LEBANON — In welcome news to some non-resident patrons of Lebanon’s landfill, unused punch cards may be returned for a refund at several area locations.

Beginning Jan. 1, the use of pre-paid punch cards for bagged trash became restricted to Lebanon residents. The change was announced by the city as early as October but caught some people off-guard, leaving them with unusable pre-paid cards.

Outside of Lebanon, the landfill serves residents from 22 additional towns in the Twin States.

The first week of January saw a number of non-Lebanon residents posting on local Listservs in hopes of selling their cards, which cost $20 each for 10 punches. “I sold my punch cards quickly,” Woodstock resident Jean Howe, who offered four cards for $60, said in an email Thursday. “I was disappointed that Lebanon wouldn’t buy them back or just let us use them up!”

Local town offices fielded complaints as well.

“We’ve had a couple of calls” from residents complaining about the new policy, Plainfield Town Administrator Stephen Halleran said.

The town took steps to prepare residents for the change, halting the sale of punch cards in October. But the closure of the landfill on the last Saturday in December came as a surprise to some, who had planned on using their remaining punches that day. “That frustrated folks a little,” said Halleran.

Unused punch cards may be returned for a refund at LaValley Building Supply, West Lebanon Feed and Supply or Jake’s Mechanic Street location, according to a message posted by Hamilton Gillett, program coordinator for the Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste Management District, to a number of local Listservs on Tuesday.

“The vendors have been really great partners” in agreeing to refund the cards, Lebanon’s solid waste manager Erica Douglas said Thursday.

Until Gillett’s Listserv posts, the refund policy had not been publicly announced. The city was simply confirming the availability of refunds when asked, Douglas said.

The city itself will not issue refunds because the punch cards were purchased by the three businesses, Lebanon City Manager Shaun Mulholland said on Wednesday. But Lebanon Feed and Supply general manager Chris Mazurek said on Thursday that for every non-resident punch card refunded by his store, the city will replace it with a Lebanon-resident card that the store can then sell. No proof of purchase is required for refunds, according to Mazurek, just the card, which may be either unused or partially punched.

Non-Lebanon residents can still bring trash the landfill, but they must now use the purple “pay as you throw” (PAYT) trash bags, which were first introduced by the city in August. The PAYT bags are available at the Hanover and West Lebanon CVS stores, Shaw’s, both Price Choppers and the Lebanon and Hanover Co-op Food Stores.

The PAYT bags are available in 15- and 30-gallon sizes. A roll of 10 15-gallon bags costs $10, while a roll of five 30-gallon bags is $10.

“We are trying to get everyone onto the purple bags,” said Douglas in a Jan. 5 interview. “But allowing Lebanon residents to continue with punch cards was an interim measure to smooth the process.” She said that there was no specific timeline for phasing out the punch cards for Lebanon residents.

The goal, according to Douglas, is to reduce trash and standardize collection and reporting.

“Making sure everyone is treated equally and fairly is really important,” Douglas said. When people were bringing in bags of various sizes, it was difficult to establish consistency about the number of punches, so the uniform sizes of the purple bags will make things easier.

“If it helps them to be more organized, more power to them,” White River Junction resident Tucker Adams said. He agreed with Douglas that the previous policies for un-bagged trash were subjective: “It was a little too loose,” he said.

For construction debris and the like, “the majority of people will be hopping on our scale” and paying via credit card, Douglas said.

“We were having a huge issue with people coming in with huge un-bagged loads and not having enough punches on their cards, because they didn’t know what the cost would be. They’d have to leave and purchase more punch cards,” Douglas said. The bag requirements are designed to make things easier for everyone.

Another recent change at the landfill is that the old QR-code permits became invalid on Dec. 31. Anyone wishing to use the landfill now has to register for a new permit, which will be associated with the license plate on their car.

“People were making copies of the old permits and giving them to friends,” Douglas said. She hopes that the new system will help cut down on fraud.

Howe, of Woodstock, found the the permit renewal requirement challenging. “The first day we used the landfill was frustrating. We sat in line to reach the scale house only to be turned away to get a new permit in the on-site office.” she said. “Then we stood in line to get the new permit and finally sat in line again to get rid of our trash.”

A police car was visible at the landfill during most of the first week of January in a preemptive effort to discourage bad behavior. The landfill staff has reported “a lot of aggression” and received some threats in the past, Douglas said. She wanted to make sure that the transition to the new permits and bags was without conflict.

“There have been no incidents at the landfill since the policy changes took effect on Jan. 1,” said Lebanon Police Capt. Alan Lowe.

On Jan. 5, the landfill’s office on Plainfield Road in West Lebanon was busy with users stopping in to register for the new permits. “I used up my punch card intentionally before they expired,” said Chris Pressey-Murray, of Hanover, who also said that the new system is easier for her, since she shops at the co-op anyway. “I think it’s more convenient to buy the bags.”

Lebanon resident Olive MacGregor was pleased with the new guidelines and said: “I like how it is now. I recycle a lot, so I don’t make much trash.”

For more information on punch cards or permits, contact Erica Douglas at 603-298-6486.

Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603-727-3208.

CORRECTION: Local vendors LaValley Building Supply, West Lebanon Feed and Supply and Jake’s Mechanic Street location will refund Lebanon landfill punch cards that are either unused or partially punched. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated which cards could be redeemed for a refund.