"Pay as you throw" may be coming to my town.

[techs]

So my town is considering ending trash pickup paid for by the town(out of town taxes) and instituting a "pay as you throw" system.
You would need to purchase special garbage bags, at between 1.20 and 1.50 each, and only those bags would be picked up by the towns hired garbage service.
The idea is two fold. First to eliminate the large budget expense and keep the tax rate down and the second is to encourage recycling.

I kind of have a problem with the idea that you keep the tax rate down by just moving the money around. It will still cost the people of my town the same amount of money to get their trash picked up, you just either pay it in town taxes or by buying the bags.

Anyone live in an area with "pay as you throw"? What's it like?

 

[Vette73]

No, but I be for it. Of course there be a rush on trash compactors. 🙂

 

[Epic Fail]

This will keep tax rate down because of extra revenue from illegal dumping fines.

 

[PottedMeat]

I did about 10 years ago. Except you buy tickets for each bag you throw. You drive to a dumpster near city hall, give some old guy that won't help you the ticket, and put the giant bag in the dumpster.

Isn't the expense in driving the trucks around?

 

[BigJ]

Hell just drive your garbage to a local park and use their garbage cans then.

 

[Eeezee]

You should start mailing your garbage to the people responsible for passing this idea. It'll only cost a little more than buying bags

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I live in a pay as you throw city. I'm fine with it, it makes sense that the more waste you produce the more you pay for disposal. The city pays for recycling pickup.

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Excellent idea... it'll force people to recycle more and waste less.

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg
Excellent idea... it'll force people to recycle more and waste less.

It usually just makes a larger litter problem.

 

[TallBill]

I don't see the issue either. Sucks to have X # bags though. My old town did stickers on cans (or you could lease a big can from the village).

 

[Alone]

Doesn't sound like it'll work, IMO. And I wouldn't be surprised if taxes didn't even go down..

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: Newbian

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg
Excellent idea... it'll force people to recycle more and waste less.

It usually just makes a larger litter problem.

Got any facts to back that up?

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
I live in a pay as you throw city. I'm fine with it, it makes sense that the more waste you produce the more you pay for disposal. The city pays for recycling pickup.

That makes the assumption that the mass is a measure of the impacts on the environment and the cost of transportation. In this case it forces everyone to buy an individual compactor (ridiculous since the trucks are more efficient) and punishes those without one.

 

[BoberFett]

I wish we had this. My wife and I generate hardly any garbage but we still pay the same price for our can as the joker across the alley from us who has an overflowing garbage can every week. I'm glad I get to subsidize his throwaway lifestyle. Efficient government at work. :thumbsdown:

 

[Capt Caveman]

My hometown has this policy. It drastically increases recycling and reduces overall trash generated.

 

[tasmanian]

Originally posted by: BigJ
Hell just drive your garbage to a local park and use their garbage cans then.

Or burn it in your back yard.

 

[misle]

Why don't they just have you pick who you want to pick up your trash? The town I live in is like that. I have company X about $10 per month to pick up my trash. There are a couple other companies doing the same so it keeps competition up and prices down.

 

[spaceman]

we dont have trash removal.
i have a non resident xfer station sticker-$80 per year
and then its $6.00 minimum over the scale(up to 400lbs)

 

[waggy]

would be cheaper for us. i would go back to burning everything i can.

right now i pay $15 a month for garbage pickup

 

[Capt Caveman]

Pay-As-You-Throw Success Stories

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Pay-As-You-Throw Success Stories

I just looked at one story and it was a tad bit miseleading.

In the case of Dover, NH:

They claim success in that they reduced waste from 11,000 tons of residential waste to 3,900 tons. Seems good on the surface, but the fact is they also instituted a recycling program. Are they trying to say that the BAT part of the effort is the only reason their effort was a success? Seems to me that they would've likely seen a marked reduction if they solely instituted the recycling.

I'm not saying it wouldn't help people recycle more, just wondering how much more they'd actually recycle with the BAT program in place compared to not paying per bag.

Maybe I'll find my answer in more stories.

Reading more stories:

Gainsville, FL

The results of the first year of our program were amazing. The amount of solid waste collected decreased 18 percent, and the recyclables recovered increased 25 percent! The total disposal tonnage decreased from 22,120 to 18,116. This resulted in a savings of $186,200 to the residential sector, or $7.95 per home.

But they also instituted this;

Recycling service is unlimited. While residents have had curbside collection of recyclables since 1989, the implementation of this program added brown paper bags, corrugated cardboard, and phone books to the list of items recycled.

So waste went down, but they also allowed traditional wastes such as corrugated cardboard, brown paper bags, and phone books to be recycled.

Poquoson, VA

We are part of a regional recycling program with nine other cities and counties. Because of the way our trash program encourages recycling, our city has had the largest amount of recyclables collected per house, per month for the entire four years we have been in the program. We're not number one most of the time, we're number one every time.

But before they instituted the program, they didn't have curbside recycling.

In the fall of 1991, we decided to shut down a very successful drop-off recycling center and join a regional curbside program the next spring. Our main reason for going with the curbside program was that we knew we could get better citizen participation and further increase recycling.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: BigJ

I would be interested in seeing a full analysis including externalities. What costs more, the centralized trucks or special bags (and the needed infrastructure), everyone running trash compactors (including energy prices, maintenance, etc), and others.

 

[vi edit]

Previous place we lived had this and it was great. Tags were $1 a piece(instead of special bags). My wife and I were having a "trashy" week if we filled up one 30 gallon trash bag. We also had free recycling that was encouraged by reducing your "pay for" trash. Instead dropping those bottles or cardboard into the trash and pay for it, drop it in the recycle box.

I thought it was wonderful. Even with an infant generating god knows how many diapers a week we almost never go beyond one bag. I'd rather pay $4 a month than the $15 we do now.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
My hometown has this policy. It drastically increases recycling and reduces overall trash generated.

But does it really? I'd love to see some data on this. I'm of the opinion that more people will probably start illegally dumping.

Edit: "Success stories" and real scientific data are two different things. The few EPA success stories I read describe recycling participation only. Did illegal dumping increase as well? It's a mystery!

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
My hometown has this policy. It drastically increases recycling and reduces overall trash generated.

But does it really? I'd love to see some data on this. I'm of the opinion that more people will probably start illegally dumping.

It's proabably very region/demographic specific. It probably works very well in affluent areas or places with a very "green" culture. In places that could give two craps about recycling even if it does save money it probably has no effect.