According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 59% of the communities in Massachusetts have a “Pay as you throw” program for the collection and disposal of solid waste. I believe Lunenburg may have this type of program but I’m not certain.

The idea is that rather than the entire city paying one lump sum for the curbside trash pickup contract, the burden of the cost is on those who throw away lots of trash. If everyone recycled a little more, the overall expense of curbside trash pickup goes down and our taxes go down. Now keep in mind this is all in theory but there are some compelling figures and arguments that prove this is absolutely possible.

Basically the way this works is that you would have to buy your trash bags from the city of Leominster. Alternatively, you would have to buy stickers to put on your own bags. The former probably carries a little higher expense for the homeowners since clearly bags cost more than stickers I would think.

Some interesting facts…from here

• Gainesville, FL (pop. 95,500), saved $200,000 in landfill tipping fees after implementing PAYT in 1994, reduced solid waste collection by 18%, and increased its recycling rate by about 25%.
• Wilmington, NC (pop. 75,800), saved $400,000 in the first year of PAYT (1992).
• Worcester, MA (pop. 172,600), decreased its waste management costs by $1.2 million and increased its recycling rate from 3% to 36% immediately following the introduction of PAYT in 1993.
• The recycling rate in San Jose, CA (pop. 895,000), rose from 28% to 43% in the first year of its program (1993), and rose again to 55% by 1998.
• In Tacoma, WA (pop. 194,000), solid waste management costs fell by more than 50% in the PAYT program’s first year, and the recycling rate tripled.
• Falmouth, ME (pop. 4,100), decreased its trash disposal volume by 35% and increased recycling by more than 50% after establishing PAYT in 1992.
• In Mount Vernon, IA (pop. 3,400), PAYT helped the community reach a 50% recycling rate.

Will it save everyone money? I guess if you’re extremely vulgar and you typically have 4 large barrels of trash every week and you don’t recycle anything then you might spend some money on bags/stickers. If you consider how much “stuff” you throw away is recyclable and actually recycle it, you could reduce the amount of trash you discard to one or two bags per week which I did a few months ago. I have two children and a wife and I porbably throw away two bags per week and that’s a big week. Usually it’s one bag per week. I’m a fanatical recycler though.

I think it’s a great idea and one that Leominster should look into. Maybe Kryssi Benson will get behind the idea.

What do you think about it? Let me know.

I was putting out my recyclables last week and every week I have to remember whether or not it’s a recycling week. Leominster has that bi-weekly pick up schedule. I got all of my bins out (I usually have 5-6 full bins…pat myself on the shoulder) and I looked up and down the street to see if there were any other bins out. I didn’t see any. I went in the house thinking that I had the bins out on the wrong week. A little while later the truck came by and my recyclables were gone…

Apparently nobody else on my street recycles. 

Doesn’t anybody in Leominster recycle?