throw away and will have to buy more trash bags. This program gives them a chance and an incentive to lower their costs by recycling everything they can.

“PAYT” stands for Pay-As-You-Throw. The Pay-As-You-Throw system is one in which residents pay a basic fee to cover the fixed costs of trash management and also a user fee for the amount used—much like the way we use and pay for electricity, water, or gas. Portsmouth’s PAYT program is based on a pay-per-bag basis.

Because many seniors produce less waste than other residents, mini (8-gallon) bags are available for seniors (and anyone else who generates small amounts of trash).

To the contrary, pay-as-you-throw gives low-income residents the opportunity to control their expenses for solid waste disposal—an opportunity that they did not have previously.

Contact WasteZero Customer Service at 1-800-866-3954 for a replacement bag. When calling, please provide the 7-9 digit code stamped on the bag.