First the workers are awesome, very helpful and friendly and are due 5 stars. 3- stars is only because I find a few flaws in the dump permit process and hours. Just a quick update the permit is $35 a year as of 2025 and has been for the 6+ years I have lived here. and if you total your vehicle in that year and don’t have the opportunity to peel the dump sticker off your windshield and somehow affix it to a new windshield, you must purchase another sticker despite offering proof that the other vehicle is no longer in your possession. The dump permits are by a fiscal year, so they expire September 30 so if you move here in August and buy a sticker, you need another one September 30. Just like when I lost my sticker to totaling my car I had to buy a new sticker for just a couple months only to buy another September 30. I think this is pretty crazy, I can’t image it reduces money spent on record keeping, the town hall uses computers, it’s not as if someone has to dig through files…. I find the hours strange as well, Sunday and Monday are closed, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are 7am to 2:45 pm, Wednesday is 7am to 6:45 pm so that’s the only day I am able to squeeze in one trip after work and we need a couple trips a week or my several barrels at home are overflowing. So I have to go Saturday a couple trips and the line is long!! The line does move quickly, but since the weekday hours are not conducive to anyone with a 9-5 schedule, I have to go multiple times on Saturday’s and it amounts to a couple hours of back n forth and wait in line. I have a very rigid dump schedule or my yard is full of trash. A Wednesday I have to work late or a Saturday I am not feeling well and my yard is full of trash. I have 5- large outdoor barrels. We have 5 people in the home and my youngest is 14, so we develop a significant amount of trash especially boxes from my elderly mother’s Amazon addiction, lol.
I forgot to add the clothing donation bins are on the property and I greatly appreciate that because they aren’t as easy to find as they once were. It saddens me to waste clothes especially kids clothes they outgrew before wearing more than a couple times.
Moved to Salem, NH in July 2021. There is no trash pick up at my home unless I pay for trash pickup service through a third-party. However, Salem offers a dump site for $10 a year. Really simple.
You have to have a ($10) sticker on your driver's window which you get from Salem, NH town hall first. With the sticker you also get three tickets for up to three large items per year. I have yet to use them. I brought a refrigerator and a hospital bed, both not meeting the criteria for "large item."
BONUS: My understanding is that senior citizens who live in Salem, NH are exempt from the $10 and get to bring their trash to the transfer station at no charge. However, even though it's free for senior citizens of Salem, NH, they still have to go to Town Hall to get a sticker to put on the driver's door of the vehicle they use.
You drive in, and depending upon the time of day and day of week there may be a line of cars but it's quick. You get up there, you back in and you throw your trash through one of the several large openings then leave.
They also have a recycle bin -- which is very important for the town as it not only saves the environment, it reduces the cost for trash. You throw metal in one pile off to the side but then all other recyclables go in one bin in the same building where trash goes.
Because it's a garbage site then depending on heat and humidity can be quite stinky. Nonetheless the workers there are very friendly and very helpful to direct where you need to put your stuff.
As the saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Sometimes there is something just too good to throw away which they put off to the side. No joking, you may find yourself a beautiful wall hanging or a very clean carpet that you can take back with you.
Update 06/11/2025 I just learned they have a bookshelf where if you are getting rid of some still good books then you can add them to the bookshelf for people to take. Sometimes there's a really nice piece of furniture or a mirror or a picture, two. Recycling and learning at the same time. Great idea!
Should be open for longer hours and weekends. What is the point of opening half a day during business hours, do you expect people to take a day off from work to go there? What happens next is traffic on Saturdays as a result. You are paid for providing others with convenience not for your own convenience.
I pay 10k a year in property taxes to Salem PLUS waste removal fees. Then on top of that, I have to pay additional transfer station sticker fees if I want to recycle. I completely forgot to buy a new one that expired this month, and they wouldn't let me recycle even though the sign at the transfer station says recycling saves Salem money. So I went home and threw it all away.
Guess what Salem, by making it AS HARD AND EXPENSIVE AS POSSIBLE to do the right things you're destroying the environment and costing yourself money. I am saving myself the time and effort and money and will just toss everything now.
Salem has made it apparent where their values and priorities lie. It's in squeezing out every red cent from the citizens and providing as few services as possible in return.
I'm a resident of Salem and nowhere anywhere does it say you have to get a permit first before being able to take things to the dump. This is so ridiculous. Incompetent city.
I went to the transfer station today, the day after Thanksgiving to drop off my weeks trash, and the attendant in the security trailer made me turn around and leave because my sticker had expired. I'm a Senior Citizen, and pay high taxes to live in this town. This is absurd!!
I have the misfortune of driving by this facility. Thinking a transfer station would be a temporary disposal my material which is transfered to perhaps a recycled materials. Appears to be a dump of construction material piled along a tremendous atreach of property just before a country club property which is well maintained.
The Staff here are great. Very convenient. You can dump trash and recycling at one building. Brush, trees and leaves in another area. They even have a spot to drop off appliances free of charge!
I think it's great to have a place to take your garbadge/appliances/metal items all for $10 a year...u get your dump sticker plus special item tickets...they are very well organized, and they do ask that you PLEASE RECYCLE...SOME PEOPLE DO NOT ...FOR ME I WISH EVERYONE IN THE WORLD WOULD..Oh and the guy that works there decorates so it gives u a nice scenery then just garbadge lol....$10 dollars is well worth it even just for spring cleaning...just go to the town hall and get your sticker and special passes....also if u have construction items like wood cement u go to the town and pay $25 and you can dump up to 500lbs of demo construction items that is on rt 38 heading to Pelham on your left....otherwise they weigh what u have and you will have to pay per lb. If u don't have the $25 ticket from town...a lot cheaper this way...Hope this helps....
Derek is the best. Helpful, cheerful and funny. He ’decorates’ according to the season with discarded stuff and actually makes going to ‘the dump’ a pleasant experience! Kudos to him.
442 South Broadway Route, 442 NH-28, Salem, NHTruck accessories store
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