Control costs with Pay As You Throw?

SHARON — The Board of Selectmen didn’t make any decisions about it at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 9, but they did listen intently to a proposed Pay As You Throw (PAYT) plan presentation given by Salisbury-Sharon Transfer Station Manager Brian Bartram and Michael LaPorte, regional manager of Waste Zero, an environmental consulting firm that operates PAYT programs in more than 100 New England towns.

At the beginning of the meeting, Bartram showed a video of himself at the Salisbury-Sharon Transfer Station opening a trash bag dumped at the station.

The bag contained materials that should have been recycled, including plastic soda bottles, aluminum cans and glass bottles.

“Last year, Salisbury and Sharon spent $218,000 throwing out the garbage,� Bartram said. “This year we will be paying 63 cents a ton to get rid of garbage and send it to the landfill in Hartford, which is 3.1 cents per pound. Recyclables add up, especially glass bottles. Glass is a big contributor to the weight of trash bags. Once they get into the garbage they all add up.�

For that reason, Bartram said he supports the idea of the PAYT program from Waste Zero.

Buy bags, not stickers

LaPorte explained how the system works. Instead of paying an annual fee to bring their trash and recyclables, transfer station customers buy a 35-gallon bag from participating local retailers to use at the station.

“We recommend 35 gallons, but the bags could hold 40,� LaPorte said. “But if I said 40 gallons, users would try to put in 50 gallons. The bags themselves are 1.5 mils a bag, which is double a typical Hefty trash bag. So users can’t really complain that the bags are flimsy.�

Mils are used to measure membrane thickness.

The price of the bag can be determined by the town itself, although LaPorte said towns participating in the program usually set the price anywhere from $2 to $5.

You control your costs

“Pay As You Throw truly stands for throwing away what you should be throwing in the garbage and not throwing out recyclables,â€� LaPorte said. “From this program you can see a reduction in trash by about 43 percent, although it will probably be in the high 30-percent range . Your [recycling rates] are  good now, but you could be doing better.â€�

The Salisbury-Sharon Transfer Station has earned commendations for its high rate of recycling.

LaPorte said the income from the trash bag sales would not necessarily generate revenue. But they would contribute to the cost of operating the transfer station; the money collected from the sale of the bags would replace the money collected from sticker fees ($70 for the first user and $40 for each additional vehicle).

“It would be like a gas or electric bill because the less you use, the less you pay,� he said.

Households are rewarded under this system for separating their recyclables and compostable waste from the regular trash. The transfer station does not pay to have most recyclables disposed of in Hartford; in fact, some recyclables are sold. The money made from those sales is returned to the transfer station budget.

The most expensive garbage is what gets thrown into the general hopper. Transfer station customers do not have to use PAYT bags to dispose of, for example, newsprint or office paper.

“The results will be measurable immediately,� LaPort said. “Within the first 30 days you will see results.�

The system is designed, he said, so that every time a homeowner or businessowner is about to dispose of an item, he or she is aware that it is costs more to throw things in general trash instead of recycling.

He said that there were other PAYT programs operated by other companies, but of course he believes that Waste Zero has “the best.�

“Several companies have a tag system, where you purchase a tag and stick it on a garbage bag,� he said. “But residents can circumvent that by going to Kinko’s and getting copies of the tags and sticking them on there. They can make 100 tags on the copier.�

The bag sample that LaPorte showed to the board had the emblem of a town participating in a Waste Zero program on it.

“We’re not trying to make more money, we’re just trying to replace the $190,000 that comes in from the stickers and $110,000 for the commercial businesses that pay by weight, which adds up to $300,000,� Bartram said. “The bags would not be full of weight. It might be volume filled, but it won’t be filled with weight. If you can come up with $70 for a sticker you can come up with a couple of bucks a week for a bag.�

Low-income vouchers

Selectman Meg Szalewicz said she was concerned with how the program might impact low-income users.

“At a meeting at Sharon Center School they were talking about the number of low-income children on the free breakfast and lunch program,� Szalewicz said. “The numbers on that program are going up, so we need to be mindful that there is a lot of need. It shouldn’t be a gift and people should be accountable, but we need to be sympathetic.�

LaPorte said the town could have an option to create a low-income program, where residents could apply for vouchers to go toward the cost of obtaining bags.

“This is all your program and everything is totally your decision,� LaPorte said.

He also said the program itself, as a whole, would involve no financial responsibility to the town and would be totally “turnkey.�

The board did not make any decisions on the program.

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