Did you know that your annual vehicle registration fee could be helping your town with its recycling efforts?
In New Hampshire, a law passed in 1989 (RSA 261:153) allows municipalities to collect a small additional fee during vehicle registration to create a town reclamation trust fund. This fund is specifically designed to help with the costs of collecting and disposing of certain difficult-to-recycle items.
How It Works: The Fee Structure
Towns can choose to add these fees to vehicle registrations, with the amount depending on the type of vehicle.
$5 for heavy vehicles: This includes heavy trucks, buses, and trailers over 18,000 pounds.
$3 for light vehicles: This category covers most automobiles and light trucks.
$2 for other vehicles: This applies to all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, historic vehicles, and trailers.
Of each fee collected, $0.50 can be kept by the town for administrative costs. The rest goes directly into the reclamation trust fund. Initially, these funds are used to pay for the collection and disposal of vehicle-related waste like tires, motor oil, and batteries. If there's extra money in the fund, it can then be used for other recycling and solid waste programs.
A major benefit of this system is that if your town charges this fee during registration, it cannot charge you an additional fee to drop off these specific vehicle wastes at the town's solid waste facility. This simplifies the process and encourages residents to properly dispose of these items.
Setting Up a Trust Fund
For a town to start collecting these fees, it must first establish a reclamation trust fund. This is typically done through a warrant article at a town meeting. Once approved, the fund is managed by a board of trustees, similar to funds for libraries or parks.
To figure out how much money a town could generate through vehicle registration fees for recycling, towns can contact the NH Department of Safety for information on the number and type of vehicles registered in their community. The law strongly encourages communities to collect the fees and to establish a town recycling fund to improve their local recycling and waste management programs, including the collection and reclamation of motor vehicle wastes.
Towns and cities in NH that currently have an established reclamation trust fund include Nashua, Manchester, Concord, Londonderry, Jefferson, Peterborough, Derry, and Grantham.
NHDES Fact Sheet: Using Vehicle Registration Fees for Municipal Recycling
