The Boothbay Regional Refuse Disposal District unanimously approved the Fiscal Year 2017 operating budget on Jan. 14. The $1,626,167 budget is $36,750 more than the previous budget. Operations Manager Steve Lewis attributed the increase to an eight-percent rise in health insurance costs, higher tipping fees and reduced performance credits paid by Penobscot Energy Recovery Company in Orrington.

The budget will cost the district’s four members — Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Edgecomb and Southport — 2.9 percent more in the next fiscal year. The district is requesting $1,101,167 or a 2.93 percent increase from its members.

The operating budget includes a new Peterbilt truck. The trustees have budgeted $25,000 per year for five years to purchase a new truck. The district wants to replace its current roll-off truck, a 2010 Peterbilt model with approximately 320,000 miles.

“We try to spread out the purchase of trucks every five years so we don’t buy two at once. At least, that’s the plan,” Lewis said.

The district also continued receiving decreased amounts of cardboard and newspaper in 2015, according to Lewis’ report. The district received 250 tons of cardboard and 70 tons of newsprint last year. Both figures continued the trend of receiving fewer recyclable materials.

Lewis told the trustees, the district has gone from receiving 220 tons of newsprint in 2002 to 70 tons in 2015.

“It has been a constant decrease every year. It just shows you that we live in a digital age. There is just not the demand for newsprint as there once was,” he said.

The district will no longer recycle sheet rock. The district is sending notices in the January bills about the policy change. The BRRDD will accept sheet rock until its contract with Commercial Paving and Reycling Corporation in Scarborough expires in the next couple of months.

“CPRC is no longer accepting sheet rock because there is no longer a market for it,” Lewis said. “We’ve notified our customers about the change. So now they will put their sheet rock in the construction dumpster.”

Lewis estimates the cost for disposing of sheet rock will go from $80 to $120 per ton.

The trustees will meet next at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 11 in the district business office.