Garbage collection fees may go up by 14% for Lower Merion residents in 2027
Without a fee increase, officials say the township's solid waste fund will face a $1.3 million deficit.
Lower Merion is considering a 14% increase in trash and recycling collection fees as the township’s solid waste fund stares down a $1.3 million deficit.
Township commissioners at a Sept. 23 meeting advanced an ordinance that would raise fees for garbage and recycling collection in January 2027. If approved, mini-can collection fees would increase from $303 to $345 per year, standard can collection from $465 to $530 per year, and enhanced collection from $686 to $782 per year. Residents who pay additional fees to have trash collected from the rear of their homes, rather than curbside, would also see the 14% increase.
The new fee schedule would bring in an additional $1.14 million in revenue that township officials say would stabilize Lower Merion’s solid waste fund, which is facing a cascade of financial pressures.
Lower Merion’s refuse division provides trash and recycling services to over 16,900 residential customers annually, collecting 15,000 tons of trash, 3,000 tons of recycled paper and cardboard, and 2,000 tons of commingled recycling.
The township’s trash and recycling collection declined steadily from 2007 through 2014, and has been relatively flat since (with a temporary bump during COVID). Adam Szumski, the township’s chief financial officer, said in an email that the township believes the pre-2014 decline was due to manufacturers reducing the amount of material in disposable and recyclable packaging over time.
As collection volume has remained steady, costs have gone up.
Labor, vehicle replacement, and garbage disposal costs have all risen, all while revenue, including grant funding and the money Lower Merion receives for its paper recycling, have gone down, officials said.
The township added a crew of three refuse collectors in 2023, increasing personnel costs. All the while, wages and health insurance costs for existing employees have gone up, putting pressure on the fund.
Healthcare utilization is 12% above expected levels for 2026, Szumski said at the Sept. 23 meeting.
Township manager Ernie McNeely said Lower Merion is also expecting a double digit increase in healthcare premium costs for 2027.
“It’s an enormously challenging issue,” commissioner V. Scott Zelov said of the solid waste fund at the meeting.
The goal is “to be able to say that fees would increase no more than inflation,” Zelov said, “but we’re not there because of these different difficult impacts on this fund. We would like to get there.”
Commissioners unanimously voted to move the ordinance forward. The board will officially vote on it later this year.
Commissioner Gilda Kramer voted to advance the fee increase, but said the board should consider reviewing how it charges for solid waste collection.
“The burden falls, in my view, inequitably on the smallest assessed homeowners,” Kramer said.
Inquirer Lower Merion
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