By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — Will the bulky waste coupons go from paper to digital? Talk of such a transition has been on the table for almost a year.

Currently, in the towns of Casco and Naples, the bulky waste coupons are coveted by residents. The tickets come in 20-pound increments, and allow taxpayers to use the bulky waste facility to get rid of construction debris, yard clippings and large unwanted items. Each year, every home-owner gets a ton or 2,000 pounds worth of coupons to use the Casco-Naples Bulky Waste Facility.

One of the biggest drawbacks is the printing cost associated with the coupon method. Typically, January is the deadline for the bulky-waste-coupons order to go to the printers. Coupons are distributed before July 1, which is the beginning of the fiscal year.

Therefore, in late 2023, the timeframe was insufficient to transition from a coupon booklet to a more modern method.

Last week, the Casco-Naples Bulky Waste and Transfer Station Council decided to hold a workshop to learn more about a Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) method of keeping track of bulky waste drop-offs.

After hearing the details of the system, Bulky Waste Supervisor John Kimball agreed it was time for a replacement.

“We are ready to upgrade. The system we have now is obsolete. We need to check what the new price is today. We are ready to upgrade,” Kimball said.

A workshop with the company V-Tech will be scheduled for the council to learn more about the system. A date was not set for that workshop yet.

During last week’s meeting, Naples Town Manager Jason Rogers said he and Casco Town Manager Tony Ward attended a Zoom conference with V-tech Hardware Products, out of Missouri.

“The package would include a scaling system with a self-serve kiosk and RFID reader,” Rogers said.

Rogers revealed the price of $130,000, which integrates with facility’s current scale system. Also, the system can be set up to calculate surcharges on certain materials.

“V-tech confirmed that would work. The implementation period is six to eight weeks,” he said.

Rogers said the $130,000 cost was for the Cadillac package that had been presented. A lower price was another option, he said.

“We don’t need the full Cadillac package,” he said.

Rogers explained to the council how the proposed system would work.

“A resident would pull up to scale. The kiosk would read RFID tag. It would tell how much poundage was used, and how much is left. Each resident gets a tag. That tag has a finite amount of pounds. It will have a more accurate count, more accurate weight, better accountability for folks handling the waste,” he said.

Also, people will get a printed receipt or email message, informing them of poundage left on their tag, he said. 

“There would be a fee associated with a lost tag at a rate that encourages people not to lose the tag,” Rogers said. 

He expressed some excitement that RFID tags could be programed for multiple uses. People in Naples could use RFID reader to use the beach at Kent’s Landing.

On the flip side, if someone had an overdue property tax bill, the bulky waste privileges could be turned off on the RFID tag, he said.

Next spring, when the towns have completed the renovations to bulky waste, it would be nice to implement the changes to the bulky waste drop-off method, he said.

“We have to make a decision before January because that is when we order all the bulky waste coupons,” Rogers concluded.

It isn’t a done deal yet.

“This is the preliminary outreach to see if is a viable option, and to have the education on it,” Town Manager Ward said.