Yarmouth-Barnstable Regional Transfer Station

The facility takes in trash truck deliveries from the towns of all of towns east of Sandwich. Independent commercial haulers also deliver solid waste to the facility and are billed by the station on a tonnage basis. Trash is transferred to railroad hopper cars and transported to the SEMASS waste-to-energy plant in Rochester, Massachusetts.

The facility is owned jointly by Barnstable and Yarmouth. It is managed under the oversight of the Cape Cod Commission, the state's regional planning, regulatory and permitting agency for the Cape Cod district.[1]

The transfer station was built and opened following the EPA's mandated closure of unlined landfills in the early 1980s, after which many Cape Cod communities signed agreements to send their municipal waste to SEMASS.[1] The facility, through consolidation of trash receipts, was intended to minimize the number of garbage trucks making round trips between their respective towns and SEMASS to conserve fuel, lower transportation costs, reduce vehicle exhaust pollution, and mitigate traffic congestion on and near the two bridges spanning the Cape Cod Canal.[1] Massachusetts Coastal Railroad, a subsidiary of Cape Rail Inc., is the rail service provider for the facility.[2]

The towns served by the station have 30-year disposal contracts with SEMASS that are set to expire between 2015 and 2016. As of 2013 the present-day per-ton rates paid by the towns are all well below market rates, and new agreements will be far more expensive. The Cape Cod Commission is exploring future means of trash disposal for all 15 towns within the district, including transport to out-of-state facilities, but most of the options under consideration would retain and perhaps expand use of the station.[1]

• Environment of the United States