TOWNS TALK TRASH
Conn. municipalities weigh ‘pay-as-you-throw’ garbage collection
Cities and towns are applying this month for grants to convert their curbside trash collection to a “pay-as-youthrow” model, saving money for households that pare back the trash they toss each week.
The Connecticut Coalition for Sustainable Materials Management is organizing the initiative, after the General Assembly approved funding last spring for the grant program. About half of the state’s municipalities have joined CCSMM to brainstorm ways to reduce waste, with notable exceptions including Norwalk and Danbury.
Pay-as-you-throw has been an early focus, after success in towns nationally that charge households and businesses for the amount of trash they put out at curbside, rather than a flat-fee for an unlimited number of bags, bins and bulky debris.
The idea behind such unitbased pricing is to prompt people to sequester items for recycling which would remain unlimited; make more use of other waste-reduction programs like composting for food scraps; and generally be more mindful of the waste they produce in discarding packaging and other materials.
But some municipalities see difficulties in attempting to sway the general public to the concept. Last year, Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo pushed without success for the town to adopt pay-as-youthrow, despite demonstrating millions of dollars in savings for the town.
“People think that it will increase illegal dumping,” said Katie Dykes, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, during a General Assembly hearing last March. “I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about even what the program will mean in terms of cost savings for municipalities.”
DEEP is allowing grant funding to be used to fund the purchase of bins and bags, extra sorting equipment and structures at transfer stations, wages for extra staff needed to implement programs, or even cameras on trucks for enforcement purposes.
Matt Knickerbocker, Bethel’s first selectman who also co-chairs CCSMM, said getting waste collection companies on board is no easy sell either, given the changes they would have to implement for crews to track the number of bags they collect on each run. Knickerbocker is among those who think the General Assembly should pass a law to mandate unit-based pricing, creating a standardized process statewide.
“It shouldn’t be controversial, but it is,” Knickerbock
er said. “I’m going to try to see if we can put together some kind of a regional proposal on this, but it’s an uphill climb.”
But the savings are there in the aggregate. Stonington estimates residents have saved $7.4 million since implementing its pay-as-you-throw program in the 1990s, which it did after ending its use of a town landfill and having waste hauled to an incinerator facility.
Stonington ranks 10th nationally for the lowest amount of garbage produced annually on a per-capita basis, according to WasteZero, a consultancy DEEP retained for analysis on the varying options. Stonington residents there generate 389 pounds of garbage annually using the system, about 350 pounds less than the average Connecticut resident, for a 46 percent improvement.
And after East Lyme residents scrapped their own pay-as-you-throw program in 1997, garbage collection shot up 57 percent the following year, adding up to an extra 2,600 tons of waste heading to incinerators and landfills.
In Portland, Maine, residents generate just 265 pounds annually on average to lead the nation. Several Massachusetts towns are among the national leaders as well.
Under Stonington’s pay-bythe-bag program, local stores sell yellow bags that are placed curbside for collection. A 33-gallon bag costs $1.50 and holds about 35 pounds of trash; the 15-gallon version can accommodate about 20 pounds, costing 85 cents.
“I’m not sure I understand the hesitation of all these towns when you look at places like Massachusetts,” said John Phetteplace, Stonington’s solid waste manager who implemented the program. “There’s a sense that, ‘I pay my taxes and it should cover the cost of trash.’ What you have to do is get people to start thinking about trash very differently. ... It really is like any other utility.”
Dykes said some towns have given away a number of free bags at the outset of the program, to showcase how much people are saving in the first few weeks of curbside collection. Dykes envisions the possibility of a separate colored bag for free collection of food scraps and other organic waste, which would go to compost sites to produce nutrientrich soil for gardeners, landscapers and farmers.
Some municipalities nationally use color-coded receptacles instead, which requires an upfront investment. Mansfield has such a program, with the town tacking on an extra $36 next January to the annual cost of its standard 35-gallon bin, pushing the fee to $384 a year.
“Most of the fees have not changed since 2013,” stated Ryan Aylesworth, town manager of Mansfield. “In the meantime, there has been a steady rise in contract costs. And rather than generating revenue, singlestream recyclables have become an expense.”