Windham stores have already begun stocking the town’s new, more durable trash bags for curbside disposal, priced at $12.50 for a roll of 10 small bags or five large bags. That’s a $2.50 increase from the price of the old bags, bringing the price of each individual bag up to $1.25.

The new price increase has left some in town wondering.

“I think we could have paid the same price and gotten better quality because those other ones were terrible,” says Kyle Silva of Maplewood Avenue.

The new bags are much thicker than the old bags, which used to break and spill garage everywhere, Silva said.

The cost of these trash bags pay, in part, for Windham’s curbside recycling program where trash and recycling is picked up outside homes. But to avoid paying for the trash bags, some residents illegally dump their trash into business’ Dumpsters, on town property, in the woods and most recently at the town’s leaf and brush disposal area. And although illegal dumpers may be saving themselves money, they are costing local small businesses and the town.

“We’ve tried to lock the Dumpsters,” said Dave Garry, owner of Thatcher’s in the mall, “But locks have been cut, or keys have been lost or they’ve frozen in the winter.”

It’s easier to work around the problem, Garry said, and stay vigilant for illegal dumpers. The dumping is constant, he said, and he and other shop-owners at the Windham Mall must pay for disposal of Dumpster trash, regardless of whether the trash is theirs or not.

But this illegal dumping is nothing new, says Mall owner Lionel Gagnon.

“It’s a very old tradition,” said Gagnon of the illegal dumping which has been going on since he bought the property years ago. “What can you do when people deface your property in the dark of the night.”

Gagnon said people continuously dump trash in their Dumpsters, as well as TV’s and furniture and anything else. People even dump trash around the Dumpster when it’s full and overflowing into a stream that borders the property. Often when Gagnon catches someone doing it, they tell him “Oh, I didn’t know we couldn’t throw our trash here.”

Gagnon believes that most people are honest and use the curbside pick-up for trash disposal, but then again: “It only takes a small group of people to ruin it for everybody.”

Illegal dumping became such a problem at the town’s “Silver Bullets” recycling sites – behind Big Lots at the mall and at the Family Resource Center on Route 202 – that the town had to close them last April. Those “Silver Bullets” have since been moved to Public Works and reopened, thanks to former town councilor Tom Bartell who insisted that the program be reinstated if the town increased the price of its trash bags.

So far there has been no illegal dumping at the new location, said Doug Fortier, director of Public Works. Since the Silver Bullets are open only during Public Works hours (6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) and watched over by the Public Works crew, Fortier said it would be “brazen” for someone to illegally dump there now.

“So far, so good,” Fortier said. “We haven’t had trash around them. People seem to put the proper things in them.”

There has been steady illegal dumping – tires, cans, newspapers, etc. – at the leaf and brush disposal area at Public Works. The town is now looking to prosecute those responsible for illegal dumping at the leaf and brush site.

When asked whether he expected to see more illegal dumping due to the price increase for trash bags, Fortier said he didn’t think so because “the honest people are honest anyway.”

Dumpsters fill up quick behind the Windham Mall because of illegal dumping of household trash from residents who avoid paying for curbside service.